Chandler's Tourist Camp 1925-1929 - Florida Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

In 1915, construction began on the Dixie Highway system that linked Florida with the Midwest via highways running from Michigan through Tallahassee along Old St. Augustine Road toward Miami. In the 1920s, the number of auto tourists visiting Florida increased dramatically. Roadside accommodations and inexpensive lodging were very limited. Some early auto tourists, later called Tin Can Tourists, modified their automobiles to provide sleeping quarters, kitchen equipment, and barrels of water as they traveled to what were then remote locations. Gilbert S. Chandler, Sr., an asparagus farmer from Minneapolis, Minnesota, and a pioneer of the tourist camp industry in Florida, leased seven acres of city land south of the Capitol on Adams Street to begin an auto camp in 1925. Chandler’s camp consisted of a store, a laundry, a community center, a bathhouse, and three tiny tourist cabins with electricity and homemade furniture. As auto tourism continued to grow, Chandler’s Tourist Camp moved to Lake Ella in 1929 to take advantage of tourist traffic on the Old Spanish Trail that linked Florida to California. The vacated city property became the Ben Bridges ball field before state buildings were built there in the 1960s.

Marker Number: F-817 Date: 2014 County: Leon Marker Type: Roadside Sponsored or placed by: The Family of Gilbert S. Chandler, Sr., The Family of O.I. Gramling, Sr., Deborah Desilets, In Memory of Harvey A. "Coach" Desilets and the Florida Department of State Website: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
In your log, please say if you learned something new, and if you took any extra time to explore the area once you stopped at the historic marker waymark.

Please post a photo at the marker location.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log User Rating   01/05/2017 Markerman62 visited it