Florida Historical Markers Programs - Marker: Alachua

Alachua

TIMUCUA BURIAL MOUND/ TIMUCUA PEOPLE

Location:University of Florida Levin College of Law's Law School Woods
County: Alachua
City: Gainesville
Description: Side One: This earthen mound pays tribute to the ancestors of the Timucua Indians who lived and established villages near lakes and other sources of fresh water in north central Florida. Around 950 CE, following millenia of occupation by Native American peoples near Lake Alice, the ancestors of the Timucua marked this location as sacred with the initiation of a cemetery. They buried several individuals in a central grave and then constructed a small earthen mound over them. Over the years, additional burials were laid on the mound surface and covered with earth, especially on the southeastern side, resulting in an oval-shaped footprint. In 1881, assistant Gainesville Postmaster James Bell began conducting a limited amateur excavation, but found no evidence of burials. In 1976, a more thorough scientific excavation was conducted by University of Florida archaeologists and students that confirmed that the site had been used for burial purposes. The mound is estimated to have been around 50’ in diameter and about 6’ high prior to disturbance by plowing and early excavations. The site was protected within the Law School Woods conservation area. This burial mound is sacred to Native peoples and protected under State law. Side Two: Although this mound ceased to be used for burial purposes, indigenous people continued to live in this area. They are known to those who came after them as the Timucua. Scholars refer to those Timucua who lived in this part of North Florida when Europeans arrived in the 16th Century under the subdivision Potano, named for the Spanish mission San Francisco de Potano established about 10 miles north of here in 1606. Our knowledge about the Timucua comes from archaeological sites like this one and from historical records from the Spanish Colonial period. The descendants of the people buried here were probably part of the system of Catholic missions throughout this region. Untold numbers of Timucua people died from war, forced labor, and disease during the 17th and 18th centuries. This marker is intended honor to the memory of the first people of Alachua County, using the following words from the Timucuan language: Naebahiono manta nahiabotanicano - We remember them with compassion.
Sponsors: The Native American Law Student Association- University of Florida Chapter

MT. CARMEL BAPTIST CHURCH

Location:429 NW 4th Street
County: Alachua
City: Gainesville
Description: The congregation of the Mt. Carmel Baptist Church first met on May 4, 1896. The church’s original members worshipped in the St. Paul CME Church, and together the congregations bought a parcel of land in 1900 to build a new church. Its construction continued piecemeal until the church was completed in 1943. Led by NAACP leader, the Rev. Thomas A. Wright, high school and college students, and church elders met at Mt. Carmel to organize for school integration and the appointment of black city officials from 1962 until Wright’s retirement in 2006. They were aided by the strategy and power of University of Florida professors Ruth McQuown and Marshall Jones. In 1963, a Civil Rights march for desegregated public facilities and businesses began here. Students from the all-black Lincoln High School, including Joel Buchanan, Sandra Ezell, and LaVon Wright, met at Mt. Carmel to catch rides to Gainesville High School during the school’s integration from 1964-1970. Wright advocated for the role of community youth in moving equality forward, and his nonviolent protests in St. Augustine and Gainesville mobilized other black communities across the state to work toward desegregation in the second half of the 20th century.
Sponsors: Prayers by Faith Ministries and the Florida Department of State

CHESTNUT FUNERAL HOME

Location:18 NW 8th Avenue
County: Alachua
City: Gainesville
Description: The Chestnut family in Gainesville has served the mortuary needs of the African American community in Alachua County since 1914. Charles S. Chestnut, Sr. was a founding member of the Florida Morticians Association in the early 1900s. The business was founded in the early 1920s by Matthew E. Hughes and Charles S. Chestnut, Sr. as the Hughes and Chestnut Funeral Home. This Mission-style building was built for the business in 1928. Following Hughes’s death in 1947, the business was re-named the Chestnut Funeral Home. Four generations of the Chestnut family have managed the business, and provided training for undertakers, some of whom went on to establish their own funeral homes. In addition to providing professional service to the community, the Chestnuts have followed the tradition of civic duty set by Johnson Chestnut. He was the first member of the Chestnut family to settle in Gainesville, and served on the city commission from 1868-1869. Many of Johnson Chestnut’s descendants have been community leaders and have held a variety of elected offices. During the Civil Rights era, they worked to integrate schools and businesses and provided a meeting place at the Chestnut Funeral Home for the local chapter of the NAACP.
Sponsors: The Chestnut Family and the Florida Department of State

EVERGREEN CEMETERY

Location:401 SE 21st Avenue
County: Alachua
City: Ganinesville
Description: Evergreen Cemetery, known locally as “This Wondrous Place,” began with the burial of a baby girl in 1856. The infant, Elizabeth Thomas, was the daughter of wealthy cotton merchant James T. Thomas and his wife, Elizabeth Jane Hall Thomas. The baby was laid to rest by a young cedar tree on family land. Eight months later, her mother was buried alongside her. Their double grave is marked with a simple headstone carved by a noted stonemason from Charleston, W. A. White. In 1866, Thomas sold his 720-acre parcel, reserving roughly one acre around the burial for a graveyard. The Evergreen Cemetery Association operated the cemetery, beginning in 1890, until it was purchased by the City of Gainesville in 1944. The cemetery now includes 53 acres, and is the final resting place of more than 10,000 people. Some of the persons interred here are Gainesville founder James B. Bailey, anthropologist William R. Maples, ecologists Archie and Marjorie Carr, Florida’s first female physician Sarah L. Robb, Major General Albert H. Blanding, U.S. Commissioner of Education John J. Tigert, and Gatorade inventor Robert Cade. Veterans of nearly every American conflict since the 1830s are also buried here.
Sponsors: Evergreen Cemetery Association of Gainesville, Inc., and the Florida Department of State

ALACHUA GENERAL HOSPITAL

Location:801 SW 2nd Avenue
County: Alachua
City: Gainseville
Description: Historic Alachua General Hospital (AGH) stood on this site for nearly 82 years. A county or community-supported venture for much of its history, the hospital served the needs of Alachua County citizens for generations as a respected health care resource. Public attempts to raise funds and establish a community hospital began in 1904. In 1906, the Alachua County Hospital Association leased the Odd Fellows Home, built in 1883 as a sanatorium, and in 1928, the 58-bed Alachua County Hospital opened. As community needs grew, the hospital added an annex in 1943 and a staff and nurses’ residence in 1944. The Hospital Auxiliary, formed in 1953 as a volunteer organization, provided valuable services to support hospital activities. By its 50th anniversary in 1978, AGH had become a private, not-for-profit hospital. In 1983, AGH became part of SantaFe Health Care; then, in 1996, it was purchased by Shands HealthCare. For 13 years, Shands AGH further developed its outstanding reputation. The hospital closed in 2009 and in 2010 became the site for the Florida Innovation Square at the University of Florida.
Sponsors: University of Florida Health and the Florida Department of State

MOSES ELIAS LEVY

Location:
County: Alachua
City: Micanopy
Description: Moses Elias Levy (1782-1854), a Moroccan born Jewish merchant, came to Florida after its cession from Spain to the United States in 1821. Before his arrival, Levy acquired over 50,000 acres in East Florida. In 1822, Levy began development on Pilgrimage Plantation, just northwest of the future town of Micanopy. The plantation’s main commodity was sugar cane, which Levy had reintroduced to Florida. Levy and his partners, including the Florida Association of New York, helped to draw Jewish settlers to the area with the goal of creating a refuge for oppressed European Jews in a communitarian settlement, the first on U.S. soil. Levy’s efforts sparked significant economic development, spurring the growth of Micanopy from a small trading post to a bustling town. Pilgrimage was destroyed in 1835 during the Second Seminole War, but Levy’s reform efforts continued. He promoted free public education and served as one of the territory's first Education Commissioners. He was also a vigorous advocate for the gradual abolition of slavery and the humane treatment of enslaved people. Levy was the father of David Levy Yulee, one of the first U.S. Senators from Florida and the first U.S. Senator of Jewish heritage in American history.
Sponsors: The Town of Micanopy, Micanopy Historical Society, The Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation

LACROSSE, FLORIDA (REVISED)

Location:
County: Alachua
City: LaCrosse
Description: Settlement in the LaCrosse area started in the 1840s with the arrival of John Cellon, a young French immigrant. Other early settlers were Thomas Green, Abraham Mott, Richard H. Parker and family, William Scott and Thomas Standley. The town was built on land granted to Parker by the U.S. government in 1856. Cotton was the area’s primary cash crop, and local buyers, like John Eli Futch, capitalized on the growing industry. Futch built a warehouse to store harvests and a general store to serve growers. In 1878, Parker’s son, Henry Clay, opened his first business, which became the largest general store in the area. The post office opened in Futch’s store in 1881, and he served as postmaster. The town was incorporated in 1897 and was named by either Mrs. Futch or Henry Clay Parker. By the turn of the 20th century, LaCrosse had two cotton gins, grist mills, multiple stores, and a hotel. Boll weevils devastated the local cotton industry, and farmers turned to potatoes as a new cash crop. The town gained acclaim as the “Potato District” and became a major shipping point with a cooper assembling barrels to transport crops by rail. LaCrosse remains a vital farming area for corn, vegetables, tobacco, and livestock.
Sponsors: Alachua County Historical Commission, The Parker Family

ALACHUA COUNTY TRAINING SCHOOL

Location:Southwest Corner of Northwest 141 Street & 158 Avenue
County: Alachua
City: Alachua
Description: Side One: The Alachua County Training School was built at this location as the first school for blacks in the City of Alachua in 1922. In 1920, a delegation of courageous black men from Alachua led by Jack Postell, who could neither read nor write, approached the Alachua County School Board to build a school for the city’s black children. Postell was inspired by the Julius Rosenwald Fund, which provided aid for the construction of African American schools in the rural South. Directed by the School Board to raise $10,000 for construction of the school, Postell and his delegation raised the money in two years. Donations included $1,600 from the Rosenwald Fund and money from the John F. Slater Fund to furnish the school. The school opened in September 1922 with Napoleon B. Campbell as its first principal, and 300 students, ages 7-25 in grades 1-6. By 1938, grades 7-12 had been added. Students were given an education that emphasized agriculture and home economics, as well as academic subjects. A.L. Mebane served as principal from 1924 until the 1950s. The school operated for 36 years and was a mainstay of the African-American community until it was demolished in 1959. Side Two: This one-story frame vernacular style building, supported on a brick pier foundation with lattice infill, featured exposed rafter tails, decorative gable end brackets, and nine-over-one double hung windows. The school consisted of an auditorium and seven classrooms. Many of its graduates returned to the county after college as successful contributing professionals.
Sponsors: The A.L. Mebane High School Alumni Association, Inc.

THOMAS GILBERT PEARSON 1873-1943

Location:Corner of US 41 and SW 137th Ave
County: Alachua
City: Archer
Description: Thomas Gilbert Pearson was an ornithologist, college professor, and world leader of the bird preservation movement. Pearson grew up in Archer, where he collected bird skins and eggs and taught himself ornithology to pay for his schooling at Guilford College in North Carolina. Pearson donated his collection to the college museum and served as curator. He taught at Guilford and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He joined the American Orinthologists' Union, which initiated the Audubon movement to protect the nation's rapidly declining bird populations. He founded and directed the Audubon Society of North Carolina, the South's first state wildlife commission. He served successively as secretary and president of what is now the National Audubon Society. The Audubon movement changed public attitudes toward birds, and was instrumental in obtaining government action that saved millions of birds and brought several species back from the verge of extinction. The movement also helped lay the foundation for a global effort to save the earth's diverse biological systems. Pearson is buried in Greensboro, North Carolina. His parents and brother are buried in Archer.
Sponsors: Alachua County Historical Commission, City of Archer Alachua Historical Society, and Alachua County Commission and the Florida Department of State

JESSE JOHNSON FINLEY

Location:401 Se 21st Ave, Evergreen Cemetery
County: Alachua
City: Gainesville
Description: Jesse Johnson Finley was born in Wilson County, Tennessee, November 18, 1812 and educated in Lebanon, Tennessee. After service as a captain in the Seminole War of 1836, he studied law and was admitted to the bar. During a ten year period he served in the Florida and Mississippi legislatures and as mayor of Memphis, Tennessee. He was elevated to the Florida bench in 1853 and was appointed Confederate district judge for the state in 1861 but soon promoted to colonel of the 6th Florida Infantry, where he participated in the Kentucky campaign under General Kirby-Smith and at Chickamauga. Commissioned as brigadier general in November 1863, he was assigned to command of Florida infantry regiments in the Army of Tennessee, where he led his brigade with great credit in the Chattanooga and Atlanta campaigns. Twice severely wounded, he was incapacitated for further field duty after the battle of Jonesboro. After the war, he served parts of three contested terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, and in 1887 was appointed by the governor to serve in the U.S. Senate in anticipation of a resignation which did not occur. He had served in all three branches of government, with service at the local, state, and national level. This service was rendered in three states. He dies in Lake City on November 6, 1904 and is buried in Evergreen Cemetery. His son, Samuel Y. Finley, elected as Gainesville's first mayor in 1869, is also buried here.

SHADY GROVE PRIMITIVE BAPTIST CHURCH AND PORTER'S QUARTERS

Location:804 Southwest 5th Street
County: Alachua
City: Gainesville
Description: Shady Grove Primitive Baptist Church is a landmark in Porters Quarters, one of Gainesville's oldest and most historic African-American neighborhoods. Dr. Watson Porter, a Canadian physican, established Porters Addition to Gainesville in 1884 and sold lots exclusively to African Americans, many of whom worked in the nearby railroad yards and industrial sites. The Shady Grove congregation was organized in 1894, under the leadership of the Reverend Mose Edwards and Reverend Cobb. Deacons serving were Brothers Mickins, Sweat, Festen, and Clay. Amelia Carter and Penny Brightman served as the first Deconesses. In 1900 the Deacons of the church, Thomas T. Sweat and Jackson Stanley, purchased the corner lot from Dr. Watson Porter and his wife for $30 as a site for the congregation's origianl wood frame church, which was shaded by large oak trees. In the mid-1930s, the wood church was replaced by the present masonry building, constructed of coquina blocks purchased in St. Augestine. During the Civil Rights era, the local NAACP committee met at the Shady Grove Primitive Baptist Church to plan for the integration of Gainesville's public schools. The Church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005
Sponsors: Shady Grove Primitive Baptist Church Board of Deacons and the Florida Department of State

THE HOME OF A. QUINN JONES, SR., EDUCATOR

Location:1013 N.W. 7th Avenu
County: Alachua
City: Gainesville
Description: A. Quinn Jones, Sr. (1893-1997), teacher, educational leader, and prominent African-American advocate, lived here from 1925 to 1997. The home, built ca. 1920, is a one-story frame bungalow set on brick piers. Jones' career, spanning the segregation era, was marked by his determination to provide quality education to all African-American children. Jones served as teacher and principal at two of Alachua County's most important African-American schools, Union Academy (1921-1923) and Lincoln High School (1923-1957). He taught English, Latin, math, and science, and held fundraisers to ensure materials and salaries to his students and staff. In 1924-25, Jones extended Lincoln's grades to the 12th so that students could earn a full high school diploma. The Florida Department of Education noted Jones' leadership and in 1926, Lincoln High School became Florida's second accredited African-American High School. In 1956, Lincoln High School moved to the southeast area of Gainesville and the original building became an elementary school bearing Jones' name. The A. Quinn Jones Center stands as a memorial to his extraordinary contributions to the African-American community, the people of Alachua County, and the State of Florida.
Sponsors: The City of Gainesville and the Florida Department of State

MICANOPY HISTORIC CEMETERY

Location:West Smith Avenue
County: Alachua
City: Micanopy
Description: The Micanopy Historic Cemetery was founded by Dr. H. Lucious Montgomery Sr., a physician in the Township of Micanopy during the 1800's. Dr. Montgomery and his wife, Lucinda Jane Montgomery, the owners of the cemetery land, deeded lot No. 30 to the Cemetery Trustees in 1897 for one dollar. The Township was given the cemetery in 1905 and the Micanopy Cemetery Association was established that year. Thomas McCredie, J.D. Watkins and E.C. Chitty were the first board members. Lot No. 29 was deeded to the Trustee Board and Micanopy Cemetery Association in 1911. It cost $300. Members of the Trustee Board were O.L. Feaster, J.B. Simonton, J.D. Merry, W.D. Merry, W.D. Bobbitt, W.C. Barnett. B.O. Franklin and H.L. Montgomery Sr. Thje cemetery has had over 2,000 butials in it's 181-year history. it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. The first recorded burial dated from 1826 and the cemetery is still picturesque and a wonderful example of American history preserved.
Sponsors: The Town of Micanopy and The Florida Department of State

GAINESVILLE SERVICEMEN'S CENTER

Location:516 Northeast 2nd Avenue
County: Alachua
City: Gainesville
Description: The City of Gainesville purchased the Servicemen’s Center lot on December. 7th 1942. The Federal Works Agency constructed a $37,000 building with a ballroom, stage, dressing rooms, second floor reading room, three showers, three telephone booths for long distance calls, a coat check room, a 20-foot-long snack bar, and a kitchen with a ten-burner stove. The FWA provided sofas and easy chairs, a baby grand piano, a fiddle, trombone, radio, juke box, and a victrola. The city paid for kitchen equipment, flowered drapes, the mantle mirror, ping pong and snooker tables. They also paved NE 2nd Avenue and laid sidewalks. The Garden Club supplied and installed plants. Senator Claude Pepper dedicated the building on July 23rd 1943. Servicemen from Camp Blanding, the Alachua Army Air Base, the Officer Candidate School and the 62nd College Training Detachment attended events organized by program director Thelma Boltin (1904-1992) seven days a week from 10:00 AM to 11:00 PM that included dances, plays, variety shows, sing alongs, chess, pinochle and bingo. Outdoor activities included badminton, barbeque and shuffleboard. Civic clubs provided funds and hostesses for meals including 400 dinners on Thanksgiving. The city bought the building for $12,500 in 1946 and retained Miss Boltin as Director. A 1928 graduate of Emerson College, she returned to Gainesville after teaching in Polk County 1930-32 and taught English, Speech and directed plays at Gainesville High School. The School Board employed her until 1956 when she moved to White Springs to direct the Florida Folk Festival. She was a founder, actor and director at the Gainesville Little Theater (Community Playhouse), chair of the Florida and National Federation of Music Clubs, received an award from the American Assoc. for State and Local History, was WGGG Radio's “Story Hour Lady,” artist in residence at schools, and assisted folklife programs in Dade City, Apopka, Cocoa, and Fernandina. She was known as “Cousin Thelma,” and “Queen of Florida Folklore.” In 1946 she organized the teen club at the “Rec Center” which continued through the 1960s. Local bands with Stephen Stills, Don Felder and Bernie Leadon played Friday night dances which Tom Petty attended. All four are now in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The building became a senior center in the 1970s and is also used for dances, wedding receptions and civic events. A $420,000 renovation took place in 2000.
Sponsors: The Alachua County Historical Commission and the Florida Department of State

OLD STAGE ROAD

Location:SW 24th Ave at SW 69th Terrace
County: Alachua
City: Gainesville
Description: The Old Stage Road, one of Alachua County’s original highways, passed near here. Dating from the 1820s, it connected the county’s two major towns, Newnansville (once the county seat near present day Alachua) and Micanopy to the south. The road served as a major commerce, transportation and military artery. Forts built for protection from Seminole Indians near Micanopy and Newnansville were linked by the road. During the Second Seminole War of 1835 to 1842, Fort Clarke, a U.S. Army post, was built along the road northwest of here. By the early 1860s, local farmers relied on the road to transport crops to the railroad depot in Arredondo. From 1866 to 1876, a stage line used the road, carrying mail and passengers to Ocala and Newnansville, and to Tampa by 1869. Use of the road diminished after steamer service across Alachua Lake (now Payne’s Prairie) began in 1876. Railroad service was expanded to Micanopy in the early 1880s. Newnansville had been deserted by 1900. In the 20th century, sections of the road were abandoned in favor of newer and better roads. Original sections of the Old Stage Road still exist.
Sponsors: SPONSORED BY INFINITE PROPERTIES, LLC., THE ALACHUA COUNTY HISTORICAL COMMISSION AND THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF STATE

EARLETON, FLORIDA

Location:NE 77th Ln and SR 200 A
County: Alachua
City: Earleton
Description: Side 1: Earleton is named for General Elias B. Earle (1821-1893) who received government land grants in Florida for his service in the U.S./Mexican War (1846-48). Born into a prominent South Carolina family, Gen. Earle fought in the Palmetto Regiment, enlisted as a private, and at war's end received the honorary commission of General from the Governor of South Carolina. He moved to the western shore of Lake Santa Fe with his wife and four children between 1856 and 1860. When the Civil War began, Gen. Earle owned a 2000-acre cotton plantation north of here and had 50 slaves, making him one of the largest slave holders in Alachua County. A colonel of the Seventh Florida Regiment, Earle joined Capt. J.J. Dickison's Company H for the 1864 Battle of Gainesville, leading an infantry of ninety men down what is now E. University Ave. After the war, Earle became a director for the canal company connecting Lake Santa Fe to Lake Alto and president of the Green Cove Springs to Melrose Railroad. His son-in-law, German botanist Baron Hans von Luttichau (1845-1926) created the "Collins-Belvedere Azalea Gardens" in Earleton, introducing Formosa azaleas to Florida. Earle is buried in the family plot at Eliam Cemetery in Melrose. Side 2: St. John's Episcopal Church and Cemetery were established at this site in the late 1870s by English settlers. Completed in 1880, the church was one of the first carpenter gothic chapels in Florida. It was at the time known as the mission at Balmoral and the Lake Santa Fe Mission. When Trinity Episcopal Church (still standing) was completed in Melrose in 1886, this smaller church was sold for $15 and torn down. The cemetery was established in 1878 and held between 60-70 graves at the turn of the 20th Century. Little is known about who is buried there because the records were lost when the Diocesan headquarters burned during the Jacksonville fire of 1901. The only legible headstone belongs to Emma Lucy Hilton, who was born in England in 1827, and died in Earleton in 1884. On the banks of Lake Santa Fe (east of here) sat the Balmoral Hotel, which catered to northern tourists who came by train to Waldo and then by steamboat through the Lake Alto canal. Balmoral was an impressive two-story, U-shaped structure and a popular resort through the 1880s, until the 1894-95 freezes ruined the local economy. The hotel was turned into a private residence and eventually burned. No trace is left.
Sponsors: Historic Melrose, Inc. and the Florida Department of State

SERENOLA PLANTATION

Location:Squirrel Park
County: Alachua
City: Gainesville
Description: Side 1: In 1857, David Rogerson Williams II (1822-1907) of Darlington Co., SC, purchased 1,000 acres, including this site bordering Payne’s Prairie, and developed them as a plantation known as “Serenola.” The 1860 census shows 120 slaves lived in 24 houses on the plantation, where cotton, sugar cane, and corn were grown. By 1870, the plantation’s land and tenements were owned by Capt. Garth W. James (1845-1883), a Union veteran of the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Colored Infantry, and William R. Robeson (1845-1922), an attorney from Boston, MA. In 1875, Robeson began selling some of his Serenola land. Among the grantees in 1880 was industrialist Andrew Carnegie. More remarkable were the 250 acres that Robeson sold from 1875 through 1885 to five black families, most of whom had once served as slaves of Williams, the original owner of the plantation. The freedmen and their families included: Harrison Lynch (1835-1916), with his wife Hannah and their four children; Mack Williams (1825-1898), with his wife Sally and their four children; minister Washington West (1853-1942), with his wife Nelly and their two children; Jerry Gregg (1845-1920), with his wife Jane and their five children; and Bina Gregg, a widow (1805-1896). Side 2: At that time, farming was the mainstay of Alachua County. Between 1872 and 1892, the location of the former plantation near the Payne’s Prairie waterways gave the farmers easy access to ship produce north by steamboat. By 1891, the Gainesville, Rocky Point & Micanopy Railroad ran through the property, providing further access to markets. Serenola had a lasting impact on Alachua County’s economy until the 1950s, when farming declined as the farmers passed away. The last of the former Serenola slaves who farmed the land died in 1942. The main house and the slave quarters no longer exist, but the surroundings remain much as they appeared in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A dirt road once known as Rocky Point Road, with its canopy of oak trees, still runs through what was the plantation. It became a public highway in 1889, and is now S.W. 17th Terrace. During the early 1900s, West family members established Minnie Hill Baptist Church, located on the old road. After Washington West retired as pastor of Serenola Baptist Church, which he helped found in 1885, he attended the Minnie Hill Church until his death. That church was renamed Trinity Missionary Baptist Church in 1992
Sponsors: The Serenola Community Cemetery, Inc. and the Florida Department of State

MICANOPY

Location:NE. Cholokka Blvd. at N.E. Peach Ave. in front of gazebo.
County: Alachua
City: Micanopy
Description: Side 1: Founded after Spain relinquished Florida to the United States in 1821, Micanopy became the first distinct American town founded in the new US territory. Originally an Indian trading post, Micanopy was built under the auspices of the Florida Association of New York. A leading member of this company, Moses E. Levy, along with Edward Wanton, a former Anglo-Spanish Indian trader, played important roles here. In 1822, a select group of settlers and skilled craftsmen departed New York harbor and set sail for Florida. After disembarking on the banks of the St. Johns River (at the site of present-day Palatka), and with the added labor of 15 slaves, these men forged a 45-mile road with eight bridges to Micanopy--a vital new pathway into the interior. These first settlers arrived on February 12, 1823, and were in close contact with both Seminole and Miccosukee Indians, as well as the black descendants of runaway slaves who resided among them. This initial period was one of relative peace. Micanopy means "head chief," a title awarded to the leader of the Alachua Seminoles. For a time, this frontier hamlet was also known informally as "Wantons." Side 2: The onset of the Second Seminole War in December 1835 caused great devastation. Nearby sugar plantations and homesteads were burned and entire families sought the safety of Micanopy, which had been barricaded with log pickets and renamed Fort Defiance by the military. During the summer of 1836, the Battle of Micanopy and the Battle of Welika Pond took place here. On August 24, with most soldiers sick or wounded, the US Army evacuated the fort and town and all buildings were intentionally burned. Afterward, Fort Micanopy was erected in 1837. The town was rebuilt after the Seminole War, with few of the original inhabitants returning. Cotton replaced sugar cane as a staple crop and cattle production assumed new importance. Following the Civil War and with the advent of the railroad, the Micanopy area became known as the "leading orange and vegetable growing section of Florida." After a freeze in 1894-95, orange cultivation was curtailed, but farmers continued to flourish by growing winter vegetables for northern markets. By the 1920s, truck farming was largely displaced by the lumber and turpentine industries. Many of the town’s larger surviving homes reflect the previous era of agricultural prosperity.
Sponsors: The Micanopy Historical Society and the Florida Department of State

KANAPAHA PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Location:6221 Southwest 75th Terrace
County: Alachua
City: Gainesville
Description: In 1857, a group of Sea Island cotton planters from South Carolina who steeled near here called an organizational meeting to establish Kanapaha Presbyterian Church. The Reverend William J. McCormick (1821-1883) was recruited from South Carolina to be its first pastor. The first sanctuary was erected in 1859 on land donated by Moses Ramsey on the old military road now known as S.W. 63rd Boulevard. In April 1859, McCormick conducted the first servives and the church was formally organized. During the Civil War, Kanapaha Church fell into disrepair. A new sanctuary designed in the Gothic Revival Style was built in 1886 near the train depot in South Arrendondo, later called Kanapaha. Beginning in 1961, services were held in a building closer to Gainesville but the congregation returned to the church here in 1970, after restoration was completed. Kanapaha Presbyterian Church is one of the oldest churches in Alachua County, and still retains the original pews, kerosene chandelier, stained glass windows, and bell. The churches original Steeple, badly damaged by hurricanes in the 1940s, was restored in 2001.
Sponsors: Sponsored by the Kanapaha Presbyterian Church and the Florida Department of State

THE BALLPARK

Location:512 SW 2nd Terrace
County: Alachua
City: Gainesville
Description: This site, known locally as the ballpark, was the center of recreational activities in Gainesville for more than 60 years. From 1883-1910 Gainesville's Oak Hall baseball team played here against teams from Florida and the Southeast. The Oak Halls played the first night baseball game in Alachua County here in 1909. The Central City Giants, an African-American team, also played baseball here. When the University of Florida (UF) opened its doors in the fall of 1906, there was no suitable location on campus for playing football. From 1906-10 UF played 15 football games here with a 14-0-1 record. Opponents included the Gainesville Athletic Association (UF's first opponent at the ballpark), Rollins College, Stetson College, Georgia A&M, Gainesville Guards, and the College of Charleston. In 1911, UF began playing games on campus at a location now known as Fleming Field. East Florida Seminary (1902-04) and Gainesville High School (1906-07) also played football here. After 1910, the ballpark was used for tent shows, community fairs, and by traveling circuses, including Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus and the King Brothers Circus, which put on the last performance held at the ballpark on November 17, 1946.
Sponsors: Porters Community Neighborhood Organization and the Florida Department of State

DOUGLASS HIGH SCHOOL

Location:18100 Southeast Douglass Street
County: Alachua
City: High Springs
Description: Residents of High Springs saw the need for a public school for African Americans in 1886. By 1902, black students moved into the Red Schoolhouse, a two-story wood frame building previously constructed as a school for whites. White students moved into a two-story brick building named the High Springs Grammar School. The Red Schoolhouse was used by black students until it was destroyed by fire in 1925. A new school for blacks, the Douglass High School, was built on this site in 1930 at a cost of $11,500, with funds from the Julius Rosenwald Foundation, and $1,000 raised locally by the African American community. The original Douglass School was a one-story stucco building with eight classrooms and a staff of five teachers. The school’s first senior class graduated in 1937. By 1951, the school had twelve teachers and an enrollment of 340 students. A separate school cafeteria building was constructed in 1955, and a three-classroom addition to the school was constructed in the 1960s. The school was subsequently renamed the Douglass Elementary School. Douglass was closed in 1970 in response to desegregation, and most of the school was torn down by the mid-1970s. Only the 1955 cafeteria building survives today.
Sponsors: Douglass Alumni, Douglass Historical Society

DANIEL SCOTT PLANTATION

Location:SR20 Near Grove Park
County: Alachua
City: Hawthorne
Description: Side One: In 1853, planters Daniel Scott and Daniel Finley of Fairfield, South Carolina, bought 2,664 acres of land here for $6,743, and in 1854 Scott was taxed on 1,400 acres and 30 enslaved people. In 1855, Scott and Finley purchased 54 people for $28,000 from George Leitner in South Carolina. Every person's name, except infants, was listed on the deed. In 1858, Scott bought out Finley, and by 1860 Scott and his children James (35), George (20), Maxey (8) and Emma (6) lived in the house that stood on this site. Enslaved carpenters built the two-story, center hall, timber-framed house with yellow pine. The studs were marked with incised Roman numerals and fastened with mortise and tenon joints. Enslaved masons built the chimney with bricks made on site. W. R. Craig (35), a master carpenter lived with Scott's son William (22), his wife Mary (21) on 125 acres east of the Scott property. In 1860, Daniel Scott owned 2,690 acres valued at $14,000, and 66 enslaved people with a value of $31,500. The 1860 Slave Schedule indicated that 61 people lived in 12 one-room cabins. That same year the plantation produced 26,000 pounds of Sea Island cotton, 1,700 bushels of peas, corn, and sweet potatoes and 10 tons of hay. Side Two: Scott's sons James and George died during the Civil War, but William (Company B, 2nd FL Infantry) survived despite being shot in the neck and back and captured at Gettysburg. Daniel Scott sold his land in 1866 to E.L. King and moved to Jefferson County with his grandchildren and neighbor, Mittie Harley, whom he married. They had two children, Harley Daniel and Eva. Scott repurchased the plantation in 1871, two years before he died. Martha Perry, the widow of Governor Madison Starke Perry, later bought it. Her daughter Sally sold the land in 1883 to William Holdridge and John Dent. They platted the property as Grove Park in 1884. Scott's daughter Emma and her husband Sam Waits purchased the property in 1917. Sam operated a sawmill for the W.B. Phifer Co., a turpentine and sawmill company. The Waits sold the property to the company in 1924. The H.H. Surrency family bought it in 1954 and lived here until 1974. They donated the house and one acre to Alachua County in 2004. The house and its circa 1900 kitchen addition stood here until 2008. The circa 1903 Waits house stands to the west of the Scott home site.
Sponsors: Alachua County Historical Commission

ALACHUA COUNTY COURTHOUSE

Location:Corner of Main (SR 329) & SE 1st St.
County: Alachua
City: Gainesville
Description: The Alachua County Commission, by authority of the Florida Legislature, selected this site for a courthouse in 1854, moving the county seat from Newnansville. The first courthouse was a frame building completed in 1856. It was demolished on the completion of a red brick courthouse in 1886. The current building, completed in 1958, and its 1962 addition, were erected in response to the continuing expansion of governmental needs in Alachua County.
Sponsors: Alachua County Historical Commission, Authorized by the Board of County Commissioners in Cooperation with Department of State

ARCHER, FLORIDA

Location:16870 SW 134th Ave City Hall grounds
County: Alachua
City: Archer
Description: Side 1: When Europeans first arrived in this area in the 16th century, the inhabitants were Timucuan Indians. In 1774, traveling botanist William Bartram visited Seminole Indians nearby. In the 1850's a town called Deer Hammock was established here, probably in anticipation of the construction of the Florida Railroad from Fernandina to Cedar Key. Upon completion of the railroad to Deer Hammock in 1859, the name of the town was changed in honor of James T. Archer, Florida's Secretary of State 1845-49 and advocate of internal improvements. The Archer post office was established the same year. In May, 1865, the remnants of the Confederate treasury, removed from captured Richmond and conveyed by baggage train into Florida, were hidden at Cotton Wood, the Archer plantation of David Yulee, just prior to Union seizure at Waldo. Side 2: In the contested presidential election of 1876, the votes of the Archer precinct for the Republican candidate were among those challenged but allowed to stand, thus securing the victory of Rutherford B. Hayes over Samuel J. Tilden. The town of Archer was incorporated in 1878. Among new arrivals in the 1880's were Quakers who planted extensive orange groves using avenues of oaks as windbreaks. The freezes of 1886 and 1894-95 killed the orange trees, but the oaks survived to shade the city streets. Archer's oldest surviving industry is the Maddox Foundry, established in 1905 by H. Maddox and operated by his descendants.
Sponsors: Sponsored by Alachua County Historical Commission In Cooperation With Department of State

BLAND COMMUNITY

Location:1801 Gulf Breeze Parkway
County: Alachua
City: Gainesville
Description: Settled in the 1840s by cotton planters from Georgia and South Carolina, Bland became a diverse agrarian area where farmers and sharecroppers raised cattle and grew cotton and a variety of fruits and vegetables. Joseph “Fate” Lafayette Matthews (1868-1934) was the town’s most prominent citizen who moved to the area from Bradford County in 1899. He and Thomas A. Doke initially purchased 720 acres of land which was once part of the Samuel R. Pyles plantation. Matthews built a large home and general merchandise store just under a mile south of here. With cotton gins and a grist mill, the store served as the center of commerce for the area. In May 1903 Matthews opened a post office which was named for his son, Blan C. Matthews (1902-1927). Fate Matthews served as the only postmaster until the closing of the post office in July 1906. By the late 1920s he was one of the county’s largest land owners. On December 1, 1934, Matthews, then president of the Bank of Alachua, was murdered in his home by a man upon whose house he had foreclosed. William and Elsie Washington successfully homesteaded 104 acres in this area in 1879. Among their many descendants is actress, comedienne, and humanitarian Whoopi Goldberg.
Sponsors: ALACHUA COUNTY HISTORICAL COMMISSION AND THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF STATE

CITY OF ALACHUA

Location:15100 NW 142nd Terrace
County: Alachua
City: Alachua
Description: Upon completion to Gainesville of the Savannah, Florida and Western Railway in May 1884, citizens from the former county seat at Newnansville were among those who moved to the present site of Alachua which was near the railroad. The city is located in a productive farming area. The Bellamy Road, a national highway from St. Augustine to Pensacola authorized in 1824, originally passed near the northeast city boundary. The post office was established April 30, 1887. The city was incorporated April 12, 1905.
Sponsors: Sponsored by Alachua County Historical Commission In Cooperation With Department of State

CITY OF GAINESVILLE

Location:200 East University Avenue, between 1st St.NE & 3rd St.NE, Gainesville City Hall
County: Alachua
City: Gainesville
Description: Designated the County Seat in 1854, and incorporated as a City in 1869, Gainesville takes its name from General Edmund Gaines, captor of Aaron Burr and commander of U.S. Army troops in Florida during the Second Seminole War. The town was the fourth Alachua County Seat of government. The University of Florida and its educational predecessors have been located in Gainesville since the 1850's.
Sponsors: Florida Board of Parks and Historic Memorials

CITY OF NEWBERRY HISTORIC DISTRICT

Location:25370 W Newberry Road
County: Alachua
City: Newberry
Description: The discovery of hard rock phosphate in Alachua County in 1889 sparked the appearance of boom towns wherever large deposits of the mineral were found. Incorporated in 1894, Newberry thrived until 1914 when the onset of World War I forced the mines to close. The mines did not reopen after the war, causing the economy of the town to collapse and forcing many residents to leave. The buildings in Newberry's historic district reflect the boom town atmosphere of small mining communities founded in Florida at end of the 19th century. The district was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.
Sponsors: The Florida Department of State

DAVID YULEE and COTTON WOOD PLANTATION

Location:16994 SW 134th Ave
County: Alachua
City: Archer
Description: David Levy Yulee was born at St. Thomas, West Indies, in 1810. He attended school in Virginia from 1819 until 1827 when he went to Micanopy to work on one of the plantations of his father, Moses Elias Levy. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1836. His time was divided between the practice of law and agriculture. Yulee was elected to the Florida Constitutional Convention at St. Joseph in 1838. He was a delegate to Congress from the Territory of Florida from 1841-45 and spearheaded the drive for statehood. In 1845, he was chosen as the first U.S. Senator from Florida and was the first Jew, in the United States, to be elected to the U.S. Senate. Defeated for reelection in 1851, Yulee was again elected to the Senate in 1855. In the Senate he served as chairman of the committees on naval affairs and on post offices and post roads. Yulee served in the U.S. Senate until he resigned upon the secession of Florida in 1861. While serving as territorial delegate, Yulee obtained a railroad survey of Florida and was one of the first railroad promoters in the South. In 1853 he incorporated the Florida Railroad which, when completed in 1860, passed through Archer, connecting Fernandina and Cedar Key. Long an advocate of the Southern movement and secession, Yulee supported Florida's entry into the Confederacy. However, he chose not to pursue elective office and devoted time to his plantations and his railroad. He was at odds with Confederate authorities who wanted to use materials from his railroad for more vital lines. Cotton Wood Plantation, located about one mile northeast of this site, was the home of Yulee during the War Between the States. Upon the fall of the Confederacy, personal baggage of President Jefferson Davis and part of the Confederate treasury, reached Cotton Wood, under armed guard, on May 22, 1865. Following the war, Yulee was imprisoned at Ft. Pulaski, at Savannah, until Gen. U.S. Grant intervened for his release in March of 1866. Yulee sold his holdings in Florida and moved to Washington, D.C. in 1880. He died in 1886 and was buried at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. Originally known as David Levy, he had his name changed by an act of the Florida Legislature in 1845.
Sponsors: sponsored by the alachua county historical commission in cooperation with the florida department of state

DICKISON AND HIS MEN / JEFFERSON DAVIS' BAGGAGE

Location:S.R. 24. in Waldo on front of caboose in City Park
County: Alachua
City: Waldo
Description: Side 1: John Jackson Dickison (1816-1902), Florida's famous Civil War guerrilla leader, bivouacked at Camp Baker, south of here, during the closing weeks of the conflict. Dickison and his men became legendary figures. As Company H, Second Florida Cavalry, they engaged in skirmishes, raids, battles, scouting expeditions, and forced marches from the time of organization at Flotard's Pond, Marion County, in 1862, until the force was mustered out at Waldo on May 20, 1865. Side 2: On June 15, 1865, a detachment of Union soldiers under Captain O.E. Bryant seized personal baggage belonging to Confederate President Jefferson Davis and some of the Confederate government's records in a house near this site. The trunks and papers were hidden first at Senator David Levy Yulee's plantation, "Cottonwood" between Archer and Gainesville. The baggage was moved to Waldo and placed in care of the railroad agent.
Sponsors: Florida Board of Parks and Historic Memorials in Cooperation with Seaboard Air Line Railroad Company

EAST FLORIDA SEMINARY

Location:200 East University Avenue, between 1st St.NE & 3rd St.NE, Gainesville City Hall
County: Alachua
City: Gainesville
Description: Founded as the Gainesville Academy before the Civil War and later renamed, the East Florida Seminary served Gainesville's need for higher education until the University of Florida was created bythe Florida Legislature in 1905. The Seminary school building, erected after an earlier structure burned in 1833, was converted to use as a fellowship hall by the First Methodist Church, at 419 N.E. 1st Avenue.
Sponsors: Florida Board of Parks and Historic Memorials

FIRST GAINESVILLE SKIRMISH / BATTLE OF GAINESVILLE

Location:200 East University Avenue, between 1st St.NE & 3rd St.NE, Gainesville City Hall
County: Alachua
City: Gainesville
Description: Side 1: The first Civil War gunfire in Gainesville's streets came on February 15, 1864, when a raiding party of 50 men from the 40th Massachusetts Cavalry entered the City to attempt the capture of two trains. The raid was unproductive, for the Federal troops were met and repulsed by the Second Florida Cavalry at what is now Main Street at University Avenue. Five days later, the main Federal force was defeated at the battle of Olustee, 50 miles to the north. Side 2: A Civil War battle was fought in Gainesville on August 17, 1864, when about 300 occupying Federal Troops were attacked by Florida Cavalry under Captain J.J. Dickison, called "Florida's most conspicuous soldier." The Federals were driven from the City after a brisk fight and suffered severe casualties during hard pursuit, which ended in victory for the Confederate force.
Sponsors: Florida Board of Parks and Historic Memorials

FORT CLARKE

Location:W. of city on S.R. 26, on grounds of Ft. Clark Chu
County: Alachua
City: Gainesville
Description: Near this site was located Fort Clarke, originally a U.S. Army post during the Seminole War, and afterwards a settlement. The name is preserved in nearby Fort Clarke Church. At this site crossed the early settlement and military road connecting the old county seats at Newnansville (near present-day Alachua) and Spring Grove with Micanopy. Fort Clarke was named for a U.S. Army officer.
Sponsors: Sponsored by Alachua County Historical Commission, Authorized by The Board of County Commissioners In Cooperation With Department of State

GAINESVILLE'S RAILROADS

Location:Corner NW 3rd Ave. & 6th St.
County: Alachua
City: Gainesville
Description: The coming of the Florida Railroad opened up the interior of Florida for both settlement and trading and helped establish Gainesville. On February 1, 1859 the Florida Railroad entered town and connected Fernandina Beach with Cedar Key by 1861. Built from the northeast along what is now Waldo Road, the rails crossed 13th Street at Archer Road, and continued southwest along Archer Road to Cedar Key. The 19th century Florida roads were sandy, swampy and nearly impassible, so early rail access to two ports dramatically increased Gainesville's prosperity. Railroads provided transportation for outgoing agricultural products and brought in the region's first tourists, creating a demand for hotels, restaurants and other services. As the demand for North Central Florida agriculture grew at the turn of the 20th century, more railroads crisscrossed the region. The last railroad passenger service in Gainesville ended in 1971. The Atlantic Coast Line (ACL) Railroad built a modern depot in 1948 rerouting its trains from Main Street downtown to tracks on Northwest 6th Street. The ACL depot is presently part of the downtown campus of Santa Fe Community College. Gainesville's first railroad, the Florida Railroad, was started in 1859. In 1881, the Florida Southern Railroad reached town from Palatka, Hawthorne and Rochelle, entering at South Main Street from Hawthorne Road and running the length of Main Street to 8th Aveenue. A route from Rochelle provided service to Ocala. Three years later, the Savannah, Florida & Western Railroad linked to these tracks, providing service through Alachua to Waycross, Georgia. The two lines merged in 1902, becoming the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, providing service from Tampa Bay to New York. ACL trains ran in the middle of Main Street stopping for passengers to use the city's hotels. In 1895, the Gainesville and Gulf Railroad built a line to Micanopy along NW 6th Street. By 1899, the rails reached south past Fairfield to Emathala and north to Sampson City. The Gainesville and Gulf was sold in 1906 and renamed the Tampa and Jacksonville or T&J. In 1900, the Seaboard Air Line Railroad (SAL) was established and acquired the old Florida Railroad right-of-way through Gainesville. When the SAL bought the T&J in 1926, it was renamed the Jacksonville, Gainesville & Gulf. This line was abandoned in 1943.
Sponsors: ALACHUA COUNTY HISTORICAL COMMISSION ANDD THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF STATE

HAWTHORNE, FLORIDA

Location:N. Johnston St. between 65th Ave and SE 66th Ave
County: Alachua
City: Hawthorne
Description: Side 1: In 1774, noted botanist William Bartram travelled across what is now the southeastern corner of Alachua County following an old Indian and trading trail. In Florida's territorial period, English-speaking settlers used the same route as a frontier road. By 1840, another road from the north crossed that trail near present day Hawthorne. In 1848, Morrison had begun to operate a mill there on what Bartram had described as a "rapid brook." A United States post office called Morrison's Mills was established at that site in 1853 in order to serve the increasing population of the area. Side 2: In 1879, the Peninsular Railroad was completed from Waldo to Ocala, bypassing Morrison's Mills. In that year, a new town grew up nearer the railroad. This village was at first called Jamestown, but in 1880, the name was changed to Hawthorne. Both names were in honor of James M. Hawthorne, a local landowner. In 1881, the Florida Southern Railway was completed from Palatka to Gainesville, crossing the Peninsular Railroad at Hawthorne. In the 1880's the community there was also known unofficially as Wait's Crossing in reference to another family living in the area. In 1883, a stone quarry near Hawthorne became the site of Florida's earliest phosphate mill. The mill was operated for two years by Dr. C. A. Simmons, who in 1879 had been the first person to recognize phosphate in Florida. However, the most important resources of the Hawthorne area have been its agricultural and forestry products such as sea island cotton and turpentine.
Sponsors: Sponsored by Alachua County Historical Commission In Cooperation With Department of State

HAWTHORNE, FLORIDA

Location:218th Street near Gainesville Hawthorn Trail
County: Alachua
City: Hawthorne
Description: Side 1: In 1774, noted botanist William Bartram travelled across what is now the southeastern corner of Alachua County following an old Indian and trading trail. In Florida's territorial period, English-speaking settlers used the same route as a frontier road. By 1840, another road from the north crossed that trail near present day Hawthorne. In 1848, Morrison had begun to operate a mill there on what Bartram had described as a "rapid brook." A United States post office called Morrison's Mills was established at that site in 1853 in order to serve the increasing population of the area. Side 2: In 1879, the Peninsular Railroad was completed from Waldo to Ocala, bypassing Morrison's Mills. In that year, a new town grew up nearer the railroad. This village was at first called Jamestown, but in 1880, the name was changed to Hawthorne. Both names were in honor of James M. Hawthorn, a local landowner. In 1881, the Florida Southern Railway was completed from Palatka to Gainesville, crossing the Peninsular Railroad at Hawthorne. In the 1880's the community there was also known unofficially as Wait's Crossing in reference to another family living in the area. In 1883, a stone quarry near Hawthorne became the site of Florida's earliest phosphate mill. The mill was operated for two years by Dr. C. A. Simmons, who in 1879 had been the first person to recognize phosphate in Florida. However, the most important resources of the Hawthorne area have been its agricultural and forestry products such as sea island cotton and turpentine.
Sponsors: Sponsored by Alachua County Historical Commission In Cooperation With Department of State

HIGH SPRINGS, FLORIDA

Location:110 Northwest 1st Avenue
County: Alachua
City: High Springs
Description: The northwest region of Alachua County was probably first settled on a permanent basis by English speaking people during the late 1830's. One of the earliest settlements `in the vicinity was a Crockett Springs, located about three miles east of present day High Springs. Settlers who were living there during the 1840's included Fernando Underwood and Marshal Blanton. No town developed in the area before the latter part of the nineteenth century. In 1884, the Savannah, Florida, and Western Railroad was extended from Live Oak to Gainesville. A post office and station were established here in that year under the name of Santaffey, which was a common spelling of the name of the nearby Santa Fe River. The town was also known unofficially as Orion before the name was changed in 1880 to High Springs. In the next few years, High Springs boomed as a result of the development of phosphate mining in the area. In 1892, the town was incorporated. During the next year, the Savannah, Florida, and Western Railroad completed its South Florida Division which connected High Springs with Port Tampa. By the beginning of the twentieth century, High Springs was known as an important railroad center. In later years, High Springs has been the focus for the surrounding agricultural region.
Sponsors: Sponsored by Alachua County Historical Commission In Cooperation With Department of State

HISTORIC HAILE HOMESTEAD AT KANAPAHA PLANTATION

Location:Intersection of SW Archer Rd. and SW 85th St.
County: Alachua
City: Gainesville
Description: One of the oldest houses in Alachua County, the Historic Haile Homestead was the home of Thomas Evans Haile, his wife Esther Serena Chesnut Haile and 14 of their children. The Hailes came here from Camden, South Carolina in 1854 to establish a 1,500-acre Sea Island Cotton plantation which they named Kanapaha. Enslaved black craftsmen completed the 6,200-square-foot manse in 1856. The 1860 census showed 66 slaves living here. The Hailes survived bankruptcy in 1868 and turned the property into a productive farm, growing a variety of fruits and vegetables including oranges. Serena Haile died in 1895; Thomas in 1896. The Homestead, which passed to son Evans, a prominent defense attorney, became the site of house parties attended by some of Gainesville’s most distinguished citizens. The Hailes had the unusual habit of writing on the walls; all together over 12,500 words with the oldest writing dating to the 1850’s. The Homestead was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. A restoration was completed in 1996. Still partly owned by descendants of Evans Haile, the Homestead is one of the few remaining homesteads built by Sea Island cotton planters in this part of Florida.
Sponsors: THE HISTORIC HAILE HOMESTEAD AND THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF STATE

HISTORY OF EVINSTON, FLORIDA / EVINSTON COMMUNITY STORE AND POST OFFICE

Location:18320 Southeast County Road 225
County: Alachua
City: Evinston
Description: The community of Evinston, Florida, situated on the Alachua-Marion County border, is part of the Spanish Arredondo Grant of 1817. A grant for this land was received from Arrendondo by N. Brush who later sold two sections to the Evins family of South Carolina. Captain W. D. Evins, of this family, had large land holdings here west of Orange Lake, and gave the right of way for the narrow gauge Florida Southern Railroad in 1882. The station was given the name Evinston and the depot was built in 1884. At that time the present country store and post office were established. The community once consisted of two other stores, a schoolhouse, 3 churches, a blacksmith shop, 2 packing houses and a grist mill. This area was known for orange groves until the 1890's freezes. Agricultural crops and cattle were and are still raised here. In 1956, the depot was moved and the railroad discontinued passenger service. Freight service continued until the tracks were removed in 1982. The community park was established in 1909 by J.L. Wolfenden, W.P. Shettleworth and F.B. Hester and continues to serve as a pleasure to the residents, many of whom are direct descendants of the original families. The Evinston community store, originally a warehouse, was built of heart pine in 1884 by W.P. Shettleworth. it was bought by Joseph Wolfenden, who first operated it as a store. The post office, established in 1882 was later moved into the building. The present store sits 100 feet south of its original location. It was moved in 1956 because of road paving. Located across from the railroad depot, it was a meeting place then as now. Numerous owners managed the store through the turn of the century. In 1909 H.D. Wood and Robert Evins bought the store. The later partnership of Wood and Swink, in 1934, is still indicated on the store front. Fred Wood became postmaster of Evinston in 1934 and served for 44 years, longer than any other postmaster in Florida. Still containing original post office boxes and equipment, this is one of the few remaining country store-post offices. In 1977, the country store was used as a set for the movie adaptation of Marjorie Rawlings' short story Gal Young'un.
Sponsors: sponsored by the alachua county historical commissionin cooperation with the department of state

HOGTOWN SETTLEMENT / FORT HOGTOWN

Location:West Side park on corner of 34th St. and 8th Ave.
County: Alachua
City: Gainesville
Description: Side 1: Near this site was located Hogtown, one of the earliest settlements in Alachua County. It was originally an Indian village which in 1824 had fourteen inhabitants. Hogtown settlement is also mentioned in documents of the early nineteenth century which discuss land grants issued by the Spanish crown during the Second Spanish Period in Florida's history (1783-1821). In the late 1820's Hogtown became a white settlement as American pioneers occupied Indian land from which the Seminoles had been removed by the terms of the Treaty of Moultrie Creek. In 1854, the town of Gainesville was founded on a site located a few miles east of Hogtown. Side 2: During the Second Seminole War (1835-42), a settler's fort was built at the Hogtown settlement near this site. Shortly before the onset of that war, men from the Hogtown settlement and from Spring Grove, a community located about four miles to the west, organized a volunteer company of mounted riflemen, the Spring Grove Guards. Spring Grove was at that time the seat of justice in Alachua county (1832-1839). For several months, members of the Guards periodically paraded and patrolled the countryside to protect the inhabitants against Indians. The fort at Hogtown was one of more than a dozen Second Seminole War forts located in or near present-day Alachua County.
Sponsors: sponsored by alachua county historical commission in cooperation with department of state

JOSIAH T. WALLS

Location:University Avenue, between NW 1st Street and NW 2nd St.
County: Alachua
City: Gainesville
Description: Born in 1842 to slave parents in Winchester, Va., little is known of Josiah T. Walls' early life. After a short term of Confederate service, he enlisted in the Third Regiment, U.S. Colored Troops in 1863. Transferred to Picolata on the St. Johns River in 1864, he married Helen Ferguson of Newnansville and in 1865 moved to Alachua County after he was mustered out. After passage of the U.S. Military Reconstruction Act of 1867, Walls entered into Florida politics; as a delegate to the 1868 State constitutional convention, followed by election as a State representative and later senator from Alachua County. The 1870 nominee of the Republican Party for Florida's only seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, Walls defeated Silas Niblack after a bitter contest, riddled with charges of fraud and intimidation. Josiah T. Walls thus became the State's first black congressman. Although unseated by the House near the end of his term, Walls was re-elected in 1872. In another contested election in 1874, Walls defeated J.J. Finley, a former Confederate General, but, in 1876, was again removed from office. Walls was elected to the Florida Senate that year. After 1879, Josiah Walls concentrated on his farming activities. He had first acquired land near Newnansville in 1868 but in 1870 had moved to Gainesville. In 1871 Walls bought for their home the western half of the block now bounded by University Avenue on the south and N.W. 2nd Street on the west. In 1873 he purchased a 1175 acre plantation on the west edge of Paynes Prairie. In that year he acquired the weekly newspaper, THE NEW ERA, and was admitted to the Florida Bar. Remaining active in local politics, Walls served at various times as mayor of Gainesville, a member of the Board of Public Instruction, and County Commissioner. A highly successful and prosperous farmer through the 1880's, he suffered financial ruin as a result of the severe freeze of the winter of 1894-95. Walls moved to Tallahassee to become the farm director at the school that is now Florida A. and M. University. He died in Tallahassee in 1905.
Sponsors: sponsored by the alachua county historical commissionin cooperation with the florida department of state

LaCROSSE, FLORIDA

Location:Near junction of S.R. 121 & S.R. 235.
County: Alachua
City: LaCrosse
Description: The LaCrosse area was settled before the Civil War. Cotton was the chief crop. John Eli Futch was a cotton buyer who built a warehouse for cotton, a store to serve the growers, and his home near the store. This store became the first post office and Mrs. Futch named the town LaCrosse. The post office was established April 22, 1881, and the town incorporated December 17, 1897. Before the boll weevil ended the cotton era, LaCrosse had two cotton gins and grist mills. Naval stores was also a prominent industry until this activity ended in the 1940s. The town was a shipping point for potatoes for many years and had a large cooper's shed which built barrels for shipping the potatoes by rail from a depot here. It is still an important farming area, producing corn, vegetables, tobacco and livestock.
Sponsors: sponsored by alachua county historical commission in cooperation with department of state

MADISON STARKE PERRY

Location:C.R. 234, on grounds of Oak Ridge Cemetery
County: Alachua
City: Alachua City: Hague
Description: Madison Starke Perry, born in Lancaster County, S.C., moved to Alachua County, Florida and became a prosperous planter. His plantation was located about six miles east of Gainesville in the area of present-day Rochelle. Perry was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 1849 and to the Florida Senate in 1850, where he gained a wide reputation as an orator. A Democrat, he was elected fourth Governor of Florida, serving from 1857 through 1861. While Perry was Governor, major developments occurred in Florida. The Florida Railroad from Fernandina to Cedar Key was completed. A long-standing border dispute with Georgia was settled. Expansion of slavery brought related unrest, and in response, Governor Perry called for a strong state militia and the upgrading of military resources. As the Presidential election of 1860 neared, Governor Perry warned that secession might be Florida's only option, should the Republican Party be victorious. On November 27, 1860, Governor Perry recommended that a convention by called to consider secession. The Florida Convention adopted the Ordinance of Secession on January 10, 1861. The Governor quickly ordered evacuation of all United States troops from Florida military installations, and their replacement by State militia troops. At the expiration of his term as Governor in October, 1861, Perry joined the Confederate army. He was soon elected Colonel of the newly organized Seventh Regiment of the Florida infantry. Illness forced his resignation in 1863. Returning to his plantation in Alachua County, he died in 1865. Perry is buried here at Oak Ridge Cemetery on land he set aside in 1854 for the community. Buried here with him are his wife, Martha Starke Perry; a daughter Sallie Perry; and a son, Madison Starke Perry, Jr., also a Confederate veteran.
Sponsors: sponsored by the alachua county historical commissionin cooperation with the department of state

MATHESON HOUSE

Location:528 S.W. First Street, Matheson House grounds
County: Alachua
City: Gainesville
Description: Side 1: The Matheson homestead dates from 1857, when Alexander Matheson brought his family from Camden, South Carolina to establish a home on the Sweetwater Branch at the eastern edge of the new town of Gainesville. The present one and a half story Matheson House is believed to incorporate much of the original one story home. Alexander moved his family back to South Carolina in the early years of the Civil War. After the war and settlement of a mortgage foreclosure, the property was acquired by his younger brother, James D. Matheson, who had served as an officer in the Seventh South Carolina Cavalry and surrendered at Appomatox. He moved into the home in 1867 with his new bride, Augusta Florida Steele, daughter of Judge Augustus Steele, founder of Cedar Key, and an influential Florida pioneer during the territorial and early statehood period. James, a prominent businessman and merchant, ran a successful dry goods store and engaged in other commercial enterprises. He was also a trustee of the East Florida Seminary and served on the Alachua County Commission from 1895 to 1899. Elected County Treasurer in 1909, he held that office until his death in 1911. Side 2: By 1907, James and Augusta had enlarged their home, adding the second floor bedrooms, the distinctive gambrel roof and gabled dormers, a first floor sitting room, and enclosing part of the back porch. Their son, Christopher, born in 1874, continued to live here after completing his education at the East Florida Seminary and the Citadel. He established a law practice in 1900, and served as mayor of Gainesville from 1910 to 1917 and in the Florida Legislature in 1917 and 1919. Ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1919, he left his law practice to serve the ministry in Oklahoma for the next 26 years. During this time the house was rented to various tenants. On his retirement in 1946, he returned home with his wife, Sarah Hamilton Matheson. She maintained her residence here after his death in 1952, and in 1989 donated the property to the Matheson Historical Center, Inc. The evolution of the Matheson House from a modest, mid-19th century farm house to its early 20th century appearance reflects the increasing prosperity of its owners in a growing community. It is preserved today as a reminder of their accomplishments and of those other early residents of Gainesville.
Sponsors: The Alachua County Historical Commission in Cooperation with the Florida Department of State

MELROSE

Location:On S.R. 26 between Quail & Trout Sts.
County: Alachua
City: Melrose
Description: Side 1: The region south of Santa Fe Lake was not settled until after the Seminole War in 1842, although it was on the Spanish mission trail from St. Augustine from about 1600 to 1763 and, during the English (1763-1784) and second Spanish (1784-1821) periods, on the overland route to Pensacola. Florida's first Federal highway, the 1826 Bellamy road, followed about the same path. Many of the early landowners came from South Carolina and Georgia. After the decade of Reconstruction following the Civil War, an influx of new families came to the region, many to engage in planting orange groves, a few of which had been started in the 1850's. Because the route of the Florida Railroad, completed in 1861 and reorganized after the War, passed west of the region, the Santa Fe Canal Company was chartered in March of 1877 to open a waterway from the railroad in Waldo through Lake Alto to Santa Fe Lake. In May of 1877 Alexander Goodson, Isaac Weston, and Meridth Granger, platted a 30-block town site south of the little bay on the southeast side of Santa Fe Lake. The old Bellamy Road was the main east-west axis, with Centre Street, straddling the Alachua, Putnam, and Clay county border, as the north-south axis. Side 2: The origin of the town name, Melrose, is shrouded in conflicting legends. The canal linking Waldo to Santa Fe Lake was completed in March of 1881. The stern-wheel steamer, F.S. Lewis, built in Waldo, made its maiden voyage in April 1881. Northern visitors, who came to improve their health and invest in orange groves, built winter cottages or stayed at the boarding houses or the several hotels that catered to the winter tourists. The town soon had a number of general stores, a sawmill, cotton gin, livery stables, several churches, and a high school. The Western Railroad reached Melrose from Green Cove Springs in 1890. The town was then a thriving waterfront resort, lake port, and a horticultural and agricultural center. Devastated by the freezes of 1894-95, the citrus groves never recovered. Melrose became a quiet lakeside retreat for seasonal and week-end residents, with a small permanent population. In 1901 Melrose was incorporated but gave up its charter in 1917. Many of the nineteenth century homes and buildings still survive. The Melrose Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
Sponsors: The Alachua County Historical Commission in Cooperation with the Florida Department of State

MICANOPY, FLORIDA

Location:x
County: Alachua
City: Micanopy
Description: A Timucua Indian village of the Potano tribe was located near here when the early Spanish Explorer Hernando De Soto led his expedition through the area in 1539. Botanist William Bartram visited Cuscawilla village nearby in 1774. The first permanent white settlement in what is now Alachua County, called Wanton, was started in 1821. Wanton Post Office was established in 1826; the name was changed to Micanopy in 1834. Fort Micanopy, also called Fort Defiance, stood near here during the Second Seminole War. Several skirmishes were fought nearby. The town was incorporated September 15, 1858.
Sponsors: Sponsored by Alachua County Historical Commission In Cooperation With Department of State

MOUNT PLEASANT UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

Location:620 NW Second St.
County: Alachua
City: Gainesville
Description: Mount Pleasant Methodist Episcopal Church was founded on July 16, 1867, with the Reverend Isaac Davis serving as the first pastor. The Board of Trustees of the oldest black congregation in Gainesville purchased the lot on which the present church still stands for $160 from Charles W. Brush. He sold lots after the Civil War mainly to African American individuals and institutions in what is now the Pleasant Street Historic District. The founding trustees were Lojurn Davis, Alexander Hamilton, Ethan Daniels, Henry Roberts, William Anderson, Adam Dancy, Shadrach Abendnego, Robert McDuffie and Dr. McDowell. Mount Pleasant soon became a social and religious center for the neighborhood. The first Florida Annual Conference that brought together Methodist churches with black congregations was held at Mount Pleasant in 1874, while the Reverend Alexander DeBose was pastor. The original wood frame building was replaced in 1887 with a brick structure, which was destroyed by fire in 1903. The present church, built of red brick in the stately Romanesque revival style, was completed in 1906 and is noted for its beautiful stained glass windows. In 1968, the congregation was renamed the Mount Pleasant United Methodist Church.
Sponsors: THE MOUNT PLEASANT UNITED METHODIST CHURCH AND THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF STATE

MT. PLEASANT CEMETERY

Location:2837 NW 13th St. (MLK, Jr. Blvd.)
County: Alachua
City: Gainesville
Description: The Mt. Pleasant Cemetery was established c. 1883 by the Mt. Pleasant Methodist Episcopal Church as a final resting place for its members and other African Americans in the city of Gainesville. Founded in 1867, the church purchased the 5.38-acre property for $125 in 1886. Among the earliest graves are those of Helen H. Wall (1847-1883) and Jefferson Garrison (1871-1884). Some headstones are of marble or granite carved with symbolic designs, others are simple vaults of stuccoed brick or concrete. Early African American community members and their descendents are buried in individual and family plots here. Among them are civic and religious leaders, educators, physicians, dentists, craftsmen, servicemen, and business owners, some of whom began life as enslaved people. Buried here are the Reverend Alexander DeBose, pastor of the Mt. Pleasant church in the 1870s; Dr. R. B. Ayer and Dr. Julius Parker, the city’s first black physicians; Dr. E. H. DeBose, Sr., Gainesville’s first black dentist; and Lance Corporal Vernon T. Carter, Jr., Gainesville’s first Vietnam War casualty. The cemetery is still maintained by the Mt. Pleasant United Methodist Church, located in Gainesville’s Pleasant Street Historic District.
Sponsors: THE MT. PLEASANT UNITED METHODIST CHURCH AND THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF STATE

NEWBERRY, FLORIDA

Location:25440 W Newberry Road
County: Alachua
City: Newberry
Description: Side 1: Only after about 1870 did phosphates become an important world industry. In Alachua County, phosphates were discovered late in the 1870's, but as in other regions of Florida, the major developments in phosphate mining and processing began about 1889. The western part of Alachua County contained the major local deposits of rock phosphates Mines began to spring up after 1890, and by 1893, the Savannah, Florida, and Western Railway, already active in the area, extended its tracks southward from High Springs through the phosphate producing territory. Side 2: As a result of the mining activity and the appearance of the railroad, a new settlement appeared. A post office was established on March 19, 1894, under the name of Newtown; on August 1, the name was changed to Newberry. Most probably the new name was intended to honor Newberry, South Carolina, as many people had moved to North Florida from that town in the nineteenth century. The town of Newberry was incorporated in 1895. Phosphates continued to be the area's most important industry until the events of World War I reduced the market for the mineral. The region was later noted for its watermelon production and for other agricultural crops.
Sponsors: Sponsored by Alachua County Historical Commission In Cooperation With Department of State

NEWNANSVILLE

Location:U.S. 441, across road from Newnansville Cemetery
County: Alachua
City: Alachua
Description: Two miles to the north, Newnansville was the seat of Alachua County and center of trade and plantation life in the antebellum period. Its chief products were corn, cotton, and, after the War Between the States, citrus. In 1856 the courthouse was moved to Gainesville. It further declined when the freeze of 1886 destroyed the citrus. Lack of railway connections caused commercial stagnation. Its population was eventually absorbed by neighboring Alachua.

NEWNANSVILLE TOWN SITE

Location:Northeast of Alachua on S.R. 235. between Hipp Way and NW 12st Terrace
County: Alachua
City: Alachua
Description: At the end of 1824, Alachua County was organized as a political unit of the new Territory of Florida. The Seminole inhabitants of the Alachua region had recently been ordered to a reservation, and land was available there for white settlers. Early in 1826, a post office was established in this area called "Dell's P.O." It derived its name from the Dell brothers, who had first visited the Alachua region during the "Patriot War" (1812-14) and had later returned to settle there. In 1828, the settlement near Dell's P.O. was officially made the Alachua County seat and named "Newnansville" in honor of a Patriot War hero, Daniel Newnan. Newnansville became the junction of several important trails through frontier Florida. This marker stands on the site of the Bellamy Road, a cross-Florida route authorized by Congress in 1824 as the first federal road in the new territory. During the Second Seminole War (1835-42), hundreds of displaced refugee settlers were sheltered at Newnansville and also at Ft. Gilleland, a nearby military post built in 1836. After the hostilities were concluded, Newnansville prospered as a commercial center for the expanding Middle Florida frontier. The chief products of the area were corn, cotton, and after the Civil War, citrus. Except for a few years between 1832 and 1839, Newnansville served as the Alachua County seat until 1854. In that year, the political center of the county was moved to the new railroad town of Gainesville. During the next three decades, Newnansville slowly declined in population and importance. The community was dealt a final blow in 1884 when the Savannah, Florida and Western Railroad bypassed it. A new town, Alachua, grew up near that railroad. As the years passed, the residents of Newnansville moved there or elsewhere. By the 1970's only a few traces remained of the former community. In 1974, the Newnansville Town Site was placed on the National Register of Historic Places as an historic district in recognition of the importance of that nineteenth century community.
Sponsors: sponsored by alachua county historical commission in cooperation with department of state

RAILROADING IN HIGH SPRINGS

Location:20 NW Railroad Ave., in front of High Springs
County: Alachua
City: High Springs
Description: This old passenger depot, built c. 1910, is all that remains of the vast railroad complex located southwest of downtown that made High Springs a bustling railroad center for nearly 50 years. In 1895 the Plant Railroad System chose the town as the site of its divisional headquarters. Rail yards, workshops, and a roundhouse serviced hundreds of steam engines and cars sent to High Springs to be cleaned and repaired. The importance of High Springs as a rail center declined as diesel engines replaced the old steam locomotives after World War II. Gradually, all of the railroad buildings disappeared, except the depot, which was moved to this site and renovated as a railroad museum in 1994.
Sponsors: Sponsored by the Florida Department of State

ROCHELLE VICINITY

Location:CR 234 and CR 2082 along the Hawthorne/Gainesville Trail
County: Alachua
City: Rochelle
Description: Side 1: Colonel Daniel Newnan led a troop of the Georgia militia on a raid into the area in September 1812 in an attempt to annex Florida to the United States in the War of 1812. The raiders engaged a force of Seminole Indians under the command of Seminole chief King Payne. Several soldiers and Indians were killed in the fierce battle, including King Payne. Ft. Crane, named for Lt. Colonel Ichabod Crane, Commander of the U.S. Army District of Northeast Florida, was built in January 1837 during the Second Seminole War. It was located just south of Rochelle and was commanded by Lt. John H. Winder, who later served in the Mexican War. By the 1840s settlers had moved into the area from South Carolina and Georgia. The Perry, Rochelle, Tillman and Zetrouer families were among the earliest arrivals. Early roads in the area were heavily travelled by settlers and the military. One important route linked St. Augustine with Newnansville, located about 16 miles northwest of this marker. Union troops passed near this site in August 1864 enroute to Gainesville, where they were defeated by Confederate cavalry led by Capt. J.J. Dickison. Side 2: The community of Rochelle, located about one mile south of this marker, was first called Perry Junction and grew up around the site of the plantation of Madison Starke Perry, Governor of Florida 1857-61. In 1854, Perry had donated land for Oak Ridge Cemetery, located between Rochelle and Micanopy. Perry and many pioneer families from the area are buried there. The town was renamed Gruelle in 1881 and changed to Rochelle in 1884 in honor of the parents of Gov. Perry's wife, Martha Perry. Rochelle became a hub of the Florida Southern Railway in 1882 and later lay on the main line of the Plant Railway System, being a daily stopover between Jacksonville and St. Petersburg. By 1888 twenty-four trains a day passed through the community of about 100 residents. Rochelle became a citrus center, but the Great Freeze of 1894-95 destroyed the citrus crop, causing many of the inhabitants to leave. Today only a few buildings remain as reminders of the once thriving settlement. One of these is the Rochelle School (Martha Perry Institute), constructed in 1885, which served the community until 1935. The building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
Sponsors: THE ALACHUA COUNTY HISTORICAL COMMISSION AND THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF STATE

ROPER PARK/OLD CITY PARK

Location:No. of NE 4th Ave, W o fNE 2nd
County: Alachua
City: Gainesville
Description: Roper Park is the original site of the parade grounds (in front of this site) and barracks (behind this site) for the East Florida Seminary, a non-sectarian educational institute and a forerunner of the University of Florida. James H. Roper (1835-1883) moved to Gainesville in 1856 and founded the first school, the Gainesville Academy. The Gainesville Academy moved to this site in 1857. Roper, a member of the State Senate in 1865-66 and the Board of Education, engineered the relocation of the East Florida Seminary to Gainesville by donating his school’s building and site in 1866. He was the president for the first two years. The barracks for the East Florida Seminary were built on this site in 1886. The two-story frame building had a double veranda along the south side, and a two-story porch surrounded an open courtyard in its center. Out-of-town students lived in 45 rooms that contained two iron beds with moss mattresses and feather pillows, a study table, a washstand, and a stove. The City of Gainesville purchased the block in 1906. In 1907, Gainesville’s mayor bought the barracks and added them to the nearby White House Hotel.
Sponsors: THE CITY OF GAINESVILLE AND THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF STATE

SANTA FE DE TOLOCA

Location:Northern Alachua County C. R. 241 just after NW 294 Ave.
County: Alachua
City: Bland
Description: A Spanish Mission was established near here within sight of the Santa Fe River about A.D. 1606 by Franciscan missionaries. The river took its name from the mission, as did the modern town of Santa Fe. At one time, Santa Fe de Toloca was said to be the principal Timucuan Indian mission in a chain that stretched across the interior of la Florida from St. Augustine on the east coast. during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, la Florida was a battleground where England, France, and Spain fought for control of the New World. This was part of a greater struggle between Old and New World cultures that began with the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492. Archaeological investigations between 1986 and 1989, by the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida, have revealed traces of a Spanish-style church, a cemetery with Indian burial in Christian fashion, traces of Indian village life, and fragments of seventeenth century Spanish and Indian pottery. The Indians at Santa Fe provisioned the Castillo de San Marcos and the town of St. Augustine with their crops of corn, wheat, and probably peaches, which they carried in baskets strapped to their backs along the Old Spanish Trail. Produce and cattle were also boated down the Santa Fe and Suwannee Rivers to Cuba. Several generations of Timucuans were born and died at this site. Everyday life centered on tending their gardens and studying Roman Catholic doctrine. Their routines were broken by visitations by the Bishop of Cuba, the Indian Rebellion of 1656, epidemics of disease introduced by Europeans, and the influx of other Indian groups. The mission church and village were attacked and burned in 1702 by invading English soldiers and their Indian allies from the Carolinas. The destruction of Santa Fe de Toloca, and the other missions of la Florida, weakened Spain's control and led, ultimately to Florida becoming a United States' possession in 1821. Santa Fe de Toloca was located at an existing Indian village. This may have been the same village visited by Hernando de Soto's army in 1539; a village called Cholupaha. This area was called "Bland" by its first and only postmaster, J.L. Matthews, who named it for his son in 1903.
Sponsors: The Alachua County Historical Commission in Cooperation with the Florida Department of State

SPANISH CATTLE RANCHING

Location:E. University Ave near Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Garden
County: Alachua
City: Gainesville
Description: Present-day Gainesville was the center of a large Spanish cattle ranching industry, founded on the labor of native Timuqua Indians, during the 1600s. LaChua, largest of the ranches, was a Spanish corruption of an Indian word, and in turn was corrupted into "Alachua County." English raids destroyed the Indian civilization and Spanish ranches, although large wild herds of cattle were not uncommon during Seminole War years (1835-1842).
Sponsors: Florida Board of Parks and Historic Memorials

THE BAILEY HOUSE

Location:1121 NW 6th Street
County: Alachua
City: Gainesville
Description: This is one of the oldest houses in the city of Gainesville. It was constructed about 1850 by Major James B. Bailey, a prominent citizen of Alachua County. Bailey was a leading proponent of moving the county seat away from Newnansville to a new place, later known as Gainesville, part of which was to be located on his own plantation. The Bailey House was entered in the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. Although it has been slightly altered during its existence, Major Bailey's house survives as a good example of the Antebellum domestic architecture of this area.
Sponsors: sponsored by the bailey house in cooperation with department of state

THE LAW SCHOOL MOUND

Location:University of Florida Law School grounds, near the interestion of SW 25th St. and 2nd Ave
County: Alachua
City: Gainesville
Description: 100 yards west is an aboriginal burial mound built ca. A.D. 1000 by Alachua tradition peoples, ancestors of the Potano Indians who lived in Alachua County in the 16th and 17th centuries. Initially several individuals were buried in a central grave, and a small earthen mound was raised over them. Through time additional burials were laid on the mound's surface and covered with earth. The villagers who built the mound probably lived along the shore of Lake Alice. Well before the mound was built, people of the Deptford Culture, 500 B.C. to A.D. 100, camped on this same location. The remains of their campsite were covered by the mound. First dug in 1881 by a local Gainesville resident, the mound and earlier campsite were excavated by Florida State Museum archaeologists and students in 1976.
Sponsors: sponsored by the university of florida law center association in cooperation with the department of state

TURPENTINE INDUSTRY

Location:SR 24, No. Fairbanks
County: Alachua
City: Gainesville
Description: Side 1: The naval stores industry was important to maritime power worldwide. Pine tar and pitch were used to seal wooden ships and protect sails and rigging. When settlers came to America - in Florida (1565), in Virginia (1607) and in Massachusetts (1620) - they found vast pine forests with resinous tar and pitch, a scarce commodity for European competitors with wooden fleets. Settlers at first produced pine pitch and tar by distilling resin-soaked fat pine wood from dead tree logs, limbs and knots, covering them with soil and burning them to yield tar and charcoal. After fat pine wood became scarce, pitch was made by chopping deep cavities or boxes near the base of living trees to collect gum. Only crude gum was exported until simple distillation techniques separated volatile turpentine from the residual rosin poured hot into barrels for domestic use or export. During the next three hundred years, with little change, this forest product industry prospered, first in the Carolinas, then Georgia and Florida to become a major U.S. industry. Production of gum was greatly accelerated and tree life protected when the Herty clay cups, introduced in early 1900’s, replaced cut boxes. Side 2: From 1909 until 1923, Florida led the nation in pine gum production. In 1909, the peak year in the U.S.A. gum yielded 750,000 barrels of turpentine and 2.5 million barrels of rosin. The 1910 census listed 27,2ll men and 3l6 women, mostly blacks, working in the industry with 65 percent in Florida. Fairbanks, Florida was a turpentine still town with the Mize family operation processing ten 50-gallon barrels of crude gum at a time. This still required six crops of 10,000 faces (an area where streaks of bark are removed) and each crop covered 400 acres. As recently as 1951, 105 fire stills operated around Gainesville. The Mize family operated the Fairbanks still until 1950. Many of the buildings (the cooper’s shed, machine shop and worker homes) still stand. Ellis Mize (1882-1967) donated land with a lake bearing his name to the University of Florida’s forestry education program. In 1948, they deeded this private cemetery on that property to the Fairbanks Baptist Church. Because of his love for the pine tree industry, Mize had his granite tombstone carved to resemble a working face pine tree. This marker is dedicated to all who toiled to provide an income for families and communities and resinous products worldwide.
Sponsors: FLORIDA SOCIETY OF AMERICAN FORESTERS AND THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF STATE

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA HISTORIC CAMPUS

Location:Near corner of University & 13th
County: Alachua
City: Gainesville
Description: The University of Florida Campus Historic District and two individual campus buildings were listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1989 and 1990 in recognition of their architectural and cultural significance and the coherence of the campus plan. The buildings were designed by architects William A. Edwards from 1905 to 1924 and Rudolph Weaver from 1925 to 1939 in the Collegiate Gothic style. The landscape plan was developed in 1926 by Olmsted Brothers, the firm that designed New York's Central Park. The historic campus reflects the university's rich heritage and the significant place it holds in Florida's educational history.
Sponsors: The Florida Department of State

WALDO

Location:S.W. 5th Blvd.(east bound SR24) at S.W. 2nd Way in
County: Alachua
City: Waldo
Description: The first permanent English-speaking settlers came to the northeast portion of Alachua County in the 1820's. In 1837, during the Second Seminole War, an army post, Fort Harlee, was established on the Santa Fe River about three miles north of this spot. Abandoned as a military installation in 1838, the settlement at Fort Harlee served as a postal center for the surrounding community until 1858. In that year a post office was established at a town being founded at the point where the Florida Railroad (then under construction) would cross the Bellamy Road. This new town was named Waldo in honor of Dr. Benjamin Waldo. The name was probably selected by David Levy Yulee, president of the Florida Railroad. By February 1, 1859, the Florida Railroad was completed through Waldo to Gainesville. The Peninsular Railroad, planned as early as 1859 to run from Waldo to Tampa, was completed to Ocala in 1881. Both roads were part of the Florida Transit Railway. Waldo had become an important rail junction and continued to be until the shops and headquarters were moved beginning in 1929. Another transportation link was established in 1879 when the Santa Fe Canal Company completed construction of two canals from Waldo to Melrose via Lake Alto and Lake Santa Fe. In the late 19th century the steamboat "F.S. Lewis" and later the "Alert" carried passengers and freight. Commercial use of the canals declined around 1920, but they continue to be used by pleasure craft. Waldo citizens met in 1876 and organized a municipal government. The town was incorporated August 1, 1907. Many settlers and tourists came to Waldo in the 1880's, reflecting the growth of the citrus industry in North Florida. The freezes of 1886 and 1894-95 ruined the citrus groves in the Waldo area, but the region has remained an agriculturally productive one.
Sponsors: Sponsored by Alachua County Historical Commission In Cooperation With Department of State

WILLIAM BARTRAM (1739-1823)

Location:N.E.Cholokka Blvd. County Road 25-A at N.E. Semin
County: Alachua
City: Micanopy
Description: The great quaker naturalist of Philadelphia made a long journey through the southeastern states in the 1770's collecting botanical specimens. In May, 1774, he visited the Seminole Chief, Cowkeeper, at the Indian village of Cuscowilla located near this spot. His book, "TRAVELS...", provided the earliest reliable account of North Florida landscape, flora, fauna and Indian life and his vivid images of local scenes inspired Coleridge, Wordsworth and Emerson.

THE MOORE HOTEL (1883)

Location:6635 Southeast 221st Street
County: Alachua
City: Hawthorne
Description: Side One: The Moore Hotel is the first hotel and oldest existing business in Hawthorne. In 1882, William Shepard (W.S.) and Virginia McCraw Moore moved to Hawthorne from Braden, Tennessee, and bought a railroad house on Johnson Street to use as their home. They added two more railroad buildings in 1883, and established the Moore Hotel. A model of Folk Victorian architecture, the hotel featured a two-tiered, full facade, wrap-around veranda. The style, popular in small towns following Reconstruction, captured the culture and beauty of early Hawthorne. A south wing was erected by Moore circa 1900. The northeast wing, formerly an early 1870s schoolhouse and Masonic Lodge, was moved from across the street using mules and logs. Walkways and porches with jigsaw-cut balusters and post brackets linked the buildings. In 1923, Moore’s 6-year-old grandson, Francis, walked barefoot across a wet cement sidewalk section in front of the hotel. Those impressions still remain. The Moore Hotel was the first in the region to provide bathtubs with running water, via a tank and windmill in the backyard, and carbide gas lighting. The center lobby was used for guest registration, socializing, and Saturday night bridge games. Side Two: Wealthy men and women from all over the country wintered here, and the Moore Hotel was regarded as one of the best in Florida. W.S. Moore and Chester Shell, a local black man experienced in hunting and training bird dogs, led guests on hunting excursions. Over 2,500 game birds were served at the hotel in a season. Virginia (Jennie) Moore managed hotel duties. Room rates were $2 a day or $10 per week. When W.S. died in 1925, Jennie sold the hotel to a Jacksonville company. The new owners were unable to maintain the hotel and defaulted after seven years. Jennie reclaimed the property and rented 23 rooms to overnight travelers until her death in 1934. The dining room was closed in 1948, and Moore’s son, Glenn Sr., converted all but six rooms into apartments. After the death of Glenn’s wife, May, in 1964, sons Glenn Jr. and Francis converted the apartments into ten spacious units. The hotel was then renamed Hawthorne Apartments and managed first by Mary Moore, then by Glenn Jr. In 2000, W.S. Moore’s great-grandson, Richard, inherited the apartments. The Moore Hotel has been maintained by four generations of the Moore family, and they have been a part of the history and development of Hawthorne for over a hundred years.
Sponsors: The Hawthorne Area Historical Society, Hawthorne Mayor Matt Surrency, Hawthorne City Manager Ellen Vause, Alachua County Historical Commission, The Alachua County Board of County Commissioners.

BETHLEHEM PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Location:16979 Southwest 137 Avenue
County: Alachua
City: Archer
Description: Bethlehem Presbyterian Church was first organized in 1866 at Wacahoota, a farming community southwest of Archer. The early members were pioneer families from South Carolina. Their first pastor, the Rev. William McCormick, founded other pioneer Presbyterian churches in Alachua County. After the Civil War, Archer grew rapidly due to its railroad connection. In 1875, the Bethlehem congregation left rural Wacahoota and regrouped in Archer. The existing church was built in 1884 on land given by William C. Andruss, a businessman and Presbyterian elder. The historic sanctuary is an example of American Gothic-Revival architecture. The historic 1884 interior, featuring the original wainscoting and woodwork, remains largely intact. The ceiling is supported by scissor trusses secured to king-posts, also original. The steeple has embossed metal shingles and two bells in its tower. The church pews, handmade by local craftsmen, are from the old Wacahoota church. In 1936, the church was shifted from an east-west to a north-south axis and a Sunday School wing was added to the building. The Bethlehem Presbyterian Church is the oldest surviving church building in Archer and one of the oldest Presbyterian churches in Florida.
Sponsors: The Bethlehem Presbyterian Church

ARCHER SCHOOL GYMNASIUM

Location:16671 Southwest 137th Avenue
County: Alachua
City: Archer
Description: The Alachua County Board of Public Instruction contracted with the firm of Winston and Perry to build a 3-story brick building for the Archer School, west of an old wood frame building, in 1917. The building housed grades 1-10 until 1925 when the 11th and 12th grades were added. Archer High School gained its accreditation in 1926, and graduated its first senior class that same year. Construction began in 1936 on a new gymnasium building as part of the New Deal Works Progress Administration Project 1189, and was completed the following year. The gymnasium was used as an auditorium for school activities and sporting events such as basketball. The school continued to offer high school classes until 1951, and in 1954 the school was reduced to grades 1-6 with kindergarten added in 1963. In 1969, the school consolidated with the local African-American school, and moved to a new location. The old brick school was demolished in 1972. This gymnasium building remained. The City of Archer and volunteers rehabilitated the building and reopened it as the Archer Community Center in July 2011.
Sponsors: The City of Archer, The Alachua County Historical Commission

MELROSE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

Location:5808 Hampton Street
County: Alachua
City: Melrose
Description: The Melrose United Methodist Church was organized in 1868 as the Melrose Methodist Episcopal Church, South. This church building, the first located within the original 1877 plat of Melrose, was constructed out of heart pine by the congregation in 1879. The church bell, installed in the 1890s, was rung to alert townspeople of fires, community meetings, and the arrival of the steamboat from Waldo to Melrose Bay. It was also rung to warn citrus growers of possible freezes. The bell still calls people to worship. A parsonage was added in the 1890s for the circuit preacher, and a fence was built around the church to “keep the hogs out.” In 1895, kerosene lamps lit the church; gas lights were installed by 1919. Before each service, young boys pumped gas into the fixtures from an outdoor tank. In 1931, the church’s west side was enlarged to include Sunday school rooms. When the Melrose school burned in 1947, the church served for two years as the school for first and second grades. The Hagglund Fellowship Hall was built in the 1950s and Holstun Hall was added in 1995. Throughout its history, the church has played an important role in the community and contributes to the Melrose Historic District.
Sponsors: Melrose United Methodist Church

TOM PETTY, ROCK MUSICIAN

Location:400 NE 16th Avenue
County: Alachua
City: Gainesville
Description: Side One: On October 20, 1950, Thomas Earl Petty was born to Earl and Kitty Petty at Alachua General Hospital. In 1954, the family moved to a house on NE 6th Terrace. Petty played in this park and bicycled to the Duckpond Neighborhood where he looked for crawfish in the pond. He was in the Boy Scouts at the First United Methodist Church and attended Sidney Lanier Elementary School. Petty’s love of music began when his uncle, Earl Jernigan, took him to the filming of Follow that Dream in Ocala, where he met Elvis Presley. At age 13, Petty’s father bought him an electric guitar. He learned to play from friends and from future Eagles’ guitarist Don Felder at Lipham’s Music. He formed his first band, the Sundowners, to play at a dance at his middle school, Howard Bishop. They later won a Battle of the Bands at the Moose Club. Petty joined the Epics and was a professional musician at age 15. He was in the Gainesville High School class of 1968, though he often missed school. He worked for the University of Florida (UF) and the City. His next band, Mudcrutch, played for the Rose Community at UF and performed nightly shows at Dubs and other venues in Florida and Georgia. Petty moved to California to seek a recording contract in 1974. Side Two: In 1974, Mudcrutch signed with Shelter Records but broke up after recording one single. Petty’s new band, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, formed in 1975. Their debut album earned little notice in the US, but was a hit in the UK and the band toured Europe in 1977. When Shelter sold the band’s contract to MCA without Petty’s permission in 1979, he refused to release the third album, Damn the Torpedoes, and declared bankruptcy. MCA sued and Petty won, a milestone victory for artists’ rights. In 1981, MCA tried to raise the price of the album, Hard Promises, to $9.98. In protest Petty tried to name the album “$8.98.” MCA sued and Petty won again. In 1988, he joined the Traveling Wilburys, a supergroup with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne. He won his first Grammy with them in 1989. He won his second in 1995 for Best Rock Vocal Performance. Over his career, Petty received numerous accolades, including induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2002 and Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2016, and was named the 2017 MusiCares Person of the Year. The band’s 40th Anniversary Tour of 44 shows in 36 cities sold 637,671 tickets. On October 2, 2017, a week after the last concert, Petty passed away at age 66.
Sponsors: The Gainesville Music History Foundation, Inc.

THE COTTON CLUB BUILDING

Location:837 SE 7th Avenue
County: Alachua
City: Gainesville
Description: Side One: Soldiers built this wood-frame building in 1940-1941 as a Post Exchange for Camp Blanding in Starke. It was later the Perry Theater, Cotton Club, and Blue Note Club. William and Eunice Perryman, who owned a grocery store on East Depot Avenue (later SE 7th Avenue) in Gainesville’s Springhill community, bought the building in 1946. They had it moved to this site, closer to their store, and opened it as the Perry Theater, serving African Americans only. A cement projection room was added to the building’s north end, a requirement for theaters that stored highly flammable celluloid movie film. Operating from 1948-1949, the theater only survived a short time because African Americans in Gainesville also patronized the all-black Lincoln and Rose theaters on Seminary Lane (NW 5th Avenue) in a thriving black commercial district. After the Perry Theater closed, the building became a “big band” club operated by Sarah McKnight, an African American entrepreneur. McKnight and her husband, Charles, named it the Cotton Club after the famous Harlem speakeasy and nightclub. The Gainesville Cotton Club sold food, alcoholic drinks and provided live music and dancing, hosting African American performers working the Chitlin’ Circuit. Side Two: According to the McKnights, entertainers who appeared at the Cotton Club and went on to achieve broader fame included James Brown, B.B. King, Ray Charles, Brook Benton, and Bo Diddley. In 1952, the City of Gainesville refused to renew the club’s liquor license and the lively run of the Cotton Club came to an end. From 1953-1959, the building housed another entertainment venue, the Blue Note Club. It had a jukebox for entertainment and beer was the beverage of choice. However, it never attained the popularity of the Cotton Club. When the Blue Note Club closed in the late 1950s, the building was used as a furniture warehouse until 1970, after which it remained vacant. In 1995, the building, along with the five others on the site, was sold to Mt. Olive African Methodist Episcopal Church, which sits on the southwest corner of the site. In 1997, the Cotton Club Museum and Cultural Center Board was established to oversee the restoration of the original club building. It was incorporated in 2005 and received non-profit status in 2007. A ribbon-cutting ceremony on November 11, 2018, marked the completion of the building’s reconstruction.
Sponsors: The Cotton Club Museum and Culural Center, Florida Africacn American Heritage Preservation Network, and the Florida Department of State

THE NEWBERRY LYNCHINGS OF 1916

Location:1910 NW 166th Street
County: Alachua
City: Newberry
Description: Side One: On August 19, 1916, African Americans living in the Jonesville and Newberry communities were lynched. At 2:00 a.m., Constable George Wynne, Dr. L.G. Harris, and G. H. Blount drove to Boisey Long’s home in Jonesville to serve a warrant and question him about stolen hogs. Gunfire was exchanged with Long after Wynne and Harris entered the home, and all three men were wounded. Long escaped while the other men were taken for medical help. Wynne’s wounds were serious, and he died on the train to a Jacksonville hospital. Wynne was related to the Dudleys, a large local family, and a mob formed at their home. During the search for Long, the mob terrorized other African Americans living in the area, many related to Long. James Dennis, suspected of hiding Long, was shot to death by the mob. Local law enforcement helped the mob round up five African Americans and hold them in the Newberry jail. They were Dennis’s brother, Gilbert, and sister, Mary, a pregnant mother of four; Stella Young, Long’s partner and mother of his son; Andrew McHenry, Stella’s brother; and the Rev. Joshua Baskin, a farmer and pastor. The mob took them from the jail to the Newberry picnic grounds (W. Newberry Road and County Road 235) and hanged them. Side Two: The lynching was national news, and created a spectacle. Men, women, and children came from miles around to view the bodies. On August 21, 1916, Boisey Long surrendered to the Rev. Squire Long, and was turned over to Alachua County Sherriff P. G. Ramsey in Gainesville. Ramsey, afraid of additional mob violence, transferred Long to a jail in Jacksonville. An Alachua County grand jury took up the case on September 6th and investigated the actions of the lynch mob. The grand jury did not find anyone guilty for the lynchings and nobody was ever punished. Long was indicted for the murder of George Wynne. The trial was swift, and after seven minutes of deliberation, the jury issued a guilty verdict. Long was sentenced to death. The headstones of three victims of the Newberry Lynching of 1916, Andrew McHenry, James Dennis, and the Rev. Joshua Baskin, are in the cemetery of the Pleasant Plain United Methodist Church. Many of the victims’ descendants still live in the Jonesville community and attend the church, which traces its founding to 1860.

TOM PETTY, ROCK MUSICIAN

Location:400 NE 16th Avenue
County: Alachua
City: Gainesville
Description: Side One: On October 20, 1950, Thomas Earl Petty was born to Earl and Kitty Petty at Alachua General Hospital. In 1954, the family moved to a house on NE 6th Terrace. Petty played in this park and bicycled to the Duckpond Neighborhood where he looked for crawfish in the pond. He was in the Boy Scouts at the First United Methodist Church and attended Sidney Lanier Elementary School. Petty’s love of music began when his uncle, Earl Jernigan, took him to the filming of Follow that Dream in Ocala, where he met Elvis Presley. At age 13, Petty’s father bought him an electric guitar. He learned to play music with friends and future notable musicians who gathered at Lipham Music. He formed his first band, the Sundowners, to play at a dance at his middle school, Howard Bishop. They later won a Battle of the Bands at the Moose Club. Petty joined the Epics and was a professional musician at age 15. He was in the Gainesville High School class of 1968, though he often missed school. He worked for the University of Florida (UF) and the City. His next band, Mudcrutch, played for the Rose Community at UF and performed nightly shows at Dubs and other venues in Florida and Georgia. Petty moved to California to seek a recording contract in 1974. Side Two: In 1974, Mudcrutch signed with Shelter Records but broke up after recording one single. Petty’s new band, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, formed in 1975. Their debut album earned little notice in the US, but was a hit in the UK and the band toured Europe in 1977. When Shelter sold the band’s contract to MCA without Petty’s permission in 1979, he refused to release the third album, Damn the Torpedoes, and declared bankruptcy. MCA sued and Petty won, a milestone victory for artists’ rights. In 1981, MCA tried to raise the price of the album, Hard Promises, to $9.98. In protest Petty tried to name the album “$8.98.” MCA sued and Petty won again. In 1988, he joined the Traveling Wilburys, a supergroup with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne. He won his first Grammy with them in 1989. He won his second in 1995 for Best Rock Vocal Performance. Over his career, Petty received numerous accolades, including induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2002 and Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2016, and was named the 2017 MusiCares Person of the Year. The band’s 40th Anniversary Tour of 44 shows in 36 cities sold 637,671 tickets. On October 2, 2017, a week after the last concert, Petty passed away at age 66.

GAINESVILLE WOMAN'S CLUB

Location:2809 W. Unversity Avenue
County: Alachua
City: Gainesville
Description: Side One: In February 1903, women in Gainesville organized “The Twentieth Century Club of Gainesville Florida” for the purpose of “intellectual and social improvement.” The 45 charter members met every other Monday afternoon in members’ homes, and dues were $.50. They discussed literature, read Shakespeare, listened to opera, and studied history and geography. Starting in 1906, they petitioned the city to stop cutting down trees and in 1913, helped build a park on NE 2nd St. and NE 4th Ave. by donating $500 (equivalent to $13,595 in 2021) to match the city. A major goal for the club was to create a public library and in 1918, with the help of the city, a Carnegie library opened. That year, the club’s 107 members rolled bandages and sold Liberty bonds for World War I soldiers. In 1921, after meeting in the Elks’ Hall for 10 years, a clubhouse was built at 716 W. University Ave. Work was completed in November, in time to host the Florida Federation of Woman’s Clubs conference. The club could now hold bridge parties, dances, luncheons, and programs in their own home. The club’s 200 members were active in areas of education, citizenship, fine arts, public welfare, legislative committees, and publishing the State Club newsletter. Side Two: In 1935, the club organized a new department, the Junior Welfare League (now the Junior League). The club supported World War II soldiers by knitting bags, outfitting rooms at the Alachua Army Airbase, and selling $17,000 worth (equivalent to $254,239 in 2021) of War bonds. After rezoning 4+ acres, the club purchased this lot in 1958 and in 1960, changed their name to the present one. Construction of a new clubhouse began in January 1961, and an opening reception was held in October for the 800 members. Congressman Donald Ray “Billy” Mathews was the first program speaker. During the 1960s, many future Rock and Roll Hall of Fame musicians played at the club’s cotillions and dances. The club’s Spring Promenade began in 1975 to save the Thomas Center, now a cultural center. In 1986, they donated $10,000 to help the Girl’s Place get a new home. They made large donations to Idylwild Elementary and Duval Early Learning Academy, and donated $10,000 for Unity Park on NE 31st Ave. In 2020, COVID-19 dramatically reduced clubhouse rentals, but with financial help from members and others, the property was not lost. In 2021, the club celebrated the centennial of its 1921 clubhouse, and the 60th anniversary of their current one.

WILLIAM HENRY TRAXLER

Location:23300 Old Bellamy Road
County: Alachua
City: Alachua
Description: Side One: Country stores were critical for collecting farm crops and sending them to market. They played an important role in building commerce and establishing credit. The Traxler store was one of several in Alachua County that provided these essential services to local farmers. William Henry Traxler, Jr., (1857-1928) was born in Columbia County, Florida. He was the son of pioneers and former slaveholder, William Henry Traxler, Sr. (1812-1871), and Ann Elizabeth Sandford (1825-1868), who came from Colleton County, South Carolina, to grow long-fibered Sea Island cotton. One of eleven children, he was orphaned at age 14. In 1879, the 22-year-old Traxler used $100 of his inheritance to purchase 360 acres on the Bellamy Road. He built a small store adjoining his home and supplied goods needed by local farmers. In 1889, this was the home where he brought his bride, Mary Leila Dell, the daughter of community leader and former slaveholder Simeon Dell (1795-1869) and Williamina Warren Dell Downing (1827-1910). This marked the beginning of the Traxler community. The Traxler home became a hub of activity. The store became a general merchandise store; value of the inventory increased to $5,000 in 1900 ($152,600 in 2020 value). Side Two: From 1891 to 1906, a post office operated out of the store, and Traxler served as the postmaster. The cotton gin, grist mill, sawmill, and store formed the heart of the community. Local farmers including tenant farmers provided a bustling marketplace on Saturdays. Nearby was Spring Hill Methodist Church and a one-room schoolhouse. Leno on the Santa Fe River was located about four miles over the natural bridge from Traxler. The Leno trading post closed in 1896 after the railroad bypassed it, and Traxler benefited from increased business. Traxler may have brought the grist mill grinding stone to the community. He extended business ties to Savannah and up the East Coast as a cotton broker and merchant. In 1917, the Traxler house completely burned and was rebuilt. Boll weevils appeared in 1917 and had destroyed the cotton crop by 1919. Many farmers then transitioned to tobacco as their primary cash crop. Traxler served as the president of the First National Bank in Alachua until his death in 1928. The bank survived the Great Depression, but was later sold. The stone from the grist mill is on display in O’Leno State Park. The store building and cotton gin were moved to the Florida Agriculture Museum in Palm Coast.

BELLAMY ROAD/ SPRING HILL METHODIST CHURCH

Location:23300 Old Bellamy Road
County: Alachua
City: Alachua
Description: Side One: The Traxler community and Spring Hill Methodist Church may never have existed without the Bellamy Road. Completed in 1826, it was the first federal road in Florida. In 1821, Florida became a territory and in 1823, petitioned Congress for a road to link St. Augustine and Pensacola. Tallahassee was the new capital city at the midpoint, on former Apalachee tribal lands. John Bellamy (1776?-1845) from Cowford (Jacksonville) won the bid to build the section from the Picolata on the St. Johns River to Tallahassee for $13,500. He used enslaved laborers to construct the 16-foot-wide road. Trees were cut close to the ground and the timber was used to bolster the road in swampy areas. The workers were plagued by mosquitoes, swamp fevers, flies, and Indian attacks. They worked with cross-cut saws, grubbing hoes, chains, and mules. The road followed Indian trails, going over the Santa Fe River at the natural bridge and by the settlement, Dells (Newnansville). During the 1974 celebration of Tallahassee‘s 150th anniversary as Florida’s capital, Agriculture Commissioner Doyle Conner and others reenacted the trip to the capital on horseback. People from the community greeted the riders with a barbeque lunch at Spring Hill Church. Side Two: In 1860, after the era of circuit rider preachers, the local Methodists built a church. Five men, including Simeon Dell and Fernando Underwood, bought five acres on the Bellamy Road for $50. Though the price was high, it was a prime location. The original church was constructed as a simple A-frame with two front doors to serve whites and a back door for enslaved people. The pews, still in use today, were sawed and hewn by enslaved laborers. The 1896 Cedar Keys Hurricane severely damaged the original church. In 1915, the congregation rebuilt the church retaining the organ and the pews. In 1956, the church elders brought the lumber from Bland Methodist Church to Spring Hill to build an annex. In 2001, the church completed a second annex and restored its bell tower. Church members have memorialized those who have passed on with beautiful stained glass windows. Spring Hill is one of the oldest Methodist churches in Florida. The Annual Methodist Conference celebrated the church’s 150th anniversary in 2010. At a time when small rural churches are in decline, Spring Hill has flourished. Church pastors with notable service include Dr. Franklin Kokomoor (1956-1965), Don Denton (1979-2002), and James Richardson (after 2002).

WILLIAMS/LEROY HOUSE

Location:14603 Main Street
County: Alachua
City: Alachua
Description: In the mid-1800s, Furman Williams moved to Florida with his parents. At age 24, Williams and his brothers came to Newnansville, where they purchased land and acquired interests in local general stores. When the railroad was slated to come to the area in the 1880s, the Williams brothers already owned much of the land around the proposed depot site. They quickly divided their land into plots for residential and commercial use, leading to the creation of the town of Alachua. The Williams family remained involved with Alachua’s development, and owned many local businesses. Furman was credited with establishing Alachua’s post office in 1882, and was the postmaster. In 1886, Ida Dyron Gray moved to Alachua with her five-year-old nephew, Henry LeRoy. In the late 1800s, she married Furman and in 1898, the couple began construction on this grand Queen Anne style house. Completed in 1902, it had all the latest conveniences, including plumbing and gas fixtures. When Furman passed in 1905, Ida inherited the house, and she lived there with her nephew until her death in 1920. The house then went to LeRoy, who lived there until he passed in 1969. His wife, Blanche, stayed at the house with a family friend until her death in 1989.

ST. PETER CEMETERY OF ARCHER

Location:17026 SW 83 Avenue
County: Alachua
City: Archer
Description: Side One:African American families living in rural unincorporated Archer used the burial ground that would later become St. Peter Cemetery since before the end of the U.S. period of legalized slavery. Following the abolition of slavery, freed people of color settled in this area on land that was once part of or near former cotton plantations, like Cottonwood. Established in 1878, St. Peter Missionary Baptist Church, originally known as St. Peter Colored Baptist Church, took over the maintenance of the cemetery and renamed it St. Peter Cemetery. Other African American churches in the area, including St. James Baptist church (est. 1867) and St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church (est. 1913), also began using the cemetery. African American congregants from the combined Pinesville Methodist Episcopal Church (est. 1869) in neighboring Pinesville and Bethlehem Methodist Episcopal Church (est. 1870) of Archer, now Banks United Methodist Church, also use this burial ground. St. Peter Cemetery includes grave markers dating from 1886. Some notable burials include veterans, community leaders, and survivors of the 1923 Rosewood Massacre. New Year’s Day was traditionally a day for the community to gather and care for the cemetery. Side Two: Generations of African Americans, like the Nattiel, Rollins, Brown, Crawford, Moss, Spann, Neal, Michael, Miles, and Hunt families, have lived in this area with many still owning their original property. Farming is an important part of this community. Until the 1960s, many families grew crops like sugarcane, corn, and tobacco. More recently silviculture, the growing of trees, has become more common. During the U.S. period of racial segregation, this self-contained community had black-owned stores and restaurants. After segregation ended, education became more accessible, and more neighborhood children began to graduate from higher institutions of learning. Pride in the local community is reflected in its historical roots from the time of enslavement to emancipation. Notable individuals include professional athletes, such as football players Ricky Nattiel and Michael Nattiel, Jr., baseball player Derrick Robinson, and Olympic Gold medalist runner Jearl Miles-Clark. St. Peter Cemetery represents honor, dignity, and respect for deceased loved ones that was not always given in life to African Americans. St. Peter Cemetery is just a stop on to glory “…oh won’t it be grand!”

BETHLEHEM METHODIST EPISCOPAL CEMETERY

Location:SW 174th St and SW 175th Terrace
County: Alachua
City: Archer
Description: Side One: The Bethlehem Methodist Episcopal Church and Cemetery of Archer were established in 1873. The Rev. Major Reddick donated the land, which was part of a parcel awarded to him through the 1862 Homestead Act. Church trustees were Romeo Reddick, Rinaldo Reddick, Major Reddick, Henry Peterson, Adam Moulton, Richard Doby, and Arthur Haynes. Originally called Deer Hammock, Archer became an economic hub for local plantations, especially after the cross-Florida railroad was built in the 1850s. Sen. David Levy Yulee’s Cottonwood was the most well-known of these plantations. At least 25 African Americans who had once been enslaved were interred in the cemetery. Elbert McKinney Sr., born in 1829 in South Carolina, was buried here. McKinney, an enslaved blacksmith at Cottonwood, daily blew a ram’s horn to call the enslaved laborers to work. Ellen Lawrence (ca. 1796-1884) has the earliest marked grave in the cemetery. Formerly enslaved laborer James Dansey homesteaded 40 acres to the east of Reddick’s donation; he sold the parcel to his brother, Rev. Frank Dansey, in 1881. Dansey, founder of St. Joseph’s Missionary Baptist Church, began to use 1.28 acres nearest the Reddick donation for burials. Dansey was buried here in 1911. Side Two: Bethlehem Methodist Episcopal Church remained active until the 1960s, though the structure may have been moved to another location at some point. The cemetery remained active until 1989. The cemetery went through a period of neglect until local educator, community advocate, and civil rights activist Careatha “Clyde” Williams (1924-2021) stepped in. In 1999, Williams founded the Bethlehem Methodist Episcopal Cemetery Restoration Organization (BMECRO) to preserve the resting place of the community’s ancestors and to honor their resilience in the face of enslavement, segregation, and racial terror. In 2004, Henry Penny Jr. formally donated 1.28 acres to BMECRO. This parcel had once been the Rev. Frank Dansey’s land, which had been used as part of the cemetery since the 1880s. In all there are more than 125 identified individuals buried in the cemetery, including formerly enslaved people and veterans from World War I and II. In 2021, BMECRO partnered with the Historic Preservation program at the University of Florida and the Florida Public Archaeology Network to survey, document and prepare a preservation plan. More than 65 unmarked graves were discovered using ground penetrating radar.

ALACHUA METHODIST CHURCH

Location:14805 NW 140th Street
County: Alachua
City: Alachua
Description: In 1822, John J. Triggs was sent as a Methodist missionary to a new mission called Alapaha. This mission extended from south Georgia into parts of north Florida, extending east and west of the Suwanee river. Four missions were established in this northeast section of Florida, and one of those was known as Dell. It was named after Maxey Dell, one of the early settlers in the area. Dell's Courthouse became one of the first meeting places for Methodist circuit riders to the area. In November of 1828, the Florida Territorial Council changed the name of the community from Dell to Newnansville and established it as the seat of Alachua County. Home churches and circuit riders continued to serve the people of Newnansville until 1865 when services began after the erection of a church building. In 1882, the Florida Railroad came through the area, missing Newnansville by 1.5 miles. This led to the new community of Alachua and subsequent move of the Methodist church to its current location in 1897. In 1910, fire destroyed the church building and a new brick building was erected and consecrated in 1912. Alachua Methodist Church is one of the longest, continuously operating churches in Florida.