Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Penney Farms

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
Penney Farms FL city hall statue01Photo: Ebyabe · CC BY-SA 3.0
–Not graded
History · Penney Farms

Penney Farms’ post office opened in 1926, and 28% of its homes were built before 1940

1 place in town is on the National Register, among them a historic district with 24 buildings. Below: maps from 1949 on and the census since 1930.

1926first post office
1on the National Register
28%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Penney Farms began

When was Penney Farms founded?

1926

The Penney Farms post office opened in 1926, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 825 in 19302020 census: 821100 years
Founding year: the first Penney Farms post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Penney Farms’ past

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

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Penney Farms are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Shrank, then grewLost half of its people between 1930 and 1940, then more than doubled.A historic districtThe Memorial Home Community Historic District takes in 24 historic buildings.Old housesHalf of Penney Farms’ homes were built before 1954.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Penney Farms’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Penney Farms’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
People over time

Penney Farms, census by census

020040060080019401960198020002020825 in 1930Low: 370

Lost half of its people between 1930 and 1940, then more than doubled.

10 censuses, 1930–2020.

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

On the National Register

1 listing protects 24 historic buildings

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
24
each building in a district counts
first listed
1999
Memorial Home Community Historic District
Memorial Home Community Historic District
Districts

Architectural styles listings

Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals1
Late Gothic Revival1
French Norman1
Colonial Revival1
Memorial Home Community Historic DistrictLate 19th and 20th Century Revivals

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

The story

How Penney Farms came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Penney Farms.

Read it all →

In 1922, JCPenney department store pioneer J. C. Penney founded the community of Penney Farms (briefly known as Long Branch City), where he platted an experimental, suburban farming village. The state of Florida officially incorporated the Town of Penney Farms in 1927.

The real estate decline and stock market crash caused Penney to scale back his ambitions to a community for retired Christian ministers, in honor of his father, who was a Baptist preacher. Today, the Penney Retirement Community is a 192-acre (0.78 km2) home to Christian laypeople, as well as clergy and missionaries.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Penney Farms, 1905 to 1949

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

  1. 20th century
  2. 1905Born hereSam Saunders is born here
  3. 1926Post officeThe Penney Farms post office opens
  4. 1930CensusPopulation peaks at 825
  5. 1949On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Penney Farms, decade by decade

Today6 recent
Penney Farms FL city hall012010Penney Farms FL city hall01Penney Farms FL city hall statue012010Penney Farms FL city hall statue01Penney Farms FL city hall prop marker012010Penney Farms FL city hall prop marker01Penney Farms FL city hall GF plaque012010Penney Farms FL city hall GF plaque01FLMap-doton-PenneyFarms2004FLMap-doton-PenneyFarmsRoad photo from August 10, 2003 3482003Road photo from August 10, 2003 348
On the map

Penney Farms on the map, 1949 to 1993

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

Penney Farms on the 1949 USGS mapPenney Farms on the 1970 USGS mapPenney Farms on the 1993 USGS map1949Penney Farms 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 Penney Farms.

Questions about Penney Farms’ history

What year was Penney Farms founded?

The Penney Farms post office opened in 1926, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Penney Farms?

One place: the Memorial Home Community Historic District (listed 1999).

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). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (6), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.