NPS Form 10-900-bMB No. 1024-0018 \ OMB No. 1024-0018 (Rev. June 1991) } United States Department of the Interior National Park Service NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES MULTIPLE PROPERTY DOCUMENTATION FORM This form is used for documenting multiple property groups relating to one or several historic contexts. See instructions in How to Complete the Multiple Property Documentation form (National Register Bulletin 16B). Complete each item by entering the requested information. For additional space, use continuation sheets (Form 10-900-a). Use a typewriter, word processor, or computer to complete all items. x_ New Submission Amended A. Name of Multiple Property Listing Florida's Historic Railroad Resources B. Associated Historic Contexts (Name each associated historic context identifying theme, geographical area, and chronological period for each.) I. Antebellum Growth, 1830-1860 VI. Great Depression, 1929-1941 II. Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861-1880 VII. World War II and the End of the Steam Era, III. Disston Era Expansion and Consolidation, 1881-1903 1942-1949 IV. Progressive Era and World War I, 1904-1920 V. Florida Land Boom, 1921-1928 C. Form Prepared by name/title Sidney Johnston/Historian & Barbara E. Mattick/Deputv SHPO for Survey & Registration organization Bureau of Historic Preservation date February 2001 street & number 500 S. Bronough Street telephone (850) 487-2333 city or town Tallahassee State Florida zip code 32399-0250 D. Certification As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended, I hereby certify that this documentation form meets the National Register documentation standards and sets forth requirements for the listing of related properties consistent with the National Register criteria. This submission meets the procedural and professional requirements set forth in 36 CFR Part 60 and the Secretary of the Interior's Standards and Guidelines for Archeology and Historic Preservation. (I I See continuation sheet for additional comments. /is/ oo i Date State Historic Preservation Officer, Division of Historical Resources State or Federal agency and bureau 1 hereby certify that this multiple property documentation form has been approved by the National Register as a basis for evaluating related properties for listing in the National Register. 4(61x0! <Vj{"lBignature of the Keeper 1 Datelt>f Aq lion NPS Form 10-900-a OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES CONTINUATION SHEET Section number E Page 1 Florida's Historic Railroad Resources Historic Contexts, 1830-1949 Introduction The railroad had a profound influence on the development of Florida, helping to advance the state from a wilderness into one of the leading tourist and agricultural regions of the country. Florida's rail system, like that of many other states in the American South, began to take form in the Antebellum period. Private companies with some state support developed small lines, generally without connections to larger trunk lines. Later, growth accelerated to a feverish pace and large corporations consolidated those holdings, only to relinquish some of their gains in the twentieth century. The long narrow form of the state, with its wetlands and rivers, challenged companies in their effort to construct and update roadbeds and bridges. By 1890 a network of rails tunneled settlers deep into the peninsula, and the cities of Jacksonville, Pensacola, and Tampa emerged as important ports. Soon freight cars were bound for northern markets filled with citrus and other agricultural products. Repair shops and division headquarters provided jobs in numerous communities. The railroad in many practical ways created an easier way of life and stimulated the Florida economy. As railroad historian Gabriel Kolko observed, "From the end of the Civil War until the beginning of the First World War, the railroad was a central, if not the major, element in the political, economic, and social development of the United States." Kolko's periodization aptly defines Florida's golden age of railroading and the impact of the industry on the development of the state. During the interval, railroad companies emerged and matured as America's first big business, a thesis developed by Johns Hopkins University historian Alfred Chandler. Railroad companies, Chandler asserts, "were the first American business to work out the modem ways of finance, management, labor relations, competition, and government regulation...not because they were a particularly intelligent or perceptive breed of entrepreneurs, but because they had to. Their capitalization, their plant and equipment, their running expenses and labor force were much larger than those of any other business of the day." Intensely competitive, these entrepreneurs and managers unceasingly tried to bring about conditions for greater stability within their respective corporations and dominate Florida's transportation industry. The ground they broke extended well beyond balance sheets, labor strife, and rate wars, for those systems opened for settlement many new areas of the Far West and the Deep South, including Florida, parts of which had been relatively isolated for centuries. Prominent businessmen in Florida who contributed to this process include William Dudley Chipley, H. Reiman Duval, Henry Flagler, Henry Plant, and David Levy Yulee. Tangible reminders of their vision and legacy stand in many small rural Florida communities and large cities alike, testifying to the strength of one of the state's most enduring land-based transportation systems. 1 Gabriel Kolko, Railroad and Regulation, 1877-1916 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1965), 1, 7; Alfred Chandler, comp., and ed., The Railroads: The Nation's First Big Business (New York, Chicago, and Burlingame: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1965), 9. NFS Form 10-900-a OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES CONTINUATION SHEET Section number E Page 2 Florida's Historic Railroad Resources Antebellum Growth, 1830-1860 Important developments prior to the American Civil War helped set the stage for construction projects during the late nineteenth century. During the Antebellum period, Florida reflected a larger pattern of railroad development in the southern United States, which altered existing patterns of agriculture, commerce, industry, and settlement. The nation's first great railroad boom surged forward in the 1840s. Early lines had appeared in the 1830s with some 2,818 miles constructed primarily in the Northeast by 1840. Nationwide track mileage increased from 9,021 in 1850 to 30,626 miles a decade later. Florida, which became a state in 1845, was still a virtual wilderness during the period, remained on the fringes of early railroad activity. It possessed no significant trunk line that contributed to a regional network.2 Most of Florida's earliest railroad companies were private enterprises, reflecting a larger national mindset of resisting public involvement in the economy and following the general railroad building trends of other southern states. Most southern businessmen built their transportation systems Colonial-style: that is, the networks bound plantation districts to important ports, generally bypassing the upcountry. And although southern states had a higher percentage of state-sponsored railroads than northern states, most states had no general program of internal improvements. Alabama, Georgia, and Texas each had small blocks of representatives who lobbied for state support of rail systems, but preservation of the slavery system by the landed gentry retarded interest in town building and the creation of a transportation network.3 Numerous railroad charters were granted in Florida, but only twelve companies constructed tracks, most of those relatively short runs limited to the northern one-third of the state. The Tallahassee Railroad, completed in 1836, linked the state capital and St. Marks. A legislative grant of 500,000 acres was sold by the company and the monies applied to the construction. The Lake Wimico & St. Joseph Canal & Railroad Company completed a nine-mile stretch near the Gulf of Mexico in 1836. By 1850, the state contained twenty-one miles of operational track and only the Tallahassee Railroad was deemed a success. The Florida, Alabama & Georgia Railroad, reorganized in 1851 as the Alabama & Florida, proposed a line between Pensacola and the Alabama- Florida border and eventually operated forty-seven miles of track within the state's borders.4 Florida's internal improvement land grant system emerged in the 1840s. The first internal improvement monies for the construction of canals, railroads, and roads became available in the state in September 1841, when the United States government granted the territorial government 500,000 acres of land to be sold and the proceeds 2Chandler, Railroads, 3, 13. 3Gavin Wright, Old South, New South: Revolutions in the Southern Economy Since the Civil War (New York: Basic Books, Inc., Publishers, 1986), 22-24. 4George W. Pettengill, Jr., "The Story of the Florida Railroads,, 1834-1903," Railway and Locomotive Historical Society 86 (July 1952), 12-19, 21, 24-26; John F. Stover, The Railroads of the South, 1865-1900: A Study in Finance and Control (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1955), 5. N PS Form 10-900-a OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 (8-86) United States Department