More historic than 5% of U.S. towns · #563 of 638 in Florida. What drives it
Most of Indian Rocks Beach was built recently: 2% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1981. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1956 on, and the census since 1960.
From Indian Rocks Beach’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers
How Indian Rocks Beach began
When was Indian Rocks Beach founded?
1949
The Indian Rocks Beach post office opened in 1949, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Indian Rocks (1914), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
First census: 1,940 in 19602020 census: 3,67377 years
How historic is Indian Rocks Beach?
D
More historic than 5% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Indian Rocks Beach post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Indian Rocks Beach’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Indian Rocks Beach is more historic than 5% of U.S. towns, #563 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 Indian Rocks Beach’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 Indian Rocks Beach’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 (±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 Indian Rocks Beach’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Peaked at 5,072 in 2000; 3,673 people lived here in 2020.
7 censuses, 1960–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Indian Rocks Beach’s Wikipedia page.
The story so far
Indian Rocks Beach, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Indian Rocks Beach yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Indian Rocks Beach, or IRB, is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. Indian Rocks Beach is part of the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area. Located on the barrier island Sand Key, it has over two miles of beach along the Gulf of Mexico, with 26 public beach accesses. Tourism is its primary industry. It was incorporated in 1956. The population was 3,673 at the 2020 census.
Its first post office opened in 1949. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 4,113 to 3,673 (-11%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Timeline
Indian Rocks Beach, 1914 to 2000
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Indian Rocks Beach. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1956Tampa sheet · 1:250,000
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Indian Rocks Beach.
Then & now
Stand where they stood
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Retake this viewGulf Boulevard, 1957
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Indian Rocks Beach’s page.
The Indian Rocks Beach post office opened in 1949, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Indian Rocks Beach rank for history?
Indian Rocks Beach is more historic than 5% of U.S. towns, #563 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 Indian Rocks Beach?
2% of Indian Rocks Beach’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 1981.
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 (12), 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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