Newnansville, Florida facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
|
|
Newnansville Town Site
|
|
Entrance to the Newnansville Cemetery, one of the few surviving remains of the town
|
|
| Location | Alachua County, Florida, USA |
|---|---|
| Nearest city | Alachua |
| NRHP reference No. | 74000608 |
| Added to NRHP | December 4, 1974 |
Newnansville, Florida was one of the very first American towns built in the middle of Florida. It became the main government center, or county seat, for Alachua County in 1828.
Newnansville was also a very important place during the Second Seminole War. At that time, it was one of the biggest towns in Florida. However, in the 1850s, a new train track called the Florida Railroad was built, but it didn't go through Newnansville.
Because of this, the county seat moved to a new town called Gainesville in 1854. Newnansville slowly started to shrink. When another train track bypassed the town in 1884, most people moved away. They started a new town nearby, which is now the City of Alachua. By 1900, Newnansville was completely empty.
Today, the old town site is about 1.5 miles northeast of Alachua. You can find it off US 441 on S.R. 235. The site includes parts of two old cemeteries. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 4, 1974, because of its historical importance.
History of Newnansville
Newnansville has a long and interesting history, showing how towns grew and changed in early Florida.
Building the Bellamy Road
In 1824, Florida had only recently become a territory of the United States. This was also the same year that Alachua County was created. The U.S. Congress decided to build Florida's first federal highway.
This important road would connect Pensacola in the west to St. Augustine in the east. John Bellamy, a large farm owner from Monticello, was hired to build it. The project took two years and cost $20,000.
The road became known as the Bellamy Avenue. It was a very important highway until the Civil War. After that, other roads became more popular. The Bellamy Road passed through several places, including the town of Traxler, the old Santa Fe Taloca Spanish Mission, and the area that would later become Newnansville.
The Rise and Fall of Newnansville
The Dell brothers had visited the Alachua County area earlier, during a conflict called the "Patriot War". They returned to settle there in 1814. In 1826, they built a post office on the Bellamy Avenue, which they called Dell's. This post office became the very first part of the new settlement.
In 1828, the government officially named the small community Newnansville. It was named after Daniel Newnan, a hero from the Patriot War. The town was also made the county seat, meaning it was the main government center for Alachua County.
From 1835 to 1842, Newnansville and a nearby place called Fort Gilleland became safe places for many people. These people had been forced to leave their homes because of the Second Seminole War.
After the war, Newnansville grew and became a busy center for trade and large farms called plantations. The town mainly produced crops like corn and cotton. After the Civil War, they also grew citrus fruits.
Newnansville remained the Alachua County seat until 1854. There was a short period between 1832 and 1839 when it wasn't the county seat, but it returned to that role. In 1854, the county seat moved to the newly built railroad town of Gainesville. The courthouse also moved to Gainesville in 1856. This was the beginning of the end for Newnansville.
Two main things caused Newnansville to continue to decline. In 1884, the Savannah, Florida, and Western Railroad built its tracks about a mile and a half away from the town. A new town, Alachua, quickly grew up along this new train line.
Then, in the winter of 1886, a very bad freeze destroyed the citrus crops. This, along with not having a train connection, made businesses and people move away. They went to the growing communities of Alachua and Gainesville. By the mid-1900s, all that was left of Newnansville were two cemeteries and the remains of an old road.
