Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 13% of U.S. towns · #301 of 638 in Florida. What drives it
Most of Lady Lake was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1994. Below: maps from 1966 on and the census since 1930.
The Lady Lake post office opened in 1883, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Conant (1884), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 13% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Lady Lake is more historic than 13% of U.S. towns, #301 of 638 in Florida. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
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 Lady Lake’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.
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 →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Lady Lake’s history is told.
Lady Lake’s post office has been open since 1883. Another post office, Conant, opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikipedia’s history of Lady Lake.
Lady Lake was named after the lake in the area, and grew from Seminole territory and become railroad-fueled around 1883. It would be incorporated in 1925 and would gain fame as the birthplace of The Villages. In 2007 it was hit by an EF3 Tornado during the 2007 Groundhog Day tornado outbreak.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Lady Lake. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Lady Lake.
Grew from 233 people in 1930 to 15,970 in 2020, more than tenfold.
10 censuses, 1930–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Lady Lake’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Lady Lake itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Lady Lake post office opened in 1883, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Lady Lake is more historic than 13% of U.S. towns, #301 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.
0.0% of Lady Lake’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 0.6% for a Florida town; the median home was built in 1994.
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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, 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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