Restoration of Cultural and Historic Resources

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Florida’s state park system is responsible for restoration, preservation, and interpretation of many of Florida’s most significant cultural resources. These historic sites are found at state parks throughout the peninsula, and include everything from Native American ceremonial mounds to four centuries of military fortifications; from Florida Cracker homesteads to elegant historic homes; from lighthouses to Calusa shell middens. We maintain and restore these artifacts of our heritage so that future generations of visitors will experience Florida’s remarkable history firsthand. The Florida Park Service works closely with historic preservation professionals to insure that the most up to date preservation treatments are utilized. Our partner in managing these resources, the Florida Division of Historical Resources, assists through providing grant funding, training, and consultation for our historic preservation projects.

Though the effects of time have deteriorated some of our historic structures, the concerted effort of concerned citizens, historic preservationists and park professionals has assured that many of these resources will be around for decades to come. Below are just a few examples.

Fort Clinch Historic State Park

Fort Clinch - Fernandina Beach, Florida

Historic Fort Clinch, circa 1850, located on Florida’s northeast coast at the tip of Amelia Island at Fort Clinch State Park, is perhaps the finest remaining example of third system forts remaining in the U.S. Severe erosion on the shore surrounding Fort Clinch had threatened this remarkable structure for many years. The east side of the fort was in danger of collapse into the St. Mary’s Inlet, particularly during storm events. In 1998, the Florida Park Service, with the assistance of the park’s support group “Friends of Fort Clinch,” secured a $2 Million grant through Florida DEP’s Division of Beaches and Coastal Systems to develop and construct a solution. A series of “T” shaped finger groins were completed in May of 1999 providing unprecedented protection from the erosive effects of the Atlantic Ocean.

Today, through historic preservation grant funds, building roofs are being replaced, and 128 period windows are being constructed using original design and materials. The Friends of Fort Clinch have already funded replacement of over 30 cypress doors, all hand made to original specifications by volunteers. The future looks bright for Fort Clinch, Florida’s premier Civil War living history site.

Dudley Farm Historic State Park

Historic Farmstead - Newberry, Florida

Dudley Farm Historic State Park is among the newest Florida State Parks. The property was settled by the Dudley family before the Civil War and stayed in the family until Miss Myrtle Dudley, the remaining granddaughter of Captain P.B.H.Dudley, conveyed the farmhouse and its surrounding acreage to the State. Miss Myrtle lived in her childhood home until her death in 1996.

Dudley Farm represents the evolution of a Florida society of independent cotton farmers and serves as a living illustration of changes in farming practices from the 1850s to the mid-20th century. Archaeology is used as a planning and research tool in tracing life patterns throughout the farm.

Eighteen historic structures make up the built environment of this piece of the Real Florida. The focus of cultural resource management at Dudley has been returning the farm to its appearance in the World War I era. Work on the farmhouse and its well, cistern, and detached kitchen as well as the nearby sweet potato cellar, cane syrup furnace, and smokehouse are almost complete. Split rail fences, barns, stables, sheds, and other outbuildings are in daily use, and management consists of maintaining them. Trees and vines contribute to the cultural landscape. Like other area farm families, the Dudleys planted orchards and arbors, harvesting and processing their bounties as the seasons passed. The family made beauty spots as well. Restoring their front dooryard garden, with its old-fashioned roses and amaryllis has been a labor of love led by volunteers.

Crops such as sugar cane and sweet potatoes are cultivated using mules. Chickens work their way through the barnyard, and Florida scrub cattle are pastured on the site. Pecans and fruit trees and grapevines bear as they always have.

While Miss Dudley donated the core farmstead to the state, two additional land purchases helped ensure that development would not engulf the home place, and the nearby landscape will also be preserved and restored.

The park’s CSO, Newberry High School students and faculty, and many local volunteers have been active and enthusiastic partners in the reestablishment of this authentic “working” farm.

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Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park

Cape Florida Lighthouse - Key Biscayne, Florida

Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, on the southern end the barrier island of Key Biscayne, is home to the Cape Florida Lighthouse. The Cape Florida light is part of a network of navigational aids built along Florida’s coast shortly after it became a U.S. Territory.

The lighthouse was completed in 1825, damaged during the Second Seminole War, repaired and relit in 1847, and rebuilt to its current height in 1855. Later, the Cape Florida light was damaged during the Civil War, repaired and relit in 1866, and then disabled in 1878. The lighthouse was finally placed back into service as a navigational aid by the US Coast Guard in 1978.

The Dade Heritage Trust, in partnership with the Florida Park Service, raised more than $1.5 million to restore the historic grandeur of the structure. Using 1855 blueprints, the watchtower and light room were cast in iron along with a spiral staircase. More than 30,000 bricks were recast in Kentucky in order to match the density of the original bricks. The restoration project took more than a year and a half, but the final re-lighting ceremony was held at the park on July 25, 1996 in a gala ceremony on the eve of the Miami Centennial. Straying slightly from strict restoration ideals, because of the lack of availability of a second order Fresnel lens, a modern lighting apparatus was installed. Cape Florida’s 95-foot tall beacon will continue to serve as a navigational aid to seafarers as it has for over 175 years.

Florida’s first partnership in Parks project served to enhance the interpretive aspects of the lighthouse complex and historic area and worked well as a companion project to the lighthouse restoration.

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Koreshan State Historic Site

Settlement Buildings - Estero, Florida

The Settlement buildings contain thousands of historic artifacts, including furniture, paintings, stage backdrops for the many community theatricals, books, musical instruments, tools, farm implements, and other odds and ends of the material life of the community.

The Settlement and its historic landscape enable visitors to access this unique episode in our state’s history. Park staff, volunteers, and the CSO share stewardship of these cultural resources in the public interest. Restoration of Settlement buildings and their surroundings spotlights an outstanding example of a dynamic and successful ongoing partnership between FPS, the Koreshan Unity Alliance (the CSO), the College of Life Foundation (formerly the Koreshan Unity Foundation), Americorps, seasonal and year ‘round volunteers, local schools and nonprofits, local businesses, and granting agencies.

Actual restoration work in the Settlement has been going on for more than 10 years. The Art Hall, the Founder’s Home, and Damkohler’s Cottage have been restored. Plans are complete for restoration of the Planetary Court, and work will begin soon. The Art Hall will soon receive a roof and upgraded climate control, and the Generator Building has been stabilized. The New Store restoration plan will be submitted in December 2001. Behind all this activity is the CSO. The Koreshan Unity Alliance deserves most of the credit for identifying granting agencies, filing applications, organizing necessary matching funds, and vocalizing local support for projects which would otherwise be beyond the park’s reach with current funding.

Some artifacts used for interpretation, including the grand piano and several paintings by Douglas Arthur Teed in the Art Hall, and machinery in the Generator Building, have been conserved or restored by staff and volunteers.

Park staff and volunteers constructed a new storage building and are modifying a second structure to provide climate controlled, environmentally stable storage facility for artifacts not on display. These include many specifically Koreshan objects in need of “rest” as well as furnishings that must be moved and stored each time a Settlement building is restored.

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