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.
(From Interstate 75, drive west on CR 484 and park at the tubing take-out area on the south side of the road just east of the Rainbow River. Walk west on the south side of CR 484 (Pennsylvania Ave.) to the bridge.)(0.1 miles so far)
A new bridge built shortly after 1900 replaced the ferry which ran here.
In 1926, the Minnetrista Corporation was formed to develop the land between the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad tracks and the Blue Run (Rainbow) River. They prepared this small area for homes and then ran out of money. This area is still known to some as Minnestrista.
In 1879, John F. Dunn and several other Marion County businessmen applied for a charter to construct the Dunnellon Short Railroad to connect Ocala, Dunnellon and Homosassa. It was called the Silver Springs, Ocala and Gulf Railroad. In 1885, the railroad was built from Ocala through Juliette to Homosassa. A depot was built here.
The Chamber of Commerce organized in November of 1935. Gordon W. Reap, a Ford dealer, was its first president.
This filling station was built in about 1925 with a Frame Vernacular style, showing Tudor influences. An earlier frame structure on this site was the city market.
This Frame Vernacular building was erected in about 1920, replacing an earlier building. In it, E.C. Mays operated a store in the late 1890s, and Christian and Gamble ran it after 1900.
This was the early home of Christian & Gamble Mercantile, built in about 1890.
This building was erected in about 1920 with a Spanish architectural style.
The original portion of this facility was built in about 1910 with a Brick Vernacular style. The rear one-third was the city jail, and there are still bars on the window. The front one-third was demolished in the early 1960s and replaced by a modern addition.
This station was built in 1908 by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, and later belonged to Seaboard. It replaced the earlier depot of the Silver Springs and Gulf Railroad, which had been located on the east side of the tracks.
During the 1890s, this area had dozens of shanties lived in by black laborers and their families.
A ferry operated here until shortly after 1900, when a bridge was built across the river. The present bridge is named after the young daughter of a local school teacher.
This church was started by its first pastor, Rev. Henry Shaw, in an old house. The congregation was composed largely of black sawmill and turpentine workers. The building was moved from the east side of old US 41 to the west side, then to its present location when the highway was being widened.
The city is named after John F. Dunn and perhaps another relative. Dunn was the founder of Homosassa and Belleview as well as this city. He was a Confederate veteran, a lawyer, and the organizer of the Bank of Ocala, which he reorganized as the Merchant's National Bank of Ocala. He is buried in Ocala's Evergreen Cemetery.
Dunnellon incorporated on December 22, 1890. Its first mayor was W.W. Lindsay, operator of the Renfro House.
W.T. Tompkins built a lumber mill here in 1890. He and T.W. Hood, who operated a mill on the south side of the river, jointly operated a store on the east side of Williams St.
J.F. Cocowitch built a hotel here in 1908, the first major structure south of Pennsylvania Ave. There were stores on the first floor and guest rooms on the second. It was later renamed the Parkview Hotel.
One of the streets which meets at this intersection was formerly named Datesman Ave., and was renamed to honor Ned Love. He owned the Dinner Bell Restaurant and Motel and was a strong supporter of local youth sports. He died in 2003.
Dunnellon Air Base was built about six miles east of downtown starting in January of 1942. Beginning later that year, several hundred soldiers were stationed there. In June of 1947, the city purchased the clinic that had been used as a hospital there, and moved it to this intersection. It was used by visiting welfare and governmental officials, and as temporary offices.
In about 2000, it was purchased by Dane and Nancey Myers, who moved the building to the grounds of Grumbles Antiques at the intersection of Walnut and Cedar Sts.
In 1890, this portion of Dunnellon, south of Pennsylvania Ave., was not the kind of area a gentleman or lady would venture into. It was filled with saloons, brothels and shanties. After 1905, construction by blacks was officially discouraged.
This cottage was built in about 1930 with a Frame Vernacular style.
This home was built in about 1940 on a military base, and was used as barracks. It was later moved here.
This Frame Vernacular cottage was built in about 1935.
This is a Frame Vernacular style cottage, built in about 1925.
A farmhouse was built here in about 1910. The stable just to the east of the main building was owned as a part of a farm by baker Mr. Thalgott.
This Frame Vernacular style cottage dates to about 1900.
This Frame Vernacular style cottage was built in about 1929.
This is another Frame Vernacular cottage, built in about 1920.
This Frame Vernacular style Bungalow was built in about 1920. It was originally located at a phosphate mine in Citrus County.
This is a Frame Vernacular style bungalow, built in about 1920.
John Waters and Jake McCready built this Victorian Vernacular style house in about 1910. It has six gables and a carved front entrance door with an oval glass pane and side lights. It was the residence of Dr. Black.
The second school in Dunnellon was built here in 1903 and held its first classes in 1904. It had six classrooms in two stories. When it became overcrowded, a new red brick schoolhouse was built, completed in 1914. It was used for classes until 1965.
The 1904 building was moved to Chatmar, a black community about two miles north of Dunnellon. It burned in 1948 and was replaced in the early 1950s by the Booker Townsend Washington School.
Another high school was completed in 1964 and was torn down in 2004. It was replaced by a new school located to the north.
This Victorian Vernacular style house was built in about 1900 with fishback shingles, turned ballustrades, gingerbread scrollwork, and a single interior fireplace with three openings. It was the home of T.K. North, who served as mayor of Dunnellon in the early 1900s.
This home dating to about 1910 is a two-story "stack" style Frame Vernacular house.
This house, also built in about 1910, has the same floor plan as the Niblack house, but "flopped" or reversed.
This Cracker style house was built in about 1900. Before it was moved here, it was a residence and commissary at the Kibler Phosphate Mine.
The house on this corner was originally built in about 1905. After major fire damage, it was substantially rebuilt in 1949. The south portion was added in the 1960s as a flower shop.
The brick school was built in 1937 as a W.P.A. project. Originally a high school, it later became an elementary school. On the grounds is an office built in the southern part of Dunnellon about 1910 and moved to the west side of the gymnasium in the 1950s, and then to its present location in the 1960s.
A Frame Vernacular style Bungalow was built here in about 1920. It served as the home of Methodist pastors from the 1930s to the 1950s.
When built in about 1900, this was a small Frame Vercacular cottage. It has since been enlarged.
This clubhouse was originally built as a Catholic church.
On this site was located the home of E.G. Watkins, built in about 1905. The Watkins carriage house stood just to the west of this house.
The present home on this site served as barracks at Camp Blanding until it was moved here in 1946.
This two-story home was built in about 1910 with elements of Victorian and Classical Revival styles. It was the home of lumberman J.T. Rawls, who used the best available building materials.
This Frame Vernacular style home was built in about 1940 and served as barracks at Camp Blanding until it was moved here in 1946.
This congregation began meeting in the Presbyterian Church building in 1898, with pastor Rev. J.M. Deveneaux. The church was formally organized on May 14, 1899. A Victorian Vernacular style sanctuary was built in 1909 at the corner of Walnut and Cedar Sts.
Construction of this sanctuary was begun in late 1966, and it was dedicated on March 19, 1967. The bell on the east side dates to about 1905.
This land was owned by the Dunnellon Phosphate Company, and in 1926 was developed into a residential subdivision. R.D. Wise and C.A. Dinkins, Sr. had two of the first homes built here.
This Frame Vernacular style Bungalow was built in about 1920 and moved here from Inglis in about 1960. It was the residence of the superintendent of the Florida Power Co. steam plant.
This was the home of Albertus Vogt, who in April of 1889 hired a black laborer to do cleaning and drainage work around Renfro Springs for the community's annual fish fry. The laborer found what he believed to be the devil's teeth and bones, which turned out to be fossils preserved in gypsum. Vogt had them examined by a chemist in Ocala, who determined that they were phosphate of the highest quality then known.
Vogt and John Dunn quietly purchased more land in the area, acquiring 8,000 acres within the first month. Local suspicions were aroused, and by the early 1890s there was a full-scale boom complete with prospectors, swindlers, speculators and millionaires.
Vogt hired George McKay of Ocala in 1891 to refurbish and enlarge the house, which sits on a knoll overlooking the Springs. It sat on the Old Inglis Rd., which no longer exists. The house has a Victorian Vernacular style with an "L" shaped plan.
Vogt was known as the "Duke of Dunnellon", and moved to Lakeland in 1903. This home was sold to J.F. Meredith in 1905, who added several rooms. They were later removed, leaving the six original main rooms.
This area was owned by Francis Durand, who sold the section including the springs to Dr. Andrew Hodges in about 1855. He farmed it and operated a ferry, starting in about 1856. He sold the land to James N. Renfro of Talledaga, Alabama, in about 1860, who renamed it Renfro Springs.
Much of Renfro's land was sold in 1887 to The Withlacoochee and Wekiwa Land Company to be developed as part of Dunnellon. A post office was established on May 3, 1886, with Renfro as the first postmaster. Its name was changed to Dunnellon Post Office on June 6, 1887.
In about 1890, the mining community of Rockwell was new. The Dunnellon Phosphate company had a two-story frame field field office and built a company commissary, drying sheds, and houses for company foremen. By 1894, Rockwell's population grew to 500. It was hurt by the mine closing during the depression in 1897.
On land donated by John L. Inglis and the Dunnellon Phosphate Company, the Bethel Methodist Church was built in or near the cemetery. It burned down in 1893. The cemetery became the oldest part of Dunnellon Memorial Gardens.
This home was built in 1926 with floors, doors and moldings made from Dade County cedar. It was the home of C.A. Dinkins, Jr.
This cottage was built in about 1895, but has a style which predates the Civil War.
This is a Frame Vernacular style cottage built in about 1900.
This pre-Civil War style cottage was built in about 1895.
Col. McKinney, a railroad official, donated land here in 1890 as the site of a new school. Soon after, a two-story wood frame schoolhouse was built, called dunnellon School and Hardrock School. After the second school was built in 1903, the first one was used for social functions and council meetings. It was later hauled north to Chatmar on logs pulled by mules.
The present Beulah Missionary Church was built here in 1920. It shows a masonry Colonial style.
The first Dunnellon school for black children first met in the sanctuary of this church. This church was organized in 1896 by Charles Lowrie, H. Bacon, David Cotton and James Green.
Charlie Johnson built this cottage in 1898. It has a Frame Vernacular style.
This house dates to about 1900. It is a cottage built in a Frame Vernacular style.
A house built here in the 1890s burned down and was replaced by the present Frame Vernacular cottage in about 1920. It was the residence of Queen Bostick. The shed to the rear dates back to the 1890s construction.
This pre-Civil War style cottage was built in about 1888. It was constructed with two front entrances, one leading to each of the two original rooms.
This Victorian style church was built in about 1888 with board windows and large wooden doors. Between 1890 and 1917, the building was bricked, and the stained glass windows were added in about 1926.
This Masonry Vernacular building was erected in about 1930 and was used as the Masonic Hall. It features two courses of rusticated concrete blocks between the first and second stories.
This home, later used as a church center, was built with a Frame Vernacular style in about 1920.
This Frame Vernacular style home was built in about 1905 by George Sanders. The central gabled portion was built first as a tailoring shop, and then the rest was built as living space.
This Frame Vernacular style house was built in about 1910 and was sold in 1920 to the Parkers, who had moved from the Cotton Plant area. Mr. Parker worked in the phosphate mine.
This congregation organized as the Dunnellon Methodist Church, and built a sanctuary in 1903. In 1966, it was renamed the First Methodist Church of Dunnellon. The church bell in the frame structure at the northeast corner of the church was part of the original 1903 construction. The Methodist congregation has moved to another building.
This Bungalow was built in 1936 in Citrus County, and was moved here to be the residence of J.M. Walker.
This Bungalow with Spanish elements was built in about 1925 for Lawton Sims, who operated the Standard Oil Station on N. Williams St., the first gas station in town.
This Victorian Vernacular house was built in about 1908. The central hall was later converted for use as a parlor.
Clarence L. Dinkins had this Bungalow built in about 1926 with indoor plumbing and electricity. It was heated with a single fireplace.
This house was built in 1908 by W.H. Bosewell as a rental property, featuring a four-gabled roof forming a center cross.
This Frame Vernacular style Bungalow was built in 1904 and was the first private home in Dunnellon to be wired for electricity.
This Victorian Vernacular style home was built in about 1895 and was the residence of N.H. Bosewell, who was involved in the phosphate mining business. A two-story structure used as servants quarters and a carriage house was later converted to an apartment.
This combination residence and commercial building was erected in about 1910 with a Victorian Vernacular style.
This Frame Vernacular cottage was built in about 1900. The enclosed front porch was added later. The house originally had twin gables with ends facing the street.
This house was built in about 1905 with an "L" plan, originally with a veranda. During the 1920s, it was enclosed with screens and columns.
This is an "L" plan Victorian Vernacular style home built in about 1910, featuring gingerbread scrollwork balusters.
This Victorian Vernacular style home was built in about 1905. It features a tower and a veranda with round columns.
This Victorian Vernacular style home was built in about 1906 in an "L" shape. Wings were added later to make it a "U". It features carpenter style gingerbread balusters and scrollwork.
The garage just to the east dates to the same period. It features decorative cutout vents on the front gable end.
This "L" plan Victorian Vernacular style home dates to about 1905. It has a three-sided bay, turned balusters and decorative gingerbread.
This cottage was built in about 1898, with a Frame Vernacular style.
Presbyterians in Dunnellon began meeting informally in 1893, with Leffort L. Haughawout serving as their supply minister. Early services were held in the schoolhouse on the corner of McKinney Ave. and Illinois St. This church building was erected in 1895 in a Victorian Vernacular style with Gothic influences. The Presbyterians and the Methodists alternated Sundays in it until 1900.
The sanctuary has a spacious open attic, showing the huge hardwood beams supporting the roof. It rises to a height of about 40 feet above the floor.
This is a Frame Vernacular cottage, built in about 1900.
This Victorian Vernacular style home was built in about 1905 with two front dormers and fish scale shingles. It was the residence of G.W. Neville, a casher of the Dunnellon State Bank.
This Frame Vernacular cottage was built in about 1905, and the rear portion was used as a store. It was the home of Mr. Guest, a railroad trainmaster. The house was later owned by Mr. Diehl, a tinker who had a key shop in the back.
Brothers George and John Ohnmacht built a large red brick building here in 1895. In it, they opened a store which became famous for its inventory's quality and diversity.
Merchant E.C. May moved his store from Hernando to Dunnellon in 1898, and opened near this location. Soon after, he moved to another building about 50 feet south of Pennsylvania Ave.
C.G. Leitner opened a general store here in 1891 and stocked it with a complete line of merchandise. A millinery shop was located on the second floor.
The Bank of Dunnellon was built here in 1904 and opened on July 20 of that year under the leadership of George W. Neville. The second story had a balcony and a third story was added in about 1926 for offices. Above the street entrance was a pediment. The bank closed in November of 1931.
The second financial institution in Dunnellon was Citizens Bank, organized in 1920 and located here. Its founders were B.J. Benson, V.D. Monroe and R.L. Bryant. It closed in late 1929. Its building was torn down in 1937 and the Pure Oil Company replaced it with a new and modern filling station managed by C.A. Dinkins, Jr. It was torn down in 1966.
The present Frame Vernacular commercial structure was built behind the bank in about 1926. During the 1890s, there was a livery stable and grist mill here.
This is a Frame Vernacular building, erected in about 1900. It has changed hands many times, and a recent use has been as a church.
This Masonry Vernacular building was constructed in a triangle shape in about 1940 to fit between the two existing buildings on either side.
When built in about 1910, this Frame Vernacular structure was the home of the telephone company. It was later the groceteria of Ben Meredith, and in the 1980s, a church.
This Bungalow was built in about 1910. In about 1925, Ben and Lucille Meredith added the six classical columns. Later, the house was used as an art gallery.
This Frame Vernacular style Bungalow was built in about 1900, and was later used as a boarding house.
This is an "L" shaped Frame Vernacular house, built in about 1900.
This Frame Vernacular house was originally built in about 1910. It was altered following a fire in the 1950s.
This was the home of Dr. Baskin, a physician and financier who was active in city politics in the 1920s. This Bungalow with the decorative rafter brackets and cast iron globe lights was built in about 1910. The garage behind the house to the east housed Dr. Baskin's two open Deusenberg touring cars.
To the rear of this house is a cabin built in about 1900 and lived in by Mr. Benson while the larger cottage was built, completing it in about 1905. The cabin was then moved to this part of the lot and became a cookhouse.
This Frame Vernacular style house was built with an "L" plan in about 1900. Since then, the front has been substantially altered.
This also is a Frame Vernacular "L" plan house built in about 1900. The ceilings are 11.5 feet high and each bedroom has a private entrance from the porch.
This Bungalow was built in about 1927 out of concrete block covered with stucco.
This "L" plan Frame Vernacular style house was built in about 1902. It was the home of Walter Knight, who had a barber shop in the city market at the corner of Pennsylvania Ave. and Williams St.
This 1908 house shows elements of Victorian and Classic Revival styles. It was the residence of John A. Grumbles, an engineer at the #34 Buttgenbach phosphate mine, and worked with hydraulic dredges. He purchased the land and built the house when his daughters reached school age, so they could attend a school in Dunnellon.
This is the home of Grumbles Antiques & Specialty Shops, owned by Nancy Myers.
This Bungalow built in about 1920 features decorative columns made of tapered boxed wood over brick bases. The house was moved here from Inglis.
This Carpenter style cottage was built in about 1920. It has a carpenter-turned railing and decorative rafter brackets.
This Victorian style "L" shaped house was built in about 1904 by Walter Edwards.
This Bungalow with the gable roof covered with impressed tin was built in about 1903. It was the home of J.W. Waters.
This Victorian style structure was built in 1904. It was owned by the Edwards family, who also owned a general store on Illinois St.
This was the home of Charles W. Hood, who served as mayor and a county commissioner. The Victorian style house was built in about 1905 and was later converted to apartments and then to a boutique.
A house was built here in 1892 by Dr. Griffith. The present structure, known as the Wise house, dates to about 1905. It has an "L" plan with a Victorian Vernacular style.
Merchant C.G. Leitner built this Victorian Vernacular style house during the 1890s. It features decorative shingles on the front gable end and gingerbread accents. Behind the house is an outhouse, built with a solid plank bench with three holes. The house was later used for a real estate office.
This Masonry Vernacular style structure was built in about 1925. It features a gambrel roof and Colonial style entrance door.
This Frame Vernacular style "L" plan building was erected in about 1905. The Paulks added the brick front in the late 1950s.
This brick building was erected in 1936 with casement windows and decorative stone arched openings. Its style was typical for W.P.A. projects.
This is Dunnellon's first house, built in late 1888 about 100 yards to the east of here to provide shelter and meals for railroad workers. It was moved here in 1903 by A.B. and D.B. Kibler cleared its original site to make room for the Dunnellon Hotel. This building was converted to apartments and renamed the Dixie House. More recently, it was acquired by Dane and Nancy Myers, who ran it as an apartment house.
The original portion of this building was erected in about 1891 as a saloon, one side for whites and the other for blacks. In 1952, barber F.M. Lee added the unit on the east end.
A hotel was built here in 1903 by D.B. and A.B. Kibler. During the 1920s, it was owned by R. DeWitt Wise, who also bought W.J. Metcalf's drug store in 1928. It and the Leitner Hotel were bought by the Marion County Board of Commissioners so that Williams St. could be straightened. They were torn down in 1952, improving a dangerous condition which had existed at the intersection of Pennsylvania Ave. and Illinois St.
Episcopal services were first held in the high school band room in September of 1964, then moved to the Woman's Club building. Ground was broken in the Blue Cove Subdivision on October 24, 1965, and the church was dedicated in April of 1966.
This river begins at Rainbow Springs (formerly called Blue Springs), the second-largest spring in Florida, having an average flow of 460 million gallons per day, and is the origin of the Blue Run. Only Silver Springs has a greater flow.
Despite rumors that the springs could cause chills and fever, it became a popular swimming spot in the 1920s. The Blue Springs Company improved the site in the 1930s, and in 1937 renamed it Rainbow Springs.
The park underwent a multi-million dollar expansion in 1967. In 1968, a memorial tomb was constructed for the remains of the Seminole chief, Osceola. Otis Shriver had secretly dug them up during the night in Fort Moultrie, South Carolina, and brought them to Dunnellon. However, the tomb was not constructed and the bones did not remain in Dunnellon.
African Americans in Florida, by Maxine D. Jones and Kevin M. McCarthy (Pineapple Press, Inc. 1993)
Back Home: A History of Citrus County, Florida, by Hampton Dunn (Citrus County Historical Society, Inc. 1989)
Black Florida, by Kevin M. McCarthy (Hippocrene Books 1995)
Catholics of Marion County: A Record of the Growth of the Oldest Catholic Comunity in Central Florida, by Jane Quinn (Mission Press 1978)
Dunnellon, Boomtown of the 1890's: The Story of Rainbow Springs and Dunnellon, by J. Lester Dinkins (Great Outdoors Publishing Company 1969)
Dunnellon Historic District Survey, by Joyce E. Cusick
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)
Guide to Florida's Historic Architecture, (University of Florida Press 1989)
Click here for a copy of the trail rules.