HILLSBOROUGH RIVER & STEPHEN FOSTER STATE PARK February 1-15 2015

While still camping at Hillsborough State park  in central Florida, we took a day to visit the nearby town of Lakeland, FL.  It was only a half hour drive on back roads from the campground.  

Being major fans of Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture and design we were excited to see The Florida Southern College Historic District. It is a designated National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service for being the largest single-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture in the world.  How was it we had never heard of this??? We walked the campus, the "Child of the Sun" as Wright named it, with a small guided tour to learn the details of the unique method of construction he chose. 

The campus comprises 64 buildings on 100 acres, 12 structures designed by FLW. The buildings are  connected with over a mile of low hanging covered walkways. Built between 1941 and 1958, many of the buildings we saw were in some stage of restoration. The Annie Pfeiffer Chapel above, was the first building on the campus and covered in scaffolding for repairs the day we visited. The current President of the college is a strong advocate for restoring the buildings to their original state and saving this amazing collection of architecture.

The story of how this small Methodist college with no endowment could afford to build the vision of FLW was fascinating. It took the dreams of two men; Ludd Spivey,  President of FSC from 1925 to 1957, to envision a "college of tomorrow"  and the sixty-nine year old architect Wright who felt most colleges were architectural failures. This endeavor was part of a plan to build college enrollment which had fallen hard during The Depression.

One of the creative ways to assist with the cost of building was to put the students to work! Labor for several of the buildings and the textured concrete blocks used came from students who received free tuition in exchange. With male students mostly gone during WWII at least one building was completed by female students.

Across the street and near the Visitor Center was a newly built FLW structure, a 1939 design of a two-bedroom, one-bath home, The Usonian House.  74 years after its design, the house had was finished November 2013. It was stunning; every detail exquisite. His idea with a Usonian design was to create simple, low cost houses that would be within the reach of the average American. The house is one story, built of all natural materials on a concrete slab and gorgeous. 

Every detail was designed by Wright as he often did; the furniture, light fixtures, all bookcases or shelving built not added later. We could easily have moved in, we loved it all; the clean lines, the 5000 colored glass inserts that brought 8 different colors into the rooms, the warm woods and the unique textile blocks. I can't remember the cost we were told of building this home today, but it was far beyond the original concept.  

Our next stop was just a couple blocks down the street, The Polk Museum of Art. The museum has two large galleries that were displaying the work of two contemporary artists, Gabrielle Wu Lee and Kathy Sosa.

Again, we used our NARM Museum pass for free entry. That yearly membership has brought us to so many unique museums across the country.

 After leaving the museum we headed to the car to realize we were missing our keys. Turns out, Paul had left them in the door when he was locking it, and someone came along, saw them in turned them into the library across the street. Such a lucky thing for us!!!

Thursday, February 5th was opening day at the Florida State Fair in Tampa and we decided we'd give it a try. We went late in the afternoon once the rainstorm blew out, and had a nice couple of hours touring the exhibits.

Even a lake in the middle of the fairgrounds...that's Florida!

Friday, we moved 90 miles north to Stephen Foster Folk Cultural Center State Park and Campground. We had site #32 for the next nine nights; large and private. The park is set along the Suwannee River atop bluffs with wild azaleas everywhere.

There is a permanent folk culture village with a blacksmith, weavers, and other craftspeople and we were lucky enough that it was in full operation the Saturday we were there, a fun surprise. Each Memorial Day Weekend the park hosts the Florida Folk Festival and I'm sure it's terribly crowded. So nice to be here in the off season.

Though Stephen Foster never set foot in the park, the center honors his memory, the American composer who wrote "Old Folks at Home" and the song that made the river famous. Throughout the day his music can be heard coming from the park's bell tower. After a few days we didn't even notice it any longer. The museum we're standing in front of was built in 1950 and displays eight dioramas of Stephen Foster songs, along with historic pianos and his personal desk.

The park was huge and great for biking around and down into the little town of White Springs. We had decided to try kayaking the river one afternoon but when we got to the canoe put in area it was all roped off...the river was too high and too swift to allow a canoes and kayaks in. 

The 97 bell carillon and the beautiful entrance to the park and our Ranger station.

The Museum is housed in this lovely anti-bellum style mansion.

About 30 miles south of the park is the Olustee Battlefield near Lake City, FL. A Civil War battle was being reenacted the second weekend we were there. Usually our timing is off, and we miss these events but this one we timed just right.

The battle was fought on February 20, 1864 and was the largest battle fought in Florida during the war and the second bloodiest battle of the War for the Union. The Union losses at Olustee made Northern authorities to rethink the need of further Union involvement in the state of Florida.

By the time we arrived on Saturday, there was a field filled with cannons ready for the reenactment that afternoon.

Everything was detailed to the period, including the medical tent. It drew quite a crowd as soldiers came in from the battle field with severe wounds to be treated by the doctor and his two nurses.

We met this group of ladies as we were parking our car.  They and driven four hours that morning to come to the event in style.

All good battles had to have a band...

And then it was time for the soldiers to march.

and do battle.

all right in front of us! A great day and our first real experience with Civil War living history.

Sunday morning we drove two hours east to our next campground, Pecan Point RV Resort just four miles from the Jacksonville Airport. We were staying only one night in order to put the RV in storage for another trip to California to visit my brother, Charlie. Pecan Point is a Passport America park with one night available for the half price fee. It's a large park with concrete pads and table, all pull-through sites, a nice pool and laundry area to get a load done before we left. It's so easy when an RV park provides overnight lodging and storage all in one! Great park...that's all we needed, we had the frig emptied, tanks cleaned and the RV in its spot by check out time at noon.

But since our flight didn't leave until later that evening we still and time to visit another nearby historic site, the Kingsley Plantation along the Fort George River, part of the Timucuan Historic Preserve.

A fascinating fact of this plantation was that when Zephaniah Kingsley moved to Fort George Island he brought his wife and three children. His wife, Anna, was from Senegal, West Africa, and had been purchased by Kingsley as a slave. But here, she actively participated in running the plantation, acquiring her own land and slaves when she was freed by Kingsley in 1811, a unique situation in Spanish Florida.

As we walked the grounds we saw this cutter digging around in the leaves, our first armadillo sighting!

We finished our walking tour with a visit to the slave quarters and the remains of 25 slave cabins constructed of cement tabby which made them durable and able to survive from the late 1700's. 

Free blacks and several private owners lived at the plantation until it was given to the state of Florida in 1955, and acquired by the National Park Service in 1991. 

We had left Foster the evening before at his new home boarding in southern Jacksonville, so we returned to the RV park, parked the car in the storage area with the RV 

and called for a taxi to the airport. What an easy way to make our flights to California.