Santa Fe de Toloca

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 ...

Roper Park - Old City Park

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 ...

Mount Pleasant United Methodist Church

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 ...

Madison Starke Perry

1814- 1865

Planter, Legislator, Governor, Soldier

(Front Text)

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 ...

Historic Haile Homestead At Kanapaha

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 ...

Hawthorne, Florida

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, ...

East Florida Seminary

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 by the Florida Legislature in 1905. The Seminary school building, erected ...

Earleton, Florida

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, ...

David Yulee and Cotton Wood Plantation

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 ...

City of Newberry Historic District

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 ...