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Significant County Buildings & Significant County Sites
Significant County Buildings
Thomas Center Constructed in 1910 as a private residence by William Reuben Thomas, it was converted into a luxurious Mediterranean Style hotel in 1928 and for decades was the social and cultural center of Gainesville. After a stint as the campus for Santa Fe Community College, it was saved from demolition and fully restored to serve as the city offices.
Hippodrome Theater Originally used as the main Post Office, this impressive Beaux Arts building is dominated by a monumental portico with six Corinthian columns. In 1980, it was converted into the Hippodrome State Theater.
Matheson Museum Now the home of the Alachua County Historic Trust, the building was formerly the American Legion center. Remodeled into a museum, it features exhibits and displays chronicling Alachua County's history and serves as the main reference library and research center for the county.
Epworth Hall Built in 1884 as the main classroom for the East Florida Seminary, this red brick Second Empire structure was converted into part of the First United Methodist Church and renamed Epworth Hall in 1911.
Kirby Smith Center Built in 1900 as a public graded and high school, it was later expanded and renamed in honor of Confederate Gen. Kirby Smith. After 80 years of serving students, it became the Alachua County School Board headquarters but still retains a period room to show how students were once taught. Baird Opera House Originally a two story downtown opera house, it was remodeled in 1906 to its present size and served as the city's main entertainment establishment until the 1930s. Cox furniture used the building for over fifty years and in the 1990s Ken and Linda McGurn remodeled it into a restaurant and offices. Seagle Building Begun during the boom times of the 1920s, this was to be an 11-story luxury hotel, but it remained unfinished until 1936. It then served as a university museum and general education center until 1983, when it was renovated as condominiums, professional offices and a restaurant.
Cox Furniture Warehouse This commercial building, constructed in 1913 for a wholesale grocery business, had an interior railroad car entrance for the unloading of produce. Cox Furniture purchased it for storage and shipping in 1925. It has been artfully remodeled into office space.
University of Florida Historic District The central part of the campus surrounding the Plaza of the Americas, this district includes 19 buildings. The most significant ones are Buckman and Thomas Halls. Anderson, Peabody, Griffin-Floyd halls, built in the 1910s have been restored as classrooms. The University Auditorium and Smathers Library, both built in 1925, are both examples of the Collegiate Gothic style found on campus.
Thrasher Warehouse This large wooden building with a large painted Coca-Cola sign on its north wall was used as a storage area and sometimes as a store from 1890 on. Purchased by Micanopy in 1989, it was restored and transformed into a local historical museum. Kanapaha Presbyterian Church This site of the first Presbyterian Church built in the Gainesville are was dedicated in 1886 and is one of the oldest existing churches in the county.
Newberry Municipal Building Built in 1938, this stone building was constructed as a WPA project during the Depression years. Originally housing city offices, it now is a community meeting place.
High Springs Opera House Built in 1896, this two-story Romanesque Revival brick building had stores on its main floor and had an opera house, theater, movie palace and community center on the second. In 1986, the Outdoors Trading Co. restored the building, opened a successful restaurant and created a Theater of Memory in the old opera area.
Moore Hotel Opened in 1882 as a tourist hotel for Hawthorne visitors and sportsmen and run continuously by the Moore family until the present, it now is used as an apartment complex. Rochelle School Originally called the Martha Perry Institute to honor the wife of Florida Governor Madison Starke Perry, this large two-story school operated from 1885 to 1935.
Evinston Community Store and Post Office Built as a warehouse in 1882, the building became a combination country store and post office run by H.D. Wood in 1910. It has remained in the Wood family ever since that time.
Significant County Sites
Paynes Prairie Now a state preserve, this large flat marshy plain embraces 20,000 acres. Named after King Payne, a Seminole chief, it was once the home of Timucuan Indian tribes and was a large Spanish cattle ranch in the 16th century. From 1871 to 1892, when the Alachua Sink was clogged, it became Alachua Lake. Naturalist William Bartram visited the prairie in 1774 and wrote about its wonders. Devil's Millhopper This large sinkhole is a bowl-shaped cavity 500 feet in diameter and 120 feet deep. Its name derives from its funnel or hopper like shape and the superstition that the devil rises from its depths to lure people into his abode.
Boulware Springs Waterworks A natural spring that was a local swimming hole, it became the site of a meeting in 1853 that created the town Gainesville and resulted in moving the county seat from Newnansville. It supplied Gainesville with drinking water for a decade. Its restored pump house museum is the trail head for a 21-mile rails-to-trails path.
Evergreen Cemetery This 50-acre, city-owned cemetery contains the graves of Gainesville's most significant pioneer families, including James Bailey, Rev. William McCormick and William Reuben Thomas.
Dudley Farm This 256-acre pioneer farm includes the Dudley family house and 17 farm buildings. A working farm since 1859, it is one of the oldest historic sites in the county.
Cottonwood Plantation This large cotton plantation in Archer was run by David Levy Yulee, Florida's first U. S. senator. In 1865 it was the terminus for the Confederate Wagon train, carrying gold and Jefferson Davis' personal papers. Now only a bronze plaque marks the spot.
Newnansville Once the site of the largest town in Alachua County and at that time its county seat, Newnansville flourished until the 1850s when it was bypassed by the railroad. When the City of Alachua was founded nearby in the 1880s, Newnansville became a ghost town.
The Bellamy Road Constructed between 1824 and 1827 and running from St. Augustine to Pensacola, this road opened up the interior of Florida for exploration and settlement. Six miles of the road have been designated as scenic.
The Santa Fe Canal Completed in 1881, this canal connected Melrose with Waldo through Lake Alto and Little Santa Fe Lake.
Oak Ridge Cemetery The second oldest cemetery in Alachua County and used primarily by the Micanopy and Rochelle families, it contains the grave and monumental marker for Madison Starke Perry, Florida's fourth governor, who served from 1857 to 1861.
Historical Persons
Hernando De Soto This Spanish explorer and warrior marched through the Alachua region in the summer of 1539 on his way north, ravaging the land and plundering villages throughout North Central Florida. Cowkeeper A Seminole chief who lived near Micanopy in Tuscawilla, Cowkeeper hosted William Bartram during his Alachua County visits. A noted warrior, he despised the Spanish rule.
William Bartram This famed naturalist writer twice visited the Alachua region in 1774 and wrote extensively about Paynes Prairie, the Alachua Sink and Seminole culture.
King Payne Cowkeeper's successor, who routed Col. Newnan's militia in a one-week battle near presentday Newnan's Lake. Payne's Prairie was named after him.
James Bailey One of the earliest county settlers who helped found Gainesville and worked to make it the county seat. His plantation was located near Sweetwater Branch and his house, built in 1854, is the oldest one in the city.
J. J. Dickison A cavalry captain who some called Florida's finest soldier. He led the Confederate forces in their August 1864 defeat of Union forces at Gainesville.
Madison Starke Perry A prosperous Alachua planter from Rochelle, Perry became Florida's fourth governor.
Josiah Walls Wells was the most important African-American political leader in Alachua County after the Civil War. He was the first African-American elected to Congress from Florida and served as Gainesville's mayor.
Leonard G. Dennis An ex-Union soldier who became the political boss of Alachua County during the Reconstruction period. He perpetrated the Archer vote fraud of 1876, which altered a national presidential race.
Henry F. Dutton Another ex-Union officer who migrated south and became the county's leading businessman. He ran the region's largest cotton gin, and His Sea Island cotton was prized in northern markets. His Dutton Phosphate Mining Co. was the largest phosphate exporter in the Southeast. William Reuben Thomas A long-time mayor of Gainesville, Thomas helped bring the University of Florida to Gainesville. He ran the White House Hotel and built the Thomas Hotel, which later became the Thomas Center.
Christopher Matheson A Gainesville lawyer, Matheson served as the city's mayor from 1911 to 1917. Although he became a Presbyterian minister in Oklahoma, he retained his family home--the second oldest one in the city--and finally returned to it. His wife Sara, a prominent civic leader, left the Matheson home as a museum.
A. A. Murphree He was the second president of the University of Florida, serving from 1909 to 1927. Murphree oversaw the growth of the small college from 200 student to more that 2,000. He also organized the university into four colleges and oversaw the construction of 11 new buildings, including the library and auditorium.
Eberle Baird Baird founded his hardware store in 1890, and by 1910 it was one of the largest in the state. He constructed the Baird Warehouse on South Main Street. He opened the Baird Opera House on the south side of the square and purchased the adjoining block.
Sarah Lucretia Robb Refused medical training in the United States because she was a female, Robb had to obtain her degree in Germany. She practiced in Gainesville as the county's first female doctor and specialized in the care of women and children. Her home has been restored as a museum and Medical Society office.
C. Addison Pound Pound became president of Baird Hardware in 1930, which was Gainesville's largest business for 40 years.
W. A. Shands A prominent Gainesville businessman, Shands served in the State Senate from 1940 to the 1958. As president of the Senate, he secured the first public medical school in the state, which was at the University of Florida. UF's teaching hospital is named after him.
John J. Tigert The longest-serving president of the University of Florida, Tigert guided the school through the Depression. During his tenure, UF granted its first doctor of philosophy degrees. During his 19 years as president, Tigert transformed UF from a somewhat parochial college of 2,300 students into a major research institution of 9,000 students.
U.S. "Preacher" Gordon For 40 years, Gordon served as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Gainesville. He was noted for his tolerance and wit.
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings A resident of Cross Creek from 1928 until her death, Rawlings writings about the area garnered her international acclaim. The Yearling won a Pulitzer Prize in 1938, while her book Cross Creek artfully captured "Cracker" Florida.
Jessie Aaron A folk sculptor from Gainesville, Aaron did not begin his work until he was 81, when he responded to a religious call. From then until his death at 92, he carved hundreds of expressive figures and animal forms from stumps and cedar logs.
Sid Martin A Hawthorne native who served as a county commissioner for 18 years and then served in the Florida House for 15, Martin was noted as being the voice of the ordinary man as well as a fighter for racial equality, the environment and controlled growth.
Neil Butler A Gainesville native who grew up under segregation, Butler went on to become the first African-American to serve on the city commission and to become mayor since Reconstruction. Manning Dauer earned all his degrees at the University of Florida and taught in its Political Science Department for 47 years. He wrote the Florida reapportionment law of 1967, which ended the dominance of the rural "Pork Chop Gang" that had controlled the Legislature.
William C. Thomas A beloved Gainesville physician who helped found Alachua General Hospital and was its first chief of staff. In his long career, he delivered 8,000 children and saw patients until his death at 81.
A. Quinn Jones Jones spent more than 70 years as a teacher and then principal of the county's two most important African-American schools, Union Academy and Lincoln High School. He served as the principal of Lincoln from its opening in 1923 until the 1970s. The school was renamed in his honor.
ChazzCreations
PO BOX 1909
POST FALLS, ID 83877