More historic than 3% of U.S. towns · #581 of 638 in Florida. What drives it
Most of Gifford was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1990. Below: maps from 1949 on and the census since 2000.
Founding year: the first Gifford post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Gifford’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Gifford is more historic than 3% of U.S. towns, #581 of 638 in Florida. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
D−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Gifford’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 Gifford’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 D. The pre-1940 share (±0.8 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 Gifford’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The settlement of Gifford was organized in the mid-1880s, according to the Indian River County Historical Society. The area was named as the Woodley precinct in the 1900 census, and as a settlement village for black families, the community grew. By 1893, the early settlers of Gifford had been joined by black laborers who had come to work on Henry Flagler's new railroad project, the Florida East Coast Railway. The residents named the small agricultural community Brownsville after farmer William Brown who settled there in 1880s, but another town in North Florida carried the same name. Instead, the community was named after Charlie Gifford, the railroad's stationmaster and Henry T. Gifford's son.
The Gifford post office opened in 1900, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Gifford rank for history?
Gifford is more historic than 3% of U.S. towns, #581 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 Gifford?
0.0% of Gifford’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), 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 Wikimedia Commons (6), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.
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