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Fort Meade is the oldest city in Polk County, dating its origins to 1849, when it was established along a new military road from Tampa (Fort Brooke) to Fort Pierce following the Second Seminole War. The town and road were originally sited by then-lieutenant George Meade of the Corps of Topographical Engineers, whose commander named it for him. Around the start of the American Civil War a mounted volunteer company nicknamed the "Hickory Boys" was formed at the fort. The 1880s business district was located on old Wire Street (now Broadway), which was a casualty of four devastating fires. There are over 150 buildings which are designated as landmarks. In the 1890s, the Fort Meade Street Railway operated a horse-drawn service in the town.
The earliest known burial is John I. Hooker (1821–1862), located in the town's Evergreen Cemetery. Fort Meade's Christ Church (Episcopal) located at 1 North Cleveland Avenue, was built in 1889. It is a frame vernacular with Gothic Revival elements and was designed by architect J. H. Weddell. Located within the historic district, the church was used for the HBO motion picture Judgment, featuring Blythe Danner, Keith Carradine and Jack Warden (1990).
Future Confederate General Stonewall Jackson was stationed at the fort in 1851. The town was burned by Union forces in 1864[10] and all of the original structures were destroyed, except the second fort which was dismantled in the 1890s. Fort Meade has over 300 homes on the National Register of Historic Places and a handful that date to the late 1800s.