More historic than 8% of U.S. towns · #387 of 638 in Florida. What drives it
Most of Gonzalez was built recently: 2% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1989. Below: maps from 1921 on and the census since 1990.
Founding year: the first Gonzalez post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Gonzalez’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Gonzalez is more historic than 8% of U.S. towns, #387 of 638 in Florida. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
D
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Gonzalez’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 Gonzalez’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 still be D. The pre-1940 share (±1.2 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 Gonzalez’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The village of Gonzalez has also been called Gonzalia, named after the Gonzalez family who owned a farm in the area. Manuel Gonzalez, the patriarch of the family, was originally from Spain. He had arrived in the New World sometime around 1790. He served as an Indian Agent under Francisco Bouligny in New Orleans, before eventually arriving in Pensacola.
During the American Civil War, Gonzalez was home to a Confederate storage facility run by Manuel Gonzalez’s son, Samuel Z. Gonzalez. The Gonzalez farm was also the location of a military skirmish between Union forces headquartered out of Fort Barrancas and Confederate troops.
The Gonzalez post office opened in 1910, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Gonzalez rank for history?
Gonzalez is more historic than 8% of U.S. towns, #387 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 Gonzalez?
2% of Gonzalez’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.2 points), against a typical 0.6% for a Florida town; the median home was built in 1989.
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.
