Founding year: the first Seville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Seville’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Seville is more historic than 19% 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 Seville’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 Seville’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 is a Census survey estimate (±4.7 points). 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 →
William Kemble Lente, a vice president of the Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West Railway, founded the town of Seville in 1882 along the railroad right of way. Taking advantage of the location, he set about to build a community. He founded the Bank of Seville and built a large brick residence for himself. Teaming up with some northern investors, they started work on a grand hotel. Next the group built a complex water system costing $60,000. The relationship between Lente and his backers became strained and then bitter, and Lente killed himself at his Seville home in 1889. Today with limited commercial development and a largely rural/agricultural base, Seville is a quiet community just north of Pierson along U.S. Route 17.
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 Seville post office opened in 1879, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Seville rank for history?
Seville is more historic than 19% 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 Seville?
3% of Seville’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.7 points), against a typical 0.6% for a Florida town; the median home was built in 1982.
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 the Library of Congress (6), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.
1880
1880
1880
1880
1880