Instructions:
1....Print this file.
2....At its end, click on "rules" to see a copy of the trail rules, print it, and then click where indicated at the end of the 3-page rules and patch order form to get back to the list of Florida trails.
3....If you want a hand-drawn map showing the locations of all of the sites, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to Steve Rajtar, 1614 Bimini Dr., Orlando, FL 32806.
4....Hike the trail and order whatever patches you like (optional).
WARNING - This trail may pass through one or more neighborhoods which, although full of history, may now be unsafe for individuals on foot, or which may make you feel unsafe there. Hikers have been approached by individuals who have asked for handouts or who have inquired (not always in a friendly manner) why the hikers are in their neighborhood. Drugs and other inappropriate items have been found by hikers in some neighborhoods. It is suggested that you drive the hike routes first to see if you will feel comfortable walking them and, if you don't think it's a good place for you walk, you might want to consider (1) traveling with a large group, (2) doing the route on bicycles, or (3) choosing another hike route. The degree of comfort will vary with the individual and with the time and season of the hike, so you need to make the determination using your best judgment. If you hike the trail, you accept all risks involved.
Henry G. Hubbard built this Frame Vernacular house with Queen Anne and Shingle elements in 1879-80. The first story is covered with clapboard, and the second is shingled. It has a polygonal turret and large covered piazza along the entire length of the south side.
Hubbard introduced the camphor tree and the Japanese persimmon to Florida, and the house was once surrounded by an elaborate botanical garden used for plant acclimatization. He was also known for his research on citrus diseases.
This house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 14, 1973.
In 1890, 15 women formed the Village Improvement Association, which was given a building which had housed the library, formed in 1884. The association continued to operate the library, and was also instrumental in improving the town's streets.
The ladies built a large theater-opera house in 1915 and showed movies in it, as well as in the clubhouse. In 1924, the association became the Crescent City Woman's Club. During the 1940s, the theater was sold and the proceeds were used to build a large library building beside the clubhouse.
This club was founded in 1890, making it the second-oldest such club in Florida. It occupies the former Village Improvement Association building.
This facility was founded by Vivian M. Golden of the Crescent City Women's Civic Association, Inc. The building was dedicated on January 14, 1990.
J.L. Maull had a sawmill at Grovesdale on the western end of Lake Stella, and a floating sawmill on Lake Crescent in 1887.
Near here originally was the site of the Crescent City Tool and Die Company, which attracted new residents to Crescent City. In 1965, the L & W Wood Products, Inc. moved here and was the only business of its kind in Florida. In 1972, it was advertised as the largest producer of spiral rope twist design wood turning in the U.S.
The railroad came through in 1886 on the west side of Lake Stella because the town's residents thought there would be too much noise and smoke if it came through the town.
In 1886, this canal was dug here to connect Lake Stella and Bird Pond, providing access to the railroad.
This church was founded by Essie Mae McDonald on May 1, 1944. The present sanctuary was built in 1960.
Asa Philip Randolph was born in Crescent City in 1888 and became one of the most important civil rights leaders of the 19th century. His father, James William Randolph, was the miniter of the A.M.E. Zion Church in Crescent City before moving to Jacksonville, where Philip attended school. Randolph lived in a house here, which burned in 1918.
In 1925, Randolph organized the all-black International Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters as the first important black labor union, and served as its first president. He organized large marches in Washington, DC, in 1941 and 1963. He was the first black to serve as International Vice President of the AFL-CIO and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964.
The present house was built and lived in by Richard Holman.
At the southern end of Lake Crescent was located Wesnofske Farms, a large potato farm. It was also known for its citrus groves until the freezes of the early 1980s. Before that, it was the site of a large logging operation known for vice, gambling and corruption. The landing was known as "New Ruin". John Whiteman Maull came to Florida in 1874, married Kizziah Varnes in 1878, and homesteaded near the logging camp.
In 1868, Rev. Thomas N. Gautier came to this area and began holding church services in a log cabin. In 1877, the congregation moved to Round Lake and used a church building there until it burned down. They moved to Grovesdale in 1891.
In 1906, Rev. Hiscock of Welaka was preaching at the Grovesdale Methodist Church once a month. Two years later, the building was dismantled and rebuilt in Crescent City. It was renamed Howe Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The present building was erected in 1922 and dedicated in 1932.
This home was constructed in 1886 and restoration work began in 1984.
Mrs. D.W. Burton taught classes at the Crescent City Academy, located in a log cabin. It was replaced by a one-room school and, in 1905, the Gilbert Institute. It was named after the inventor of cement on frame construction, now known as stucco. That school burned in 1918.
Temporary school buildings were used until 1927, when a two-story brick school was built. It burned in 1951 but the first floor was rebuilt as a high school. An elementary school was built across the street. When a new junior-senior high school was built four miles north of Crescent City, the buildings here became elementary schools. In 1968, Crescent City and Middleton High Schools were merged to form Crescent City Jr.-Sr. High School.
Presbyterian services began in the schoolhouse in 1878. This congregation was organized in 1883 and the church building was in use by 1884. The stained glass windows were made by the Willet Studio in 1945. The Warner Fellowship Hall to the south was dedicated in 1995.
Mr. and Mrs. A.P. DeWolf and others organized this church in 1907, and by the following year the first sanctuary was completed. Baptisms were held in the Lake Stella at the foot of Cypress Ave. The present church building was erected in 1959.
This building was erected in 1909 for the Bank of Crescent City. It went out of business in 1929, but other banks occupied the building until 1952. It later served as city hall and the home of the fire department. It is built with a Romanesque Revival style and features a barrel-vaulted corner entrance, a large marble column, and rounded arch openings.
James Morrow built the Morrow House in 1892. In 1902, Mrs. Guilford Sprague reopened it as a tourist hotel. Her husband, Dr. Guilford F. Sprague, was a physician and Crescent City's first mayor. The house has a bicameral plan with a large central hallway, two separate parlors, a large dining room, and a two-tiered veranda.
Guests at this home while it was a hotel included Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Booker T. Washington, and William Jennings Bryan.
The first general store in Crescent City was established near here in the 1880s by Len Benham. Other stores which came soon after were the C.H. Preston Co., C.L. Chamberlin, J.R. Hill, Beach and Miller, Ed Sackett, F.S. Cone, Mr. Babers and Thomas Darby. There were also specialty shops such as Lounds Drug Store, Paul C. Smith's Hardware, E.N. Maull's Blacksmith and Repair Shop, Cowles Harness Shop, and the millinery shops of Mrs. Shaw, Mrs. Austin and Bessie Neal.
This facility was dedicated on May 18, 1969, on the former site of the Native Plant Park.
Crescent City was first settled in 1852 by George Oliver, who bought property from Cornelius Barber and Benjamin Hopkins. Settlers began moving here in the mid-18th century because of its good soil and access to the crescent-shaped lake.
Most of the land now comprising Crescent City was bought by Charles R. Griffing in 1875. It was surveyed by Maj. E.G. Dyke in March of 1876 for the real estate firm of Griffing, Gardiner and Case. Four-acre blocks were platted and subdivided into one-acre lots, making each a corner lot. Five-acre lots were platted on the north side of town so the settlers could cultivate tropical fruits.
Crescent City was incorporated on June 5, 1883. In April of 1966, the city offices moved here from their old home in the bank building.
This is the home of F.&A.M. Lodge No. 32, which was founded on March 12, 1889.
This two-story building was erected in 1900-20 with a Mediterranean Revival style. Preston had a grocery store which included "everything from shirt buttons to buggy whips". The building features an arched colonnade, masonry quoins and a hip roof.
In about 1887, black residents started the Village of Whitesville near this lake on lots platted to be sold to blacks only. It may have been named after the nearby whitewashed cabins they lived in.
Later, the lots on the northern side of the lake were known as Babylon, on the southwest Rossville (and the Burton and Morrow settlements).
In Babylon, prayer meetings were held by black residents in the late 1870s at the home of D.J. Daniels. In 1880, this developed into the Jethro First Baptist Church.
This church organized on May 7, 1880. The sanctuary was built in 1898 while Rev. W.D. Vann was the pastor.
This church was organized in about 1880 and has relocated at least twice. The adjoining fellowship hall was built in 1975.
This Episcopal church was established in about 1876 by Rev. Edward McClure and early services were held at the Capwell House and then in the Williams home. By 1880, it had 18 members. The sanctuary was designed by Richard Upjohn of New York with a Carpenter Gothic style and was built under the supervision of Rev. Charles S. Williams, in memory of his wife. The first service in this building occurred in February of 1878.
The first post office was established on March 24, 1876, with Roswell N. White as the postmaster.
A Guide to National Register Sites in Florida, (Florida Department of State 1984)
The Best Small Towns Under the Sun, by Robert J. Howard (EPM Publications, Inc. 1989)
Florida Historic Stained Glass Survey: Sites of Historic Windows in Public Facilities in the State of Florida, by Robert O. Jones (Florida Members of the Stained Glass Association of America 1995)
Florida's History Through Its Places: Properties in the National Register of Historic Places, by Morton D. Winsberg (Florida State University 1988)
Guide to Florida's Historic Architecture, (University of Florida Press 1989)
Guide to the Small and Historic Lodgings of Florida, by Herbert L. Hiller (Pineapple Press, Inc. 1991)
The River Flows North: A History of Putnam County, by Brian E. Michaels (Taylor Publishing Company 1986)
Welaka at the Turn of the Century, by Nancy Cooley Alvers (Welaka, Inc. 1987)
Wish You Were Here: A Grand Tour of Early Florida Via Old Post Cards, by Hampton Dunn (Byron Kennedy and Company 1981)
Click here for a copy of the trail rules.