The term “cracker” was used during the Elizabethan era in England to describe arrogant men who bragged a lot about a little. Even William Shakespeare used the term in King John, Act II, Scene I “What cracker is this same that deafs our ears with abundance of superfluous breath?” By the late 1700’s the term was used to describe the settlers of the backwoods of the American South and later came to be the name by which Florida cattlemen were known. One of the most significant pieces of new learning from my southern adventure is the knowledge of the extent of the cattle industry in the Florida that exists outside of the coastal bands.
As I head west from the Kennedy Space Center the familiar patchwork of swamp, forest and prairie surrounds on all sides.
The highway heads due west into a dense swamp forest which is briefly interrupted by another iconic Florida tourist attraction, Jungle Adventures.
Jungle Adventures was built in the 1980’s, carved out of a swamp and designed to provide an “authentic” Florida animal experience. The interruption to the forest is “Swampy”, an enormous alligator that houses the entrance and gift shop. Once through Swampy one immediately faces a bridge across water covered with what at first glance looks like scummy algae, but instead is duckweed, one of the smallest flowering plants known.
I am here early in the morning and am able to wander around essentially by myself. Once across the bridge a path opens up lined with pens on both sides.
This is not a pristine zoological experience but rather a rustic, sometimes sad, exhibition of various animals in the midst of a beautiful setting. For me the experience was not really about the animals but rather the opportunity to pierce the veil of Spanish moss and forest to explore a real Florida swamp. But first, the animals…
Beyond the aisle of pens the Jungle Nature Trail takes one into the swamp where alligators bask in the early morning sun.
The raised board walk winds through the swamp, occasionally with another photo opportunity.
The Indian Village, site of various demonstrations, is closed and barely visable through the woods.
As I complete the circle through the swamp the backside of “Swampy” is across the pond.
As I leave the inside of “Swampy” there’s one last photo opportunity!
Once past Jungle Adventures the mosaic of swamp, forest and prairie opens up a bit and we enter cattle country.
In the early 1830’s the conflict caused by the growing clashes between the increasing number of white settlers and Seminole Indians culminated in the Second Seminole War of 1835. On December 25, 1837, troops established a supply fort named Fort Christmas because it was founded on Christmas Day. The fort was only used for three months as troops advanced far enough to be supplied by boats via the St Lucie River and thus was abandoned. However, it lasted long enough to give its name to the small town of Christmas just south of here. In the mid 1970’s the Orange County Parks and Recreation District reconstructed the fort and surrounded it with other historical buildings from the area in a park north of Christmas.
Fort Christmas
The fort itself was a simple square built from local pine with two blockhouses on opposite corners.
The blockhouses, approximately 20 feet square, served as housing and lookout posts. The only other buildings inside the stockade are a storehouse and powder magazine. The powder magazine is partially built underground so that should an explosion occur, the force would go up rather than out.
The view from the northeast blockhouse into the fort shows the relatively small size of the enclosure.
Scattered in the woods south of the fort are pioneer homes, not original to the site but relocated from around the Christmas area.
Also in the park is the 1906 Union School, locally referred to as the Fort Christmas School, in use until 1969. Next to it is the 1932 lunchroom.
As we move farther north the swamps recede to languid waterways and the prairie expands. However, the dense vegetation is always present.
The St. John River is the longest river in Florida and by far the most significant in terms of commercial and recreational use. A 310 mile long stream of water, it is one of the few rivers in the United States that flows north. Over the 310 miles the drop in elevation from its source to sea level is only 30 feet so the current is very slow. The river connects numerous lakes along its path and spreads out to nearly 3 miles wide at its widest point. Historically the head of navigation on the St. John was Lake Monroe and Camp Monroe was established on the south shore of the lake around 1835 during the Seminole Wars. A small town named Mellonville grew in the area but in 1870 Henry Sanford bought 12,500 acres west of Mellonville and laid out the city of Sanford. Citrus orchards were planted and Sanford became a shipping point for the bounty of the land. Once the railroad arrived the area became the largest shipper of oranges in the world. The great freeze of 1894-1895 ruined the citrus orchards and forced diversification of agriculture into the growing of vegetables. By 1900 so much celery was being grown in the area that Sanford became known as the “Celery City.” Sanford was an interesting place to visit because not only is there historic architecture to admire, but also because of the clear evidence of the continuing impact of the impact of segregation.
Sanford
A map of the four historic districts of Sanford clearly illustrates the residual impact of segregation. The large blocks on either side are the historic black neighborhoods of Sanford. The small block in the center is the downtown area, the block below that is the historically white neighborhood.
I visited all four areas, starting with the commercial district and lake shore. The interstate bypasses Sanford to the west and the old city center rises east of the city gates.
Most of the area was built during the Florida Boom years of the early 1920’s.
Fire destroyed much of early Sanford, one remaining vestige of earlier times is the 1887 PICO Building, built out of red brick as a railroad hotel. A restaurant and additional hotel rooms is covered in white stucco and attached to the hotel on the right.
North of the downtown area in the area previously occupied by docks and packing plants is the Riverwalk, a plan that has redeveloped the lake shore as a recreational area and is anchored by a veteran’s memorial park on a pier in the lake.
The memorial park was built in 1924 as part of the city pier and yacht basin. It had a large concrete band shell at the end and tiered fountain and flagpole at the base. The band shell fell into disrepair and was removed in the 1970s but the area has now been renovated as part of the Riverwalk. Standing at the end of the pier the renovated lake front stretches on either side.
As Sanford grew so did the local black community. In 1870 Sanford sold land east of the city center to African American pioneers who made their way to the Sanford area after the Civil War. The neighborhood, dubbed Georgetown, is still primarily a black neighborhood and is noticeably less affluent than the white neighborhood to the west.
Sanford Street separates black Georgetown from the white central residential historic district. The difference is immediate and dramatic.
West of the historic white residential district is the Goldsboro neighborhood, originally established by the Freedmen’s Bureau during the Reconstruction Era after the Civil War as a town for the African Americans who worked in the local railroad yards, farms and packing plants. The town was incorporated in 1891 and had increased in size to a population of around 100 people by 1905. In 1911 the greater Sanford community was involved in a political battle over expansion that went all the way to the state legislature and in April 1911 the state legislature dissolved the neighboring cities of Sanford and Goldsboro and created one town named Sanford. The new white city fathers renamed a number of Goldsboro’s streets and gradually the town lost its’ identity and the area began a downward spiral that is still evident today. The gleaming Lunch Box was not greeted with approval by the black residents of the Goldsboro neighborhood as I briefly explored the area, a neighborhood of decay encircling small pockets of tidy homes.
Anyone who believes that race is still not an issue in the United States just needs to get off the interstate and explore the rural South…
Continuing my journey I head north to the college town of Deland. Deland, sited on the eastern shore of the St. John River, was first known as Persimmon Hollow after the persimmons that grow in abundance in the area. In 1876 Henry Deland visited the area and purchased 160 acres with the goal of creating a town based on culture and education. In December of 1876 the town of Deland was formally dedicated. Deland’s fortune was destroyed along with his orange orchards in the big freeze of 19894-1895 and he went back north, turning the town’s fortunes over to his friend John Stetson (creator of the famous cowboy hat.) Stetson invested in the area and brought the first electricity in Florida to Deland. In 1886 a fire devastated the city and in the aftermath a building code was established requiring brick or masonry be used when constructing downtown structures. Woodland Boulevard is the main street through town, lined with buildings constructed in the years after the fire.
The Volusia County Courthouse, completed in 1929, rises majestically a block west of Woodland Blvd in the heart of downtown.
Downtown is bustling, supported by the twin pillars of agriculture and the presence of Stetson University, just north of the downtown area.
Heading north from Deland our path carves through the dense forest.
You never know what you are going to find in rural America and Florida is no exception. Out in the middle of nowhere is the Barberville Yard Art Emporium where, clearly, every taste in fiberglass yard art can be satisfied!
Past Barberville the land starts to open up and rather odd covered fields appear on both sides of the highway.
This is the area around Pierson, FL, a small town of around 2,000 people that bills itself as the “Fern Capital of the World.” Apparently the micro-climate in this section of the St. John River Valley is conducive to growing ferns, exported worldwide for use in flower arrangements and other decorations. Who knew?
Beyond Pierson cattle country again emerges from the forests as we approach crossing to the west side of the St. John River.
The St. John is very wide here as we cross the bridge into the town of Palatka.
Palatka
Palatka was established as a trading post on a curve in the St. John River in 1821. The settlement was burned in 1836 during the Seminole War and the army built Fort Shannon in the area in 1838. After the Civil War riverboats plied the St. Johns and Palatka became the gateway to the interior of Florida. The trio of lumber, citrus and tourism lead to Palatka being known as the “Gem of the St Johns” and the town flourished, at one time with accommodations to house 6,000 visitors in the grand hotels and spas. In 1884 a devastating fire destroyed much of the town, including the hotels, and a decade later the great freeze of 1894-1895 decimated the citrus crop. Tourism migrated south, business to developing Jacksonville to the east, and the golden age of Palatka came to an end. The compact brick downtown area survived the great fire but did not survive the changing economic times. Today it sits in somber splendor along St. Johns Avenue as retail and business has fled to the highway strip west of town.
The Putnam County Courthouse anchors the west end of the city core.
The historic town center lies along St Johns Avenue, one block south of US Hwy 17 as it cuts through town. On the north side of the highway is the North Historic District, known as “Reid’s Garden” in the 1840’s and home to the elite of early Palatka. The fire of 1884 did not come this far north and so the magnificent homes were spared. The gateway to the district is Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church, completed in 1864, still in use today.
Surrounding the church are homes from the same period. This was way before automobiles and the streets are very narrow. I parked the Lunch Box and walked the historic neighborhood.
The crown jewel of the neighborhood is the Bronson-Mullholland House, built in 1854.
Continuing north we stumble upon another unexpected find, one man’s dream in the middle of the wilderness.
Penney Farms
James Cash Penney opened his first store in Wyoming in 1902 and by the mid-1920’s was earning over a million dollars a year. He decided to develop a farming cooperative community where farmers would earn shares in the community by raising crops and using the money to buy an interest in the land. In 1926 Mr. Penney purchased 120,000 acres of land in north Florida and incorporated the town of Penney Farms a year later. People were chosen for the town by application and the application process emphasized good character, requiring a promise not to use alcohol or tobacco and requiring character references. By the end of 1927 the town included over 300 buildings and the surrounding land grew cattle, pecans, persimmons, oranges and vegetables. Mr. Penney also founded the JC Penney Foundation Memorial Community, a part of Penney Farms built for retired ministers and other Christian workers and their families. The Great Depression of the 1930’s nearly wiped out Mr. Penney and he had to sell all but 200 acres of his land. He deeded those 200 acres to the memorial community. The memorial community continued to operate and in the 1950’s opened admission to not only clergy and church workers but to anyone who wanted to live in a Christian retirement community. Today about 750 people live in the community.
The first sign that one is approaching the community is that the highway becomes lined with oak trees on both sides, planted by Mr. Penney in the 1920’s..
The gates to Penney Farms open to my left and I enter the parklike grounds of the community.
The road splits and becomes a grand boulevard with a central grassy plaza extending through the parkland and community to the Memorial Church in the distance.
Mr. and Mrs. Penney had recently returned from a trip to France where they were taken with Norman architecture so the community buildings were designed in that style. All of the original buildings are painted pale yellow with red tile roofs. There do not seem to be any individual houses in the original town, rather people live in rambling single-story apartment buildings, duplexes and other group housing. The original housing units do not contain garages as automobiles were not common at the time but a couple of long strips of individual garages exist south of the apartment complexes. Streets are narrow and with parking allowed on one side I have to drive very carefully as I maneuver around the community.
The southwest corner of the original community is dominated by a large brick Norman style apartment complex built around a courtyard, parts of which contain the community foundation administration and other facilities.
The west end of the property has houses of a more recent vintage, clearly not part of the original town.
The town hall of Penney Farms is a small, more recent building that honors JC Penney with a statue.
East of Penney Farms as we near the coast much of the forest has been tamed and pockets of the prairie converted to farmland.
Through a narrow band of marsh and water our next stops awaits, and it’s a great one!
Next up: Beginnings
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