The power of imagination is thriving in Gainesville’s Depot Park and its bright and shiny anchor, the Cade Museum.
Since opening in 2016, Gainesville’s Depot Park has sprung to life. The idyllic patch of land teems with picnicking families, joggers, cyclists, couples playing catch with their dogs, life-size chess matches and other boisterous outdoor activities.
Sidewalks weave around ponds surrounded by wispy grasses and wildflowers, luring shorebirds, turtles, butterflies and other wildlife. They join the flocks of humans of all ages attending special events, movie nights, food truck rallies and art festivals.
The vibrant cultural scene of Depot Park flows into the Cade Museum, a shiny copper and glass anchor to the park’s 32 acres of wetlands and hiking trails.
Named in honor of Dr. James Robert Cade—the UF-based physician who, in 1965, led the team that formulated Gatorade—the museum entertains and informs with colorful exhibits, two labs full of experiments and hands-on activities, and diverse, upbeat programming that embodies the inventive spirit of its namesake. Dr. Cade, after all, lived life to the fullest as a scientist, poet, musician, polymath and collector of violins and Studebakers.
The Cade’s appeal to children and families blends seamlessly with the atmosphere of Depot Park, where a playground cajoles kids into cavorting and climbing safely with inclusive and accessible equipment. Swings and ramps lead to jungle gyms, and a panel with plastic spinning gears encourages sensory play. Spinning seats and a slide with rollers keep hands and feet busy.
On Saturday mornings, you can take your little ones to a crafting and story hour in the museum and a trip to the playground, before grabbing lunch at one of the many venues located along Depot Park. In a rehabilitated train depot are the Parkside Convenience sandwich shop, Goldie’s Burgers, Humble Wood Fire Pizza, and Boxcar Beer & Wine Garden.
The train depot is in fact listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its importance to Gainesville’s mid-19th century heritage. It once presided over a track connecting Florida’s east and west coasts. In 2012, the Gainesville Community Redevelopment Agency rehabilitated the Old Gainesville Depot, and today, informative displays detail the area’s rich history while hungry and thirsty visitors belly up to the depot’s bars and cafes for much-needed refreshments.
Just 20 years ago, the scenes of today’s Depot Park and Cade Museum were unimaginable. The area was overhauled from the ground up — and down. Once used for gas, cement and other industrial operations, the site was remediated in the late 1990s, including a “big dig” to remove nearly 150,000 tons of contaminated soil.
When Dr. Cade and the museum’s co-founders started the Cade Museum Foundation in 2004 to build the Cade Museum (which opened in 2018), they chose Depot Park as the location because they believed in what the once industrial site could become. Today, the Cade and Depot Park work together to inspire visitors with both natural beauty and the spirit of invention.
Media contact: Kathryn Rohlwing, Senior Marketing Manager, [email protected]