Most of San Antonio was built recently: 3% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1996. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1954 on, and the census since 1910.
Founding year: the first San Antonio post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives San Antonio’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, San Antonio is more historic than 20% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
C−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of San Antonio’s 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 San Antonio’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 C− to C. The pre-1940 share (±2.5 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 San Antonio’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
San Antonio was founded by Edmund F. Dunne, an Irish American who had previously served as chief justice of the Arizona Territory. In June 1881, Dunne was a legal counsel involved in the Disston Land Purchase, and as his commission, received 100,000 choice acres (400 km2) of land out of the 4,000,000-acre (16,000 km2) purchase. The following year on February 15, 1882, while surveying the Disston Land Purchase with his cousin, Captain Hugh Dunne, he came upon a previously unsurveyed lake with crystal-clear water. Seeing in a prayer book that it was the feast day of St. Jovita, he named the lake, Lake Jovita, after the early Christian martyr, and named the community, "San Antonio de Padua", after Saint Anthony of Padua.
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 San Antonio post office opened in 1882, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does San Antonio rank for history?
San Antonio is more historic than 20% of U.S. towns. 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 San Antonio?
3% of San Antonio’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.5 points), against a typical 0.6% for a Florida town; the median home was built in 1996.
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 (24), 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.
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