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.
This park was dedicated in 1975 to local citizens Albert Sydney and Cora K. Herlong. It features a locomotive from the Cummer Lumber Company, previously located in Jacksonville and Lacoochee.
On the east and west sides of the park are canals which connect to Lake Griffin. Leesburg was the end of the line for early river boats that traveled from Jacksonville, up the Oklawaha River, and across Lake Griffin. Later, canals made possible travel through Haines Creek from Lake Griffin to Lakes Eustis, Dora and Beauclair.
One of the boats, the 76-ton "Tuskawilla", was the only Oklawaha steamer built in Lake County. The hull was built in about 1875, and was then towed to Jacksonville for completion. It was used in the Oklawaha basin for 15 years.
This home for Palestine Lodge No. 30, F.& A.M. was built in 1954 by S.S. Scrivens. It is also home of the Leesburg Neighborhood Service Center.
This church building was dedicated on December 18, 1983, while Rev. Henry P. James was the pastor.
In 1876, while Rev. S.A. Williams was the pastor of this church, Leesburg's first school for black students was established here. It moved to another location in 1882.
The original sanctuary was rebuilt in 1945 and 1971.
This building was built with rusticated blocks in about 1920. It has been the home of Leesburg Welding and Garage.
This congregation organized in 1919, built its sanctuary the same year, and rebuilt it in 1971. Its pastor at the time was Rev. E.J.W. Day.
This home was built in about 1919. It has a board and batten exterior and is classified as Frame Vernacular in style.
This Masonry Vernacular style building was erected in 1925 and was the home of the Triangle Filling Station.
Now the home of the LRMC Thrift Shop, this building was erected in about 1935 for an auto dealership. The "Ford" logo is still visible near the top of the front wall.
This bottling plant was erected in 1930. The embedded logo on the front is identical to several such stones throughout Florida, when the soft drink was bottled at small, local facilities.
This building is classified as Masonry Vernacular in style, and was constructed in 1930. It has been substantially altered since then.
This street is named after Daniel Mike, a black pioneer merchant who arrived in Leesburg in 1860.
This house with a metal roof is a Bungalow dating to 1926.
The school for black students moved here in 1882 and was administered by Prof. John Morgan Dabney. After it burned, it relocated to a two-story building on Mike St. It also burned.
The church organized in 1906 and the present sanctuary was built in 1950.
This facility opened in 1963 as the city's first public hospital. The 15 acres had been donated by G.G. Ware and J.Y. Clark. Construction cost $1,600,000, and it opened with 76 rooms.
The first high school in Leesburg opened in 1891. This Spanish Mission style school was built in 1927-28 on land donated by Lee Meadows, who later was a pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Several additions have been made to the school, which was extensively renovated in 1980.
This church was formed on November 14, 1926, by 61 former members of the First Baptist Church of Leesburg. The first service in their newly-constructed building occurred on September 11, 1927. Its auditorium, including the balcony, sat about 400. The present sanctuary came much later, with the steeple completed in 1991.
This home was built with a Craftsman style in about 1925.
This is a Bungalow, built in about 1925.
In December of 1886, the Florida Methodist Conference decided to open a college, and Leesburg outbid the other contending cities. The college opened in a building in Leesburg in September of 1887.
In 1891, it moved to a larger building on High St., next to the Archibald Apartment home, which was used as the girls' dormitory. It and the college building became part of the Heights Apartment-Hotel after the college moved in 1901 to Sutherland and then to Lakeland to become Florida Southern College.
The former dormitory was later renamed as the Colonial Apartments. It was built in about 1887 and has a Folk Victorian style.
This cemetery got its name because there was only one oak tree by the log cabin near here used for both school and church, with a small graveyard beside it. The cabin replaced a brush arbor which was erected in 1858 for a circuit rider visit. The first known burial here was that of Minerva Howell, on February 2, 1867.
Initially, both blacks and whites were buried here. Later, blacks were dug up and moved to another cemetery.
One of the headstones in this cemetery is that of James Lee Hux, born on October 3, 1871. He was the police chief of Leesburg, and had been tipped off that a moonshine still was operating in a swamp and set out on foot to find it. On February 13, 1924, he was assassinated by a single shotgun blast to the back of his head, fired by moonshiner Willie Stalnaker. Hux's body was found in a shack the following day, and Stalnaker was sentenced to life imprisonment.
After the building used by the black school on Mike St. burned, it moved to Prudence Mobley's building on E. Main St., and then in 1921 to the new Lake County Training School on Washington St. That building was razed in October of 1954.
This school was built for $350,000 on 36 acres, opening in 1954 as Carver Heights High School. P.E. Williams served as its first principal. It became Leesburg Junior High School in 1968.
This church was organized in May of 1926. Early services were held in the home of Agnes Bowyer, and later in the I.O.O.F. Hall.
A two-story brick schoolhouse was built here in 1886, and was the second brick building in Leesburg. In 1901, after the Florida Conference College moved to Sutherland, the building here was sold to the town for $4,000 for use as a public school. It was condemned in 1914 and demolished. Later, the Melon Patch Theatre was built on the site.
The Christian Science Society held its first service on January 5, 1923, holding the early services in the Woman's Club house. They started holding services in this new stucco building on July 8, 1928, built on land donated by Mr. Burton.
The land for this church was a one-acre lot donated by John C. Love in 1881. The congregation had organized as Lone Oak Baptist Church in about 1870, then dissolved in 1872.
A one-room building was erected on W. Main St. in 1883, was enlarged several times, and was outgrown by 1886, when it was rebuilt. In 1927-28, another sanctuary was built here and remains to the south of the newer, more modern sanctuary.
This building was erected in 1935, and its style is described as Spanish Eclectic. A building immediately to the west of it served as the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Station, and was built of wood in 1881.
This Commercial style structure was built in 1935.
This block of stores dates to 1928.
This Commercial style structure was built in 1925.
This Frame Vernacular style home was built in 1935.
This service station of W.B.E. Johnson, showing a Commercial style, was built in 1925.
The main portion of this funeral home was built in about 1880 with a Queen Anne style. It was the residence of John Yates Clark.
This two-story Victorian Revival style home was built at the southeast corner of Main St. and Euclid Ave. for $9,000 in 1892 by E.H. Mote, a developer and hotel owner from Washington, DC. It had clapboarding and shingle siding, a slender turret, and a full-width one-story entrance porch. Mote served eight terms as mayor, and one as a member of the state house of representatives.
In 1918, the house was sold to John S. Morris and his wife, May James Morris. Later owners were Bishop H.C. Morrison and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Stoner, who had moved to Leesburg in 1908. He worked with the church now known as Morrison United Methodist Church, and this was its parsonage.
The house was moved here in September of 1990. Later, the church expanded onto the site formerly occupied by the house.
In 1883, this acre of land was donated by John C. Love for the construction of this church. The church was originally a part of the Sumter Church, which had been organized by Rev. John W. Montgomery in 1869. It was known as the Leesburg Church in 1872, and met at the Hall residence, near Elder Gamble's home. At the time, all of the members were parents, grandparents and uncles of Dr. B. Gamble. Later, they met at Silver Lake.
This building was remodeled in 1923-24. Later, it became the home of Central Baptist Church.
This Folk Victorian style home was built in about 1880.
This is a Frame Vernacular style home, built in 1900.
This congregation organized in 1857. John C. Love donated a one-acre lot for this church in 1882. Love owned most of the land which is now west of 7th St.
This church was founded by George Lee, and Rev. H.B. Brazee served as pastor. The congregation first worshipped in a frame building, then built a church in 1882. The present building was erected on the same site in 1984.
This structure was built in 1925 as the home of the First Christian Church. Masonry Vernacular in style, it has been substantially altered.
This Commercial style building was erected here in about 1890.
Built in about 1890, this building has a Commercial style.
The oldest bank in the city was Leesburg State Bank, founded in 1886 by W.H. Morrison, G.C. Stapleton and H.S. Budd. Four years later, it was renamed Leesburg & County State Bank. It was renamed again in 1903 as Budd & Cooke, Bankers. In 1907, it went back to Leesburg State Bank.
Its new building opened on August 25, 1926. It was five stories tall, and had one of the first elevators in the county.
This museum of the Leesburg Heritage Socity, Inc. has displays relating to the people and events which transformed the rural county seat of Sumter County into a center of population and commerce of Lake County.
Just south of that building in 1881, a one-room frame school building was erected for the private school taught by C.P. Sumemrall. He moved it in about 1885 to the WCTU building, and he later served as the president of The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina.
This was the site of a courthouse built in 1868. Leesburg was the county seat from then until 1882, when it was moved back to Sumterville. The land was then given to E.H. Mote on the condition that he erect a modern hotel. Instead of building it here, he erected the Lakeview Hotel in another location, and the Mote Block here.
The courthouse building was sold to Dr. Anderson. He moved it to S. 5th St., where he printed the Christian Advocate.
Mote completed this row of stores in about 1886. He opened a large dry goods store with ready to wear clothes downstairs, and the upstairs was a modern (for its time) opera house. Performers there included Al Fields and the Corbin Minstrels from Chattanooga.
This Commercial style building was erected in 1881.
This structure was built in 1915 with a Commercial style.
The present building was erected in about 1920 for the sale and repair of automobiles.
In 1885, Joe L. Earman built and ran the Grand Central Hotel here. He utilized the American plan, charging guests $3 per day. Earman also had a livery stable and a transfer business.
This block of stores was built in about 1915.
This building was erected here in 1881.
This Commercial style building dates to about 1915.
This building was constructed in about 1890.
This building was erected in 1893 as the Masonic Hall, later replaced by a larger temple two blocks to the west.
When they did, Leesburg Lodge No. 58 of the International Order of Odd Fellows (organized on September 20, 1917) moved into this hall. They then stuccoed the front, and in 1928 filled in the remainder of the lot with a new brick addition.
John C. Love arrived here in 1869 from Lowndes County, Mississippi. He grew cotton, worked as a civil engineer and surveyor, and ran a general store here. Later, this was the site of a store owned by Herndon & Company. A.L. Miller owned half of it, then acquired the other half.
This was then the site of the Crescent City Drug Store for nearly 100 years, many of them under the management of Albert Bragdon. Across the street was his competitor, the Rexall Drug Store managed by Doc Lindman. In 1968, the drug store moved from here to the corner of Main and 4th Sts.
This building was erected in about 1885.
This Commercial style building was completed in about 1885.
This building, Commercial in style with Art Deco details, was constructed here in 1916.
Masonic Lodge No. 58, F.& A.M. was organized and chartered on January 15, 1868. It first met in the school which sat on the site of the present city hall. The lodge built its own building in 1893 on the corner of Main and 3rd Sts.
This three-story building was completed in 1922, designed by local architect Alan J. McDonough. On the first floor of the building was the Palace Theatre.
A Commercial style building was erected here in about 1885. It was the first brick building in Leesburg, and in 1886 the Leesburg State Bank opened in it. The bank moved across the street in 1926 and the building was torn down after 2000.
A Commercial style building was erected in about 1920, and was torn down about 80 years later.
This is another Commercial style building, dating from about 1885.
This Commercial style building was erected in 1921.
Built in about 1911, this tructure is aptly named "The Commercial Building".
Hermion Lodge No. 27 of the Knights of Pythias organized on June 27, 1892, holding their meetings in Pythian Hall. In it in 1890-91, a private school was taught by F.H. Robinson and Lizzie Miller.
This building was erected in 1920.
This Commercial style building was erected in 1925.
Leesburg is named after early resident Calvin Lee. His family came here from Alabama during the 1840s to take advantage of the nearby rich lands and lakes. The town was settled in 1856, when Evander McIver Lee bought the land from James S. Fussell's sons. Fussell had bought it in 1854 from Thomas and John Robertson, who had settled in the area on July 27, 1843.
The Episcopal Church was organized in Earman's Hall in 1885, with the first services conducted by Rev. Williams from Palatka. The first sanctuary was built in 1889. The stained glass windows date to 1885.
The first building for this school was erected in 1915 for $40,000, containing 12 classrooms plus an auditorium, serving grades 1-12. It was constructed by E.B. Dyer and George I. Davis, with designs prepared by W.H. Carr.
Another building was erected in 1923, and in 1928 it became an elementary school, which it remained until 1974. The auditorium was torn down that year. The complex became Lee Adult Education Center.
This building was erected in 1934 as the post office. It later became an annex to the City Hall.
On this site stood a two-story schoolhouse with private classes taught by J.R. Cunningham in the 1870s. Upstairs was the Masonic Lodge, until they built their own home in 1922.
The Leesburg Public Library started before 1899 as a small circulating library run out of the rear of the A.B. Efird store. Later, it was located on the first floor of the Woman's Club building.
This one-story concrete block building formerly was the law office of Virgil Hawkins, the son of a citrus packing worker and minister in Okahumpka. In 1949, while working in public relations at Bethune-Cookman College, he decided at the age of 41 to enroll at the all-white University of Florida Law School. He was denied admission because he was black.
Hawkins sued to obtain the right to attend the state school, and he was represented by Thurgood Marshall, who was later a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered that Hawkins be allowed to enroll, but the Florida Supreme Court defied the order and the matter remained in court for nearly ten years.
In 1958, he agreed to drop his lawsuit in exchange for a desegregation of the University of Florida and other state universities. A condition of the settlement is that Hawkins himself would not enroll in Florida's white schools. By giving up his right to attend the law school of his choice, he was the cause of integration happening in a peaceful, nonconfrontational fashion.
Hawkins attended a law school in Boston and worked as a janitor to pay the cost. He was finally admitted to The Florida Bar in 1977 at the age of 70. He opened a one-man law office here and died in 1988. His home was located to the west of town at 1221 CR 468.
Later, this building was used as a storeroom for an accountant whose office was next door.
In May of 2001, the University of Florida granted Hawkins a posthumous law degree, the first ever in its 95-year history.
The Leesburg Transfer Company was incorporated on October 31, 1884, and had a narrow gauge trolley line. A single tram, pulled by a mule named Maud, carried passengers and freight from boats arriving at the docks on Lake Harris to the Florida Southern Railroad depot.
This depot was built in 1912.
Much of what is now US 441 was a part of the Dixie Highway, which was the dream of Carl Fisher of Indianapolis. He had made his fortune in the new auto industry, and wanted to build a highway from Chicago to Miami. When news got out, many communities formed associations to lobby for inclusion on the route.
The Dixie Highway Association met in Chattanooga and chose a route passing through Tallahassee and Jacksonville, and proceeding south along the east coast. Frenzied lobbying also produced an inland route passing through Gainesville, Ocala, Winter Park, Orlando, Kissimmee, Bartow and Arcadia, rejoining the coastal route at Palm Beach.
In 1915, Fisher led an auto cavalcade from the Midwest to Miami, popularizing auto trips to Florida. The Dixie Highway was officially open for traffic in October of 1925 from the Canadian border at the northern tip of Michigan to Miami.
A Guide to National Register Sites In Florida, by Florida Department of State (1984)
Black Florida, by Kevin M. McCarthy (Hippocrene Books 1995)
Early History of Leesburg, Florida, by J. Chester Lee (1976)
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)
Historical and Architectural Survey: City of Leesburg Project Report, by Brenda J. Elliott & Associates (1994)
History of Lake County, Florida, by William T. Kennedy (Lake County Historical Society 1988)
Lake County, Florida: A Pictorial History, by Emmett Peter, Jr. (The Donning Company 1994)
Guide to Florida's Historic Architecture, (University of Florida Press 1989)
Memories of Mount Dora and Lake County, by David Edgerton (1983)
The Mote-Morris Archaeology Education Project: A Look Into Leesburg's Past, by Sue Kilpatrick and Kathryn Wright (Oak Park Middle School 1991)
The Pioneer Churches of Florida, by the Daughters of the American Revolution (The Mickler House 1976)
Reflections: Souvenir Reunion Booklet for Lake County Training School and Carver Heights High School (1986)
Through Schoolhouse Doors: A History of Lake County Schools, by The Lake County Retired Teachers Association (Rose Printing Co., Inc. 1982)
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.