More historic than 16% of U.S. towns · #259 of 638 in Florida. What drives it
Most of Fruitville was built recently: 1% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1990. Below: maps from 1947 on and the census since 1960.
Founding year: the first Fruitville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Fruitville’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Fruitville is more historic than 16% of U.S. towns, #259 of 638 in Florida. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
C−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Fruitville’s overall grade.
Few Florida towns list much on the Register (a typical Florida town has 0.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Fruitville’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (33% of Florida towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to C. The pre-1940 share (±1.4 points) is firm at this size. The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Fruitville’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
An 1857 map of the "Country in the Vicinity of Manatee" during the Third Seminole War shows settlers near what is now Fruitville. The area had a large sawgrass swamp that was bounded on the east by Tatum Ridge (named for the George Tatum Sr., 1822–1910), north and west by Phillippi Creek with its headwaters in the Meadows residential development through Circus Hammock and Bobby Jones municipal golf course and Bee Ridge to the south. This marshland was home to wild Florida Cracker cattle.
The Fruitville post office opened in 1895, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Fruitville rank for history?
Fruitville is more historic than 16% of U.S. towns, #259 of 638 in Florida. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
How old are the homes in Fruitville?
1% of Fruitville’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.4 points), against a typical 0.6% for a Florida town; the median home was built in 1990.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
