Newport, Florida
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Newport, Florida | |
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Newport is a small unincorporated community in Wakulla County, Florida, United States of America, situated where U.S. Highway 98 meets State Road 267.
History
1840s
In 1841, the current Newport area and the community of
After the hurricane of September 13, 1843, washed away all of the homes, buildings and railroad tracks in Port Leon promoters Nathaniel Hamlin, James Ormond, Peter H. Swain and several others met a week later and made plans to establish another town.
They spent several days searching for a site safe from the sea, then selected a piece of land on the west side of the
The promoters named this new town Newport and platted it with four streets running east and west. The streets were New, Washington, Market and Adams. Those that extended north and south bore the names Bay, Pine, Elm and West. These street names were remarkably similar to those in
A seat of government
Since most of Port Leon was destroyed by the storm, Newport became the seat of government in Wakulla County on Feb. 1, 1844. One of the priorities became removing the debris from the St. Marks River, a project discussed and attempted almost 20 years earlier. Dredging was undertaken, but it failed to really deepen or remove many of the rocks from the river. Daniel Ladd, Newport's leading cotton merchant, solved the situation by ordering a 100-foot steam tugboat named Spray, later the CSS Spray.[3] Ladd used this craft to tow vessels into and out of Newport.
Although those involved in the cotton brokerage businesses built several
A plank road
Newport competed as a port with nearby St. Marks that offered a rail connection to Tallahassee that, in the beginning, featured mule-pulled train cars. Inland cotton growers and shippers through the rail terminus at Tallahassee would carry their cargo to these river ports on the St. Marks River from which they would be carried to other ports and processing points along the gulf coast and eastern seaboard.
Although several roads led to Newport, the idea of a "plank road" became popular in the mid-19th century as an alternative to high railway charges and road-building problems. This type of road was introduced by the Spanish centuries earlier when they created routes of travel by laying logs across low places. Ladd, Ormond, John Denham, William McNaught and several others in Newport backed a plan to build a plank road proposed by Green and Joseph Chaires, wealthy Leon County planters.
The Florida Legislature incorporated the Georgia and
Eventually, the rail connection from St. Marks was upgraded to accommodate locomotive-pulled trains and the St. Marks port became dominant over Newport with their wood plank road to Tallahassee. Newport dwindled but remains intact with a handful of residents.
1850s
In 1856, the
Attractions
Newport has Newport Springs, a sulfur spring said to have healing properties. The spring empties into the St. Marks River. Below the springs there are a series of caves. Wakulla County has taken over maintenance of Newport Springs.[6]
Photo gallery
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Steamboat Walkatomica loaded with passengers running on the waterway (1885)
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Newport springs and swimming pool (1921)
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Houses at sulphur springs (1920s)
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Florida State College for Women "F Club" (1920)
Nearby attractions
References
- ISBN 978-0-8078-2688-1
- ^ Apalachicola Area Historical Society
- ^ Haze Gray, Naval History
- ^ Florida Natural Areas Inventory: Wakulla County
- ^ Excerpts from an article by Marlene Womack, Historian.
- ^ Florida Photographic Collection in Florida Photographic Collection, Newport, Florida photos, RC00182