Venice’s post office opened in 1888, and 13 of its places are on the National Register
More historic than 51% of U.S. towns · #68 of 638 in Florida. What drives it
Most of Venice was built recently: 2% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1986. 13 places in town are on the National Register, among them five historic districts with 796 buildings between them. Below: 7 old photos and papers, maps from 1944 on, and the census since 1930.
Founding year: the first Venice post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Venice’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Venice is more historic than 51% of U.S. towns, #68 of 638 in Florida. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Venice’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 Venice’s 293 sits above most of its state (98% of Florida towns have fewer) while its 805 historic buildings outnumber those of 98% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C− to B+. The pre-1940 share (±0.7 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 Venice’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The area that is now Venice was originally the home of Paleo-Indians, with evidence of their presence dating back to 8200 BCE. As thousands of years passed, and the climate changed and some of the Pleistocene animals that the Indians hunted became extinct, the descendants of the Paleo-Indians found new ways to create stone and bone weapons to cope with their changing environment. These descendants became known as the Archaic peoples. Evidence of their camps along with stone tools were discovered in parts of Venice. Over several millennia the culture and people who lived in the area changed. The peoples who the Spanish encountered when they arrived in 1500s were mound-builders. Venice lay in a boundary area between two cultures, the Tocobaga and the Calusa, and thus evidence of each can be found in the area.
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 Venice post office opened in 1888, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Venice rank for history?
Venice is more historic than 51% of U.S. towns, #68 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.
What is on the National Register in Venice?
13 listings: 8 buildings, among them the Hotel Venice (listed 1984, the first), and 5 historic districts with 796 contributing buildings. 805 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Venice?
2% of Venice’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 0.6% for a Florida town; the median home was built in 1986.
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 (7), the Library of Congress (5), the National Register of Historic Places (13), 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.
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