On Monday, Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner announced new additions across the Sunshine State to the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places.
“I am pleased to announce the addition of six Florida properties on the National Register of Historic Places,” Detzner said on Monday. “These sites represent the variety of historical resources across our state, and include a National Cemetery, a place of worship, a Woman’s Club and three distinctive historic homes.”
Two of the sites are in St. Johns County including one in the nation’s oldest city. The St. Augustine National Cemetery was included in the designations. The cemetery was used in Florida’s colonial periods under the Spanish and English flags.
Just north of St. Augustine in Ponte Vedra is the Arthur Milam House which was built in 1962. The uniquely designed house, designed by celebrated modernist architect Paul Rudolph, is familiar to anyone who’s driven between St. Augustine and Jacksonville on A1A and is an excellent example of the Sarasota School of Architecture. It’s the last home in Florida that Rudolph designed.
Staying on the First Coast, the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Palatka also made the list. Built in the first decade of the twentieth century, the tower and stained glass windows are very noticeable in this Romanesque Revival church.
To the west in North Florida, the Alonzo “Jake” Gaither House in Tallahassee was added to the list. Gaither led the Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University (FAMU) football team for a quarter century. During his time in charge of the Rattlers, Gaither won 204 games with only 36 losses and 4 ties. He also led FAMU to six Black College National Championships between 1950 and 1961. A leading figure in the civil rights movement, Gaither was named to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1975.
The William Twining (W.T.) Wells House--better known as Green Gables--in Melbourne was included on the list. This Queen Anne style home with its unique architecture was built during the end of the nineteenth and start of the twentieth centuries. A site in Broward County also made the list. The Davie Woman’s Club building, home of the oldest formally organized women’s social service organization in the area, has been used since 1947. The club was founded in 1922.
