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History and culture, page 2

Florida places, landmarks, foodways, roads, buildings, water stories, and the local details that make a place make sense.

Showing 72 notes on page 2 of 3.

Florida context

Ringling puts art and circus on one Sarasota campus

The Ringling in Sarasota ties John and Mable Ringling's legacy to art, circus history, Ca' d'Zan, public stewardship, and a major Florida museum campus.

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Miami-Dade County

Robert Is Here keeps the Redland fruit-stand story personal

Robert Is Here grew from a boy's roadside cucumber table into a family fruit stand in the Redland area of South Miami-Dade.

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Florida context

Sarasota Jungle Gardens keeps old Florida close to the flamingos

Sarasota Jungle Gardens gives the city an old Florida attraction with tropical trails, animal shows, flamingos, and a public story dating to 1939.

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Walton County

Seaside made a walkable town part of Walton's beach story

Seaside is a privately planned community in unincorporated Walton County whose walkable plan became a well-known New Urbanist example.

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Florida context

Selby Gardens keeps Sarasota's bayfront plant story rooted

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens ties Sarasota's bayfront to orchids, air plants, a family property gift, and public garden life.

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Osceola County

Silver Spurs Rodeo keeps Osceola County's ranch side visible

Silver Spurs Rodeo keeps Osceola County tied to ranching, volunteer work, wartime fundraising, and a Central Florida rodeo tradition.

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Florida context

Smallwood Store keeps Chokoloskee's trading-post edge

Smallwood Store on Chokoloskee keeps the Ten Thousand Islands frontier story close to the water, the dock, and the old trading counter.

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Florida context

Solomon's Castle makes Ona feel handmade

Solomon's Castle gives rural Hardee County a shiny handmade landmark built around Howard Solomon's home, galleries, workshop, and recycled-metal imagination.

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Florida context

Sopchoppy worm gruntin' turns a forest skill into a town party

Sopchoppy's worm gruntin' tradition turns an old bait-gathering skill into one of Wakulla County's most memorable local festivals.

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Florida context

St. Augustine Alligator Farm keeps Anastasia Island's reptile story growing

The St. Augustine Alligator Farm began as a late-1800s reptile attraction and grew into a modern zoo with a long Anastasia Island story.

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Florida context

St. Augustine Lighthouse keeps the coast in view

St. Augustine Lighthouse gives the old city a tall coastal landmark tied to ship traffic, shore change, local workers, and maritime history.

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Florida context

St. Augustine's datil pepper keeps local heat on the table

The datil pepper gives St. Augustine and St. Johns County a food story with local farms, family recipes, uncertain origins, and serious heat.

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Florida context

St. Pete Shuffleboard keeps Mirror Lake playful

The St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club gives Mirror Lake a century-old game story, from two courts to a landmark club with Friday night play.

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Volusia County

Stetson Mansion keeps DeLand's Gilded Age side visible

Stetson Mansion gives DeLand a bold Gilded Age story tied to John B. Stetson, unusual design, winter society, and early electric work.

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Pinellas County

Sunken Gardens keeps St. Pete's old roadside garden alive

Sunken Gardens gives St. Petersburg a living garden story from the old roadside-attraction era, with tropical plants, birds, and a restored history center.

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Florida context

Tampa Theatre keeps downtown's night sky indoors

Tampa Theatre gives downtown Tampa a 1926 movie palace with stars overhead, a rescued landmark story, and a working stage.

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Pinellas County

The Don CeSar keeps St. Pete Beach's pink palace story

The Don CeSar gives St. Pete Beach a 1928 resort landmark with a wartime chapter and a second life that began in the 1970s.

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Florida region

The Florida Cracker Trail keeps cattle-road memory on modern routes

The Florida Cracker Trail Association's annual ride remembers cattle history between Bradenton and Fort Pierce along a route that changes with modern roads and host ranches.

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Leon County

The Grove Museum keeps Tallahassee's Call-Collins story open

The Grove Museum in Tallahassee keeps a Call-Collins family house open for a careful look at power, slavery, public service, and civil rights.

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Miami-Dade County

The Kampong keeps Coconut Grove close to a plant explorer's home

The Kampong in Coconut Grove keeps Miami close to David Fairchild's plant world, with tropical gardens, old grounds, and reserved visits.

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Florida context

Theater of the Sea keeps Islamorada's old quarry story swimming

Theater of the Sea in Islamorada turns an old Keys quarry setting into a long-running marine park with family, railroad, and island history.

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Florida context

Whitehall shows how Palm Beach became a season

Whitehall, Henry Flagler's Palm Beach mansion, shows how railroads, winter wealth, and Gilded Age design helped shape the island's image.

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Franklin County

Apalachicola starts the cooling story with John Gorrie

John Gorrie's ice-making work in Apalachicola gives Florida a small-town link to refrigeration and air conditioning history.

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Florida context

Arcadia rodeo keeps DeSoto cow country visible

Arcadia's rodeo tradition keeps DeSoto County's ranching and cattle identity close to downtown instead of tucked away in the past.

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Florida context

Blountstown Pioneer Settlement holds Panhandle daily life

The Panhandle Pioneer Settlement in Blountstown gathers buildings, tools, and exhibits that show everyday life in Calhoun County and the wider Panhandle.

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Florida context

Bulow Plantation keeps Flagler's sugar story in the woods

Bulow Plantation near Flagler Beach preserves sugar-mill remains tied to East Florida plantation history.

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Brevard County

Bumper 8 started Cape Canaveral's launch story

The first rocket launched from Cape Canaveral in 1950, long before Space Coast launch days became part of local life.

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Bay County

Camp Helen keeps Bay County's company-resort story

Camp Helen State Park adds a quieter Bay County story: company-resort buildings, Lake Powell, Gulf-side public land, and a Panama City Beach mailing address outside the city.

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Florida context

Cassadaga is Volusia's spiritualist camp story

Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp is a small Volusia County community with a religious, historic, and curious old-Florida feel.

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Levy County

Cedar Key became the Gulf end of an early Florida railroad

The Florida Railroad linked Fernandina and Cedar Key in 1861, making the Gulf port the western end of an early cross-state rail route.

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Walton County

Chipley Park and Lake DeFuniak anchor the historic district

Chipley Park and Lake DeFuniak sit at the heart of DeFuniak Springs' historic district, with different directions for each activity.

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Hendry County

Clewiston Museum keeps the sweet town story grounded

Clewiston's museum helps explain how Lake Okeechobee, sugar, cattle, fishing, fossils, and wartime aviation shaped this Hendry County city.

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Miami-Dade County

Coral Castle keeps South Dade's stone mystery

Coral Castle near Homestead is part sculpture garden, part engineering puzzle, and part old Florida roadside mystery.

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Florida context

Crescent City keeps Putnam between lakes and citrus history

Crescent City gives Putnam County a lake-town story tied to citrus, steamship travel, old street grids, and downtown preservation.

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Alachua County

Cross Creek keeps Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings close

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park keeps a writer's Cross Creek farm close to the Florida land that shaped her books.

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Polk County

Cypress Gardens started Florida's theme park story

Winter Haven's Cypress Gardens opened in 1936 and gave Florida its first theme park before the big Central Florida park era.

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Florida context

Dade Battlefield asks Sumter for quiet attention

Dade Battlefield Historic State Park in Bushnell preserves a serious Second Seminole War site while also serving as a community park.

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Pinellas County

Dali Museum makes St. Pete feel a little surreal

The Dali Museum gives St. Petersburg a major art story with a collection built around Salvador Dali's work.

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Volusia County

Daytona's Streamline Hotel helped organize NASCAR

NASCAR's organizing story runs through Daytona Beach, where racing leaders gathered at the Streamline Hotel in 1947.

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Florida context

De Soto National Memorial needs careful contact history

De Soto National Memorial is a waterfront Manatee County stop where the scenery and the contact history both deserve care.

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Florida context

Deering Estate keeps Miami's Stone House and mangroves together

Deering Estate in Palmetto Bay ties Miami-Dade history, the 1896 Richmond Cottage, the 1922 Stone House, and Biscayne Bay land into one public place.

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Pinellas County

Dunedin keeps its Scottish roots in public view

Dunedin's Scottish roots still show up in names, parks, public symbols, and everyday culture.

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Florida context

Egmont Key keeps Tampa Bay's island fort story offshore

Egmont Key State Park adds lighthouse, fort, refuge, and ferry-planning context to the mouth of Tampa Bay.

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Nassau County

Fernandina Beach carries the Isle of Eight Flags story

Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island carries the Isle of Eight Flags story, one of Florida's clearest examples of layered coastal history.

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Duval County

Firehouse Subs started in Jacksonville

Former firefighter brothers Chris and Robin Sorensen opened Firehouse Subs in Jacksonville in 1994; its public-safety foundation followed in 2005.

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Polk County

Florida Southern keeps Frank Lloyd Wright in plain sight

Florida Southern College gives Lakeland a major Frank Lloyd Wright story that many visitors do not expect in Central Florida.

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Florida context

Fort Matanzas is the St. Augustine history stop with a ferry clock

Fort Matanzas is a smaller St. Augustine-area history stop where ferry timing, weather, passes, and NPS notices shape the visit.

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St. Lucie County

Fort Pierce's Highwaymen story has a self-guided trail

The trail begins at Seven Gables and follows markers, studios, public art, and the Lincoln Park story behind the 26 Florida Highwaymen.

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Alachua County

Gainesville gave Gatorade its first sideline

Gatorade began at the University of Florida as a practical answer to heat, football practice, and tired players.

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Florida context

Gamble Plantation keeps Ellenton's sugar history visible

Gamble Plantation Historic State Park in Ellenton keeps Manatee County's plantation history visible, including sugar, debt, war, and preservation.

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Orange County

Golf Channel launched a single-sport network from Orlando

Golf Channel launched from southwest Orlando on January 17, 1995, as the first cable network devoted to one sport.

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Clay County

Green Cove Springs Spring Park is Clay's riverfront front door

Spring Park gives Green Cove Springs a compact riverfront center with a spring, pool, pier, park space, and local rules to check.

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Florida context

Greenville keeps Ray Charles close to home

Greenville in Madison County preserves the Ray Charles Childhood Home, giving a small Panhandle town a powerful music-history connection.

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Gilchrist County

Hart Springs is Gilchrist's Suwannee side door

Hart Springs gives Gilchrist County a spring-fed swimming, camping, and river-access story tied to the Suwannee River.

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Pinellas County

Hooters started with one Clearwater restaurant

The first Hooters opened in Clearwater in 1983, giving Pinellas County a recognizable restaurant-chain origin story.

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Dixie County

Horseshoe Beach is Dixie's end-of-the-road Gulf town

Horseshoe Beach gives Dixie County a small Gulf-front fishing and boating story, with practical access details to check first.

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Florida context

Jacksonville's silent film years came before Hollywood

Jacksonville drew silent-film studios in the early 1900s, and Norman Studios keeps a rare piece of that history visible.

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Monroe County

John Pennekamp made Key Largo's reef a state park

Dedicated in 1960, John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park protects about 70 nautical square miles off Key Largo as the country's first undersea park.

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Florida context

Key West chickens are part of the street scene

Key West chickens feel like island color, but the city also treats feeding, trapping, health, and relocation as real local issues.

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Florida context

Key West gave Pan Am its first Havana hop

Pan American Airways used a Key West-to-Havana flight in 1927, then opened regular service from Key West the next year.

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Florida context

Kissimmee helped Tupperware parties change the sales map

Brownie Wise made Florida central to the Tupperware party story, turning a hard-to-explain product into a social sales force.

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Florida context

Koreshan State Park keeps Estero strange in a good way

Koreshan State Park in Estero preserves the buildings and story of the Koreshan Unity, one of Florida's most unusual planned communities.

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Florida region

Lake Alfred and Winter Haven share Florida's frozen-orange-juice story

Frozen concentrated orange juice came from a Polk County research network involving federal and Florida citrus researchers in Winter Haven and Lake Alfred.

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Florida context

Lake Butler trail keeps Union's railroad line visible

The Palatka-to-Lake Butler State Trail gives Union County a public way to read an old rail corridor from the ground.

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Columbia County

Lake City used to answer to Alligator

Lake City's older Alligator name connects Columbia County's downtown to Seminole history, local markers, and a story people still remember.

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Highlands County

Lake Placid murals turn Highlands history into a walk

More than 40 murals turn Lake Placid's local history into a downtown walk with hidden details, sound, and public art.

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Jefferson County

Letchworth-Love preserves Florida's tallest Native American ceremonial mound

Letchworth-Love Mounds Archaeological State Park preserves Florida's tallest Native American ceremonial mound in Jefferson County.

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Palm Beach County

Lilly Pulitzer's shift dress started at a juice stand

Lilly Pulitzer's bright shift dress began as a Palm Beach juice-stand uniform designed to hide citrus stains.

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Suwannee County

Live Oak's depot keeps Suwannee County near the tracks

The Suwannee County Historical Museum in Live Oak keeps the county's railroad, farm, and local-history story close to downtown.

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Florida context

Madira Bickel Mound keeps Terra Ceia's deep history close

Madira Bickel Mound State Archaeological Site near Terra Ceia preserves a small but important Native mound site in Manatee County.

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Florida context

Maitland Art Center feels like a hidden studio world

Maitland Art Center began as a 1930s art colony and still gives Central Florida a rare mix of carved walls, gardens, and working art space.

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Florida context

McLarty Treasure Museum keeps the 1715 fleet near the sand

McLarty Treasure Museum at Sebastian Inlet connects the Treasure Coast name to the 1715 Spanish fleet and the survivors' camp story.

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Last checked July 5, 2026. Use the official source linked from a note, or the office named there, before relying on a Florida rule, fee, deadline, permit, public record, or local detail.

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