Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Palm Harbor

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
DHistory
History · Palm Harbor

Palm Harbor’s post office opened in 1925

More historic than 5% of U.S. towns · #558 of 638 in Florida. What drives it

Most of Palm Harbor was built recently: 0.4% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1985. Below: maps from 1943 on and the census since 1980.

1925first post office
0on the National Register
0.4%homes built before 1940
4famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: Mary Marconi, Coldwell Banker Realtor Palm Harbor, FL · CC BY-SA 4.0
Quick answers

How Palm Harbor began

When was Palm Harbor founded?

1925

The Palm Harbor post office opened in 1925, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, Seaside (1886), Sutherland (1888) and Wall Springs (1907), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

First census: 5,215 in 19802020 census: 61,366101 years

How historic is Palm Harbor?

D

More historic than 5% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

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

What drives Palm Harbor’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Palm Harbor is more historic than 5% of U.S. towns, #558 of 638 in Florida. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.

D
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Palm Harbor’s overall grade.
Founding era1925, from the first post office: founded 1900–1944, an older era than 9% of U.S. townsDHomes built before 19400.4% of homes (±0.3) · typical FL town 0.6% · U.S. 8.4%DNational RegisterNo listings counted · typical FL town 0.0 per 10,000 · U.S. 2.4C
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 5%
NewerOlder
Florida towns of 2,500+ (638)Ahead of 13%

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 Palm Harbor’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 D. The pre-1940 share (±0.3 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 Palm Harbor’s past

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

Lost villages3 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Palm Harbor, and 9 old place names are still on the map.A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Palm Harbor are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners and burying grounds

Palm Harbor’s post office has been open since 1925. Three other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Seaside
1886–1907
Sutherland
1888–1925
Ozona
1889–today
Wall Springs
1907–1933
Crystal Beach
1914–today
Palm Harbor
1925–today
18801950today
Hamlets and corners on the map
AcklocknaykeCove SpringsCrystal BeachCurlewInnisbrookLake Shore EstatesOzonaSaint GeorgeWall Springs
2cemeteries and burying grounds inside Palm Harbor
Curlew Hills Memory GardensParklawn Memory Gardens

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

Help out

Start Palm Harbor’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Palm Harbor came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Palm Harbor.

Read it all →

The area that is now Palm Harbor was largely uninhabited until settlers began arriving in the 1860s. The area became known as "Curlew", with the Curlew Pioneer Cemetery, established in 1869, and the Curlew Methodist Church. A post office named "Bay St. Joseph" opened in 1878. In 1881, Henry B. Plant, with the help of his 2nd cousin, Reino Milvid, opened the San Marino Hotel in what later became Palm Harbor in 1885. The Gulf View Hotel also opened around that time. The Sutherland Improvement Company acquired land in the Curlew/Bay St. Joseph area and developed it into the settlement of Sutherland. In 1888 the Sutherland Post Office opened. The Orange Belt Railway reached Sutherland in 1890.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Palm Harbor, 1886 to 2000

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1886Post officeThe Seaside post office opens
  3. 1888Post officeThe Sutherland post office opens
  4. 1889Post officeThe Ozona post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1907Post officeThe Seaside post office closes
  7. 1925Post officeThe Sutherland post office closes
  8. 1943On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  9. 1991Born hereBen Sweat is born here
  10. 1993Born hereTyler Moore is born here
  11. 1997Born hereJacob Harris is born here
  12. 21st century
  13. 2000Born hereTucker Albrizzi is born here
By decade

Palm Harbor, decade by decade

Today6 recent
Student protest2022Student protestInnisbrook Golf Resort2019Innisbrook Golf ResortWilliam E Dunn Water Reclamation Facility2018William E Dunn Water Reclamation FacilityStarbucks - panoramio (3)2012Starbucks - panoramio (3)Glass Bottle.......................... 1 million years2012Glass Bottle.......................... 1 million yearsSunsethoneymoonislandsp2007Sunsethoneymoonislandsp
On the map

Palm Harbor on the map, 1943 to 1998

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

Palm Harbor on the 1943 USGS mapPalm Harbor on the 1974 USGS mapPalm Harbor on the 1987 USGS mapPalm Harbor on the 1998 USGS map1943Dunedin sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Palm Harbor.

People over time

Palm Harbor, census by census

05,00010,00015,00020,00025,00030,00035,00040,00045,00050,00055,00060,00065,00019802000202061,366

Grew from 5,215 people in 1980 to 61,366 in 2020, more than tenfold.

5 censuses, 1980–2020.

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

Famous people

4 famous people were born in Palm Harbor

Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.

See all →
Tucker AlbrizziAmerican actor · b. 2000
Ben SweatAmerican soccer player · b. 1991
J
Jacob HarrisAmerican football player · b. 1997
T
Tyler MooreAmerican football player · b. 1993
Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Dunedin4 historic placesC+Tarpon Springs15 historic placesBEast LakeIts storyDClearwater8 historic placesB−

Questions about Palm Harbor’s history

What year was Palm Harbor founded?

The Palm Harbor post office opened in 1925, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

How does Palm Harbor rank for history?

Palm Harbor is more historic than 5% of U.S. towns, #558 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 Palm Harbor?

0.4% of Palm Harbor’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 0.6% for a Florida town; the median home was built in 1985.

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 (6), 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.