Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 33% of U.S. towns · #147 of 638 in Florida. What drives it
Most of Port St. Joe was built recently: 5% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1994. Below: 6 old photos and papers, maps from 1943 on, and the census since 1930.
The Port St. Joe post office opened in 1910, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 33% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Port St. Joe is more historic than 33% of U.S. towns, #147 of 638 in Florida. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
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 Port St. Joe’s 16.6 sits above most of its state (87% of Florida towns have fewer) while its 6 historic buildings outnumber those of 72% of U.S. towns.
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 →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Old hamlets and crossroads still carry their names on the map.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving. Boundary changes and added documentation are counted with their listing.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Port St. Joe.
The first non-indigenous settlement of the area was around 1700, when it was Spanish Florida, and called "San José" (the Spanish name for Saint Joseph) by settlers from Spain.
During the Florida Territory era, St. Joseph (or St. Joseph's) was founded in 1835 by businessmen from nearby Apalachicola, which was troubled by legal conflict over land titles.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
BuiltCape San Blas Lighthouse at Port St. Joe is built
Born hereClifford Chester Sims is born here
In the archiveFlorida
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveApalachicola Northern 710 (SW900)
Born hereCalvin Pryor is born here
Born hereRoman Quinn is born here2 decades in the archive, from the 1940s to the 1980s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Port St. Joe. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Port St. Joe.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Port St. Joe’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 851 and 4,401 people in every census since 1930.
10 censuses, 1930–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Port St. Joe’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
The Port St. Joe post office opened in 1910, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Port St. Joe is more historic than 33% of U.S. towns, #147 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.
4 listings: 4 buildings, among them the Centennial Building (listed 1996, the first). 6 historic buildings in all.
5% of Port St. Joe’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.1 points), against a typical 0.6% for a Florida town; the median home was built in 1994.
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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), the National Register of Historic Places (4), 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.
1943
1987
1987
1987