Founding year: the first Miami Shores post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1932.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Miami Shores’ History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Miami Shores is more historic than 54% of U.S. towns, #59 of 638 in Florida. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Miami Shores’ 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 Miami Shores’ 34.0 sits above most of its state (90% of Florida towns have fewer) while its 40 historic buildings outnumber those of 83% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±3.9 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date; Wikidata’s 1932 falls in the same era, so the grade doesn’t depend on which one is used.
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 Miami Shores’ past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
By the early 1900s, the area encompassing today's Miami Shores was occupied by a starch (coontie) mill, a tomato packing plant, a saw mill, a pineapple plantation and a grapefruit grove. These were the various enterprises in which the early pioneers were engaged, and with the coming of the railroad and its stop at the Biscayne station, they were able to live off the land. Two of the most successful growers were Major Hugh Gordon and T.V. Moore. T.V. Moore owned the land in what is today's commercial district, while the Gordon Tract bordered the bay. By 1922, Lee T. Cooper, who had amassed his wealth from a patent medicine by the name of Tanlac, purchased T.V. Moore's land holdings. Cooper planned to develop the area and named it "Bay View Estates". In 1924, the Shoreland Company purchased the Gordon Tract, Bay View Estates and other scattered acreage in order to create Miami Shores, "Am…
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.
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.
The Miami Shores post office opened in 1926, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1932.
How does Miami Shores rank for history?
Miami Shores is more historic than 54% of U.S. towns, #59 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.
What is on the National Register in Miami Shores?
25 listings: 25 buildings, among them the Grand Concourse Apartments (listed 1985, the first). 40 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Miami Shores?
15% of Miami Shores’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.9 points), against a typical 0.6% for a Florida town; the median home was built in 1954.
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 (14), Wikidata (3), the National Register of Historic Places (25), Wikipedia, 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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