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DHistory
History · Pace

Pace’s post office opened in 1909

More historic than 8% of U.S. towns · #425 of 638 in Florida. What drives it

Most of Pace was built recently: 1% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1996. Below: maps from 1920 on and the census since 1970.

1909first post office
0on the National Register
1%homes built before 1940
Photo: 10593-H · CC BY-SA 4.0
Quick answers

How Pace began

When was Pace founded?

1909

The Pace post office opened in 1909, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 1,776 in 19702020 census: 24,684117 years

How historic is Pace?

D

More historic than 8% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
Founding year: the first Pace post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade

What drives Pace’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Pace is more historic than 8% of U.S. towns, #425 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 Pace’s overall grade.
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 8%
NewerOlder
Florida towns of 2,500+ (638)Ahead of 33%

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 Pace’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 still be D. The pre-1940 share (±1.2 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 Pace’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

★ What stands out · Help out

Start Pace’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Pace’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
On the map

Pace on the map, 1920 to 1994

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Pace. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Pace on the 1920 USGS mapPace on the 1944 USGS mapPace on the 1978 USGS mapPace on the 1987 USGS mapPace on the 1994 USGS map1920Milton 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 Pace.

The story

How Pace came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Pace.

Read it all →

Pace was first recognized in the 1912 United States Census. It was located just north of Floridatown. Pace is named after James G. Pace, who owned large lumber, paper and turpentine productions that operated in the Pace area. On March 12, 1919, Black veteran Bud Johnson was lynched as part of the Red Summer of 1919. Throughout the 20th century, Pace remained a small, rural community. However, beginning in 1980, Pace began to experience rapid growth and began to evolve from a small, rural community to a fast-growing bedroom community of Pensacola. Floridatown and Pea Ridge are now considered to be neighborhoods within Pace. Pace continues to experience strong population growth, and the growth trend is expected to continue despite remaining an unincorporated community.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Pace, 1909 to 1925

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 20th century
  2. 1909Post officeThe Pace post office opens
  3. 1920On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  4. 1925Post officeThe Pace post office closes
By decade

Pace, decade by decade

Today1 recent
People over time

Pace, census by census

05,00010,00015,00020,00025,00019802000202024,684

Grew from 1,776 people in 1970 to 24,684 in 2020, more than tenfold.

6 censuses, 1970–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Pace’s Wikipedia page.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Pace had its own post office from 1909 to 1925.

Pace
1909–1925
19001960today

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Questions about Pace’s history

What year was Pace founded?

The Pace post office opened in 1909, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

How does Pace rank for history?

Pace is more historic than 8% of U.S. towns, #425 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 Pace?

1% of Pace’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.2 points), against a typical 0.6% for a Florida town; the median home was built in 1996.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

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 (1), 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.