The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Tallahassee

TALLAHASSEE, a city and the capital of Florida, county seat of Leon co., on the Jacksonville, Pensacola, and Mobile railroad, at the junction of a branch to St. Mark's, 155 m. W. of Jacksonville and 21 m. N. of the gulf of Mexico; lat. 30° 25′ N., lon. 84° 18′ W.; pop. in 1870, 2,023, of whom 820 were white and 1,203 colored; in 1875, about 2,500; including suburbs, 4,000. It is beautifully situated on high ground, and is regularly laid out in a plot a mile square, with broad streets and several public squares, shaded with evergreens and oaks. The abundance and variety of flowers and shrubs give it the appearance of a garden. The business portion is of brick. The public buildings are the capitol (commenced in 1826), a large three-story brick edifice, with pillared entrances opening east and west; the court house, a substantial two-story brick structure; and the West Florida seminary, a large two-story brick building, on a hill commanding a view of the entire city. In the vicinity are beautiful springs, the most celebrated of which is Wakulla, an immense limestone basin, 16 m. distant. The surrounding country is fertile. The city contains the car and machine shops of the railroad company, and has the only cotton factory in the state. The seminary has separate male and female departments, and is supported by the proceeds of the “seminary lands” granted to the state by congress. There are several free public schools, two weekly newspapers, and Baptist, Episcopal, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic churches.—The site of Tallahassee was selected as the seat of the territorial government in 1822; it was laid out in 1824, and incorporated as a city in 1827. In 1843 the entire business portion, then of wood, was destroyed by fire.