More historic than 15% of U.S. towns · #282 of 638 in Florida. What drives it
Most of Lakeside was built recently: 0.5% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1985. Below: maps from 1918 on and the census since 1980.
The Lakeside post office opened in 1881, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Peoria (1886) and Doctors Inlet (1913), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 10,534 in 19802020 census: 31,275145 years
How historic is Lakeside?
D
More historic than 15% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Lakeside post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Lakeside’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Lakeside is more historic than 15% of U.S. towns, #282 of 638 in Florida. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
D
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Lakeside’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 Lakeside’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 (±0.5 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 Lakeside’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center, one of ten regional centers for primate research, was once located just west of Orange Park in what is now the Lakeside CDP. The center, established in 1930 by psychologist Robert Yerkes and Yale University and the Rockefeller Foundation, was the first laboratory in the United States for the study of non-human primates. Prior to the opening of the facility, Yerkes was engaged in his own research with two great apes, named "Chim" and "Panzee". His findings convinced officials at Yale University, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Carnegie Foundation to sponsor the Florida facility. Initially designed to house about 25 chimpanzees, researchers worked with an estimated 65 chimps (and possibly more) during the lab's 35-year history. This location was home to chimpanzees nurtured as humans such as Gua and Viki and other primates from the estate of…
The Lakeside post office opened in 1881, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Lakeside rank for history?
Lakeside is more historic than 15% of U.S. towns, #282 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 Lakeside?
0.5% of Lakeside’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 0.6% for a Florida town; the median home was built in 1985.
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.
