Filled with buildings dating back to the mid-19th century, Gainesville has more historical value than many realize. Throughout the years, these historic homes have been delicately preserved and restored, but residents often don’t realize the true value of an area that has much more to offer than a typical college town.
By preserving these historic sites, the city of Gainesville and surrounding areas maintain an intrinsic historic value along with an unparalleled aesthetic appeal.
Howard House-Kelley Lodge (Birth & Wellness Center of Gainesville LLC)
Date built: 1883
Builder: Andrew Howard
Restorers: Mark and Mary Barrow
Few realize the history behind the Birth & Wellness Center of Gainesville LLC. Formerly known as the Howard House-Kelley Lodge, it was constructed in 1883 in the Duckpond area, then known as the Northeast Residential Historic District, which was also the first suburb in the area. It was originally intended to serve as a winter home for glass manufacturer Andrew Howard and underwent many renovations under various owners. At one time, the building served as Kelley Lodge, where students stayed in the 1930s and 1940s, and later was used as a Salvation Army headquarters.
In 1987, cardiologist Mark Barrow bought the building from the Salvation Army.
Barrow and his wife, Mary, completely restored the residence into Victorian-style medical offices.
“We had a parlor, not a waiting office,” Barrow said.
The building’s stick architecture and distinctive Victorian style still set it apart, and it now serves as a birthing center dedicated to assisting women in the labor process.
Historic Haile Homestead at Kanapaha Plantation
Date built: 1856
Builder: Thomas Evans and Esther Haile
Restorers: Alachua Conservation Trust and the Haile family trust
Completed in 1856, this 6,200-square-foot house was built to help establish a 1,500-acre Sea Island cotton plantation for 66 enslaved laborers living in 18 cabins. Thomas Evans Haile and his wife, Esther, were the original owners and built the home out of heart pine and cypress. The Hailes named the home “Kanapaha,” an Indian word meaning “small thatched house.”
The constructers of the house used a brace-frame construction along with mortise and tenon joinery, an antiquated method of joining pieces of wood.
The Haile house was boarded up and abandoned by the early 1930s and remained undiscovered until the mid-1970s, when movie producer Victor Nuñez found it and filmed the movie “Gal Young Un” on the site. It was restored in the mid-1990s using a State of Florida grant to the Alachua Conservation Trust. Although the state was directly involved, the Haile family was also instrumental in the process.
The house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 and has been open to the public for tours since 2001.
One of the biggest attractions in the house is its “Talking Walls.” The Hailes and their guests wrote notes on the walls in nearly every room and closet of the house, which now contains more than 12,500 words spanning seven decades, the oldest dating back to 1859.
President and historian of Historic Haile Homestead Inc., Karen Kirkman,said the house holds ancient records, old pictures and even furniture made by an enslaved craftsman, all of which are on display during the Haile house tour.
Magnolia Plantation (Baird Mansion)
Date built: 1885
Builder: Dudley Williams
Restorers: Joe and Cindy Montalto
The Magnolia Plantation, constructed in 1885 by lumberman Dudley Williams, is located in the Historic Bed and Breakfast District of Gainesville. The area includes buildings from as early as the 1870s, when Gainesville’s phosphate industry and nearby railroad generated a flourishing economy. The Magnolia Plantation, locally known as the Baird Mansion, was a home for businessman Emmett Baird for almost 70 years.
In 1990, current owners Joe and Cindy Montalto purchased the Baird Mansion and restored it into the Magnolia Plantation Bed and Breakfast Inn. The building, which was fully restored in order to maintain its original floor plan and Victorian style, stands out among the surrounding cottages and bungalows.
“You could have Tiny Tim living next to some millionaire,” Joe Montalto said. “That’s how this neighborhood evolved.”
Dunbar Hotel (Pleasant Place)
Date built: 1936
Builder: Jackson and Sophronia Dunbar
Restorers: City of Gainesville
Pleasant Place, a traditional maternity residence founded in 1999 to aid teen moms, has helped more than just young girls throughout its noteworthy past. Founded around 1936 as the Dunbar Hotel, the building is located in the Pleasant Street District, the first predominately African American community in Florida. The Dunbar Hotel was the only hotel in Gainesville willing to serve the African American community from the 1930s to the 1950s, prior to desegregation. The Dunbar family welcomed touring businessmen, educators and musicians including Duke Ellington, B.B. King and Ella Fitzgerald.
Following desegregation, the Dunbar Hotel was left to deteriorate and slowly began to wither away throughout the 1980s. However, in 1995, the City of Gainesville used grant funds to restore the property and transformed it into Pleasant Place.
A small cottage known as the Pleasant Place Little House was acquired on the property in 2002. It is now used to provide transitional housing for the local homeless.