A little Central Florida town that time forgot opens its handsome doors once a year for 1890s Day.
By ADELE WOODYARD
Published October 5, 2003
[Photos: courtesy Friends of McIntosh Inc.]
Crowds stroll by vendors during the 1890s Day Festival held in McIntosh.
More than 100 years ago, this train depot would have been the first stop for most visitors to McIntosh.
McINTOSH - Once a year this charming Marion County community, sleepy to the point of being comatose, awakens to a celebration of the past.
As many as 30,000 people are expected to descend Oct. 25 on this tiny village (pop. 413) on the western edge of Orange Lake for the 30th annual McIntosh 1890s Day Festival.
Visitors can tour at least one of the 40 Victorian homes that still exist, or reminisce over early Lionel trains on display in the McIntosh Depot. Now a museum, the Depot recalls the days when the Florida Southern Railroad brought in settlers and Northern sportsmen with money to spend.
The Carriage House will open its doors to display a doctor's vehicle pulled by a life-size model horse, high-wheeled shiny black carriages and an old-time hearse. There will be demonstrations of blacksmithing and corn grinding.
There also will be handmade quilts, arts and crafts, and antiques displayed in 265 booths, all in Van Ness Park. Dianna Van Horn Antiques, a rehabbed, tin-roofed packing house across from the park, contains a large selection of china and pottery, furniture, lamps and artifacts.
Musicians will perform bluegrass and Southern gospel music, and the food will include funnel cakes, corn dogs and homemade pies.
The village dates to the early 1800s, when John H. McIntosh "squatted on property here" and thus would lend his name to a town not yet born, according to Beverly Dodder, secretary to Friends of McIntosh.
In 1830, Nehemiah Brush bought 4,000 acres from an old Spanish land grant. Early settlers came by boat up the St. Johns River to Palatka, about 60 miles away, and gradually drifted to this lakeside spot.
But as with many rural towns, it was the railroad that brought settlers and then development. The Brush heirs donated land for creation of the narrow-gauge Florida Southern Railroad; later the Seaboard Railway Co. established a depot.
During an early Florida land boom, the railway brought in so many winter visitors to hunt and fish that a 19-room hotel was built in McIntosh in 1895. It closed in 1964. Today all that remains of the train service that ran from 1883 to 1973 are the depot and a few feet of track.
By the early 1900s, the community boasted United Methodist, Baptist, Christian and Presbyterian churches. The Presbyterian church on Avenue F has the McIntosh clan's plaid hanging at the back of the sanctuary.
It was the desire to save and restore the depot that brought about the formation of the Friends of McIntosh Inc. in 1973. Although the Seaboard company sold the group the building for $1, the Friends needed to raise about $7,600 to move the depot off the railroad's right of way and to buy a new site.
The need for those funds led to the creation of the 1890s Day Festival. Along with restoration of the Depot and later the Carriage House, money from the event has financed an annual scholarship program for area youths. The preservation efforts led to the McIntosh historic district being placed on the National Register of Historic sites in 1981.
- Adele Woodyard is a freelance writer living in Tampa.
If you go
GETTING THERE: McIntosh is part of the antique-shoppers' trail between Ocala and Gainesville. To reach McIntosh, head north on Interstate 75 to the Irvine/Orange Lake exit. Then drive east on County Road 318 and north on U.S. 441.
WHAT TO SEE: McIntosh 1890s Day Festival, 9 a.m.-5 p.m, Oct. 25. There also is a yearly quilt show in the spring. A few miles away is Cross Creek, where Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings wrote The Yearling; her home is a state park, as is Paynes Prairie State Preserve.
STAYING THERE: Merrily B&B (352-591-1180) is $70 per night, plus tax, for a room with breakfast; reservations required.
Sportsman's Cove on Orange Lake has an RV park. More accommodations can be found in Ocala, Micanopy and Gainesville.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Contact Friends of McIntosh, P.O. Box 1890, McIntosh, FL 32664. Or call Beverley Dodder at (352) 591-2183.
