Brooksville’s 1885 Railroad Depot
N 28° 32.946 W 082° 23.142
17R E 364444 N 3158814
Old Brooksville Railroad Depot
Waymark Code: WM8FVX
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 03/27/2010
Views: 8
Brooksville’s 1885 Railroad Depot that is now being used as a museum.
The Brooksville Railroad Association was organized March 3 1885. The Brooksville Telegraph Company was also on the same date.
The Officers of the Railroad were John Parsons of Bayport President, C.C. Keathly, Secretary and J.J. Hale, J.N.C. Stockton and W.S. Hancock Trustees. They raised $20,000 to induce the Florida Southern Railroad company to build into their town and this was done immediately. These men inaugurated the world of instantaneous long distance communication. Their goal was to build ten miles of track and telegraph from Brooksville east to the Florida Southern mainline at Croom. It was originally planned to extend west to Bayport on the Gulf of Mexico.
The Officers of the Brooksville Telegraph Company were W.S. Hancock and Frank E. Saxon.
The Florida Southern started in Palatka, a deep water port for steamships on the St John’s River to Gainesville and Ocala to Leesburg ,Brooksville ,Tampa Bay and Charlotte Harbor. The Orange Belt Route. It began life on March 4 1879 as the Gainesville, Ocala and Charlotte Harbor Railroad. The company had a grant of 2,655, 842 acres from the State. The average construction cost per mile was $26,000 .When completed to Charlotte Harbor from Palatka their track length was 299.75 miles.
In the early part of 1892 they underwent reorganization and Henry B. Plant gained control. In 1895 it was operated as a part of the Plant System of Railroads, Steamships and Hotels on the west coast of Florida.
Another Railroad Line in Brooksville was the Tampa Northern built in 1906-1907. Starting from Hooker’s Point in Tampa to Fivay Junction, a distance of 30 miles. A vast tract of timber land, 173,000 acres in size, was purchased by Messrs. Atkinson, Arkwright, Alwood, Avery and Ardmore, their five A’s last names is where Fivay came from. Location was around US 41 and state road 52 of today. Their sawmill town had 2,000 inhabitants.
The Brooksville and Hudson Railroad which was actually an incorporated logging railroad built in 1902. It had 33.5 miles of track and was owned by the Aripeka Sawmills Inc. They needed a way to ship out their milled lumber. The Ossawa Inn on the Gulf shore was built by the Company, and became a seaside recreational spot. Stations were at Brooksville, Mayflower, Wiscon and Freeman and Hudson, on the Gulf coast. The line ran west from a junction with the Tampa Northern Railroad at Hannibal, an African American settlement just north of Ayers Road and angled west to Freeman. The Freeman Branch extended north to Tooke Lake Junction,West to Tooke Lake and north 2.6 miles to the Centralia Sawmill town on that companies own track. The Central Cypress Lumber Company milled cedar and cypress and yellow pine and manufactured cypress water tanks.
The Brooksville and Hudson railroad was bought by the Tampa Northern in October of 1907. The track between Fivay Junction and Enville was rebuilt. A new track was built between Enville Junction and Brooksville,10 miles long in 1908. On July 1,1910 the Tampa Northern’s Capitol Stock owned by the Aripeka Sawmill Company was sold to the Seaboard Air Line Railroad. The Seaboard leased the Tampa Northern for a fee. In 1930 the combined companies petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commision to abandon the 12.29 line from the Tooke Lake Junction to Tooke Lake. The only business on the line was a naval stores operation, and an abandoned quarry approximately 1 mile from Tooke Lake Junction. No passenger trains were running as the population for two miles on either side of the track is 75 people. That was the end of the Tampa Northern Railroad. Later the Seaboard Air Line merged with the Atlantic Coast Line and became the Seaboard Coast Line. This line became the present day CSX Railroad.
The Museum Board bought the vacant, unused Depot, a home for transients, from CSX and restored it for todays Museum.
Is the station/depot currently used for railroad purposes?: No
Is the station/depot open to the public?: Yes
If the station/depot is not being used for railroad purposes, what is it currently used for?:
The depot is currently being used as a museum. Operating hours are 12-3, Tuesday thru Friday.
Admission is $3 for Adults, Children free.
The Depot Museum features printed listings of all burials in the 47 cemeteries of Hernando County.
It also has the records of Marriages and Births from 1896 to 1992 in Hernando County.
It has a restored early 1800’s track crew meal train car.
It has a beautifully restored, by the 1987 Hernando Highschool Shop class, 1925 American LaFrance fire Truck.
The Depot has two model trains layouts.
It has artifacts dug from the early settlements of Hope Hill and Centralia Sawmill.
There is a large display of items used in early Cracker life in Hernando County.
What rail lines does/did the station/depot serve?: The Florida Southern Railroad Company and eventually the CSX Railroad.
Station/Depot Web Site: [Web Link]
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Visit Instructions:
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