Original print date: May/Jun 1993 It was shortly after daybreak when we launched our kayaks from the weathered, wooden dock that extrudes from the floodplain woodlands along the middle reaches of the St. Marks River. The late-winter air was cool…
Original print date: Jul/Aug 2003 Sharp palmettos sliced at the arms of inexperienced Army soldiers who boarded boats at the Gulf of Mexico coastline south of Tallahassee in a simulated attack on Dog Island. Darkness made each movement perilous, and…
Original print date: Jan/Feb 2001 Y2K? As the year began, all sorts of dire predictions filled the air, but we seemed to dodge the millennium bullet just fine. In fact, we almost made it through the entire year. It was…
Original print date: Winter 1982 Tallahassee may not be the biggest media market in the state (Nielson ranks it 135th in the nation), but it still has a variety of radio and TV stations to entertain and inform its residents.…
Downtown Curbside Market in the 1910s, located where City Hall is today Original print date: Nov/Dec 1997 The son of a physician and a physician himself, George Saxon Palmer watched Tallahassee grow from a sleepy little town of 5,637 in 1920…
Porches remained popular through the latter 20th century as evidenced by photo, taken in 1968. State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory Original print date: Sept/Oct 1994 For many Southerners, their “front rooms” are places for end-of-the-day discussion, those stolen…
It was a summer afternoon in 1930 when I stole the governor’s dog. I tried to convince myself that the dog followed me home, so it wasn’t really stealing. But I was a seven-year-old Sunday school boy, and I knew…
Original print date: Nov/Dec 2004 About this story Charles Chaires, the son of Florida’s first millionaire, despite his vast inherited riches, proved unable to deter his wife Martha’s affections for his nephew, Ben. The illicit union produced a child and…
Original print date: Spring 1987 The names of some of Tallahassee’s most familiar landmarks can be traced to two patriarchs who came here in the early 1800s. Betton Hills, Meginnis Arm (the road name is spelled with one “s”) Lively…
Original print date: Spring 1984 There once was a year in which Alabama offered to buy Florida’s Panhandle — and Florida almost agreed to sell! It was in 1869 that representatives of Alabama and Florida actually signed a cession agreement…
Original print date: May/Jun 1995 It was a time of conjecture and even mystery. Strange words like “scoria,” “ash,” “pumice” and even “volcano” seemed to hang on every lip. All eyes strained toward the southeast where, some 30 miles distant…
Original print date: Fall 1984 When folklorist J. Russell Reaver talks of the legends and lore of North Florida, nature listens. A thunderstorm appeared just minutes into an interview at his Tallahassee home. Then the power went off, shrouding his…
Original print date: Nov/Dec 1993 The letter was angry in its tone … ‘‘I am a production expert with street smarts. I want those idle rich in Killearn to dig up that blasted golf course and plant potatoes. They aren’t…
Original print date: Fall 1987 The John H. “Ben” Phipps family is one of the few “Yankee” plantation owners to put their roots down in Tallahassee and become a part of the community. Through their personal efforts and the Phipps…
Original print date: Jan/Feb 2005 In our search for an ideal community, there’s no need to go to the drawing board. In the heart of Tallahassee, the area now called Midtown is what urban planners strive to create: a living,…
Original print date: Spring 1983 Can you name all seven of Tallahassee’s downtown parks? If so, you’re unusual. Many people don’t realize that there are seven parks, or that each is named for an individual. Originally the strip that encompasses…
Original print date: Fall 1987From cotton to quail to upscale living — each of these in turn has typified Bradfordville, the north Leon county community where 150 years of history lie just beneath the surface of daily life. Not much…
How Tallahassee reacted during the Civil War.
