Founding year: the first Lake Panasoffkee post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Lake Panasoffkee’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Lake Panasoffkee is more historic than 10% of U.S. towns, #344 of 638 in Florida. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
D
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Lake Panasoffkee’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 Lake Panasoffkee’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 is a Census survey estimate (±5.3 points). 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 Lake Panasoffkee’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Boggy Island was an autonomous black Seminole village that was settled by Central African slaves from Kongo. Black Seminoles settled near the Boggy Island area of Lake Panasoffkee around 1813 and named it Sitarkey's Village after Sitarkey, an Alachua Seminole who had settled in the area. Nearby laid the areas of Gum Slough and Indian Mound Springs. The Seminoles used the Lake Panasoffkee area to hold councils and Green Corn Dances.
The black Seminoles raised corn, rice, and sugar cane, which Horatio Dexter, one of the first settlers in the area, gave them in 1822. In addition, residents in Sitarkey's Village raised livestock, including cattle, horses, and hogs. They also possibly planted one of the oldest orange groves in Florida.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Lake Panasoffkee. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1893Panasoffkee sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Lake Panasoffkee.
Famous people
Famous people close to Lake Panasoffkee
Nobody well known was born in Lake Panasoffkee itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
The Lake Panasoffkee post office opened in 1963, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Lake Panasoffkee rank for history?
Lake Panasoffkee is more historic than 10% of U.S. towns, #344 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 Lake Panasoffkee?
5% of Lake Panasoffkee’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.3 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 (7), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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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