Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 32% of U.S. towns · #150 of 638 in Florida. What drives it
Its Register listing is the City Point Community Church. Most of Sharpes was built recently: 1% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1981. Below: maps from 1949 on and the census since 1990.
The Sharpes post office opened in 1890, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Jones (1895) and Frontenac (1903), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 32% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Sharpes is more historic than 32% of U.S. towns, #150 of 638 in Florida. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 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 Sharpes’ 3.5 sits above most of its state (80% of Florida towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% 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.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Sharpes’s history is told.
Sharpes’s post office has been open since 1890. Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikipedia’s history of Sharpes.
Sharpes may have been named after William H. Sharpe, part of the board of trustees formed to construct the City Point Community Church in Cocoa, FL in early 1885. Henry Flagler extended his Florida East Coast Railroad south from Daytona, building a station at Titusville in 1892.
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.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Sharpes. 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 Sharpes.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Between 3,115 and 3,415 people in every census since 1990.
4 censuses, 1990–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Sharpes’ Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Sharpes itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Sharpes post office opened in 1890, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Sharpes is more historic than 32% of U.S. towns, #150 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.
One place: the City Point Community Church (listed 1995).
1% of Sharpes’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.2 points), against a typical 0.6% for a Florida town; the median home was built in 1981.
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 (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.
2004
