Alachua County Public Schools history

In 1888, it became High Springs. As a result, it was decided at a Boulware Springs meeting on September 6, 1853, to move the county seat near the railroad and create the new town of Gainesville.

His plantation was located near Sweetwater Branch and his house, built in 1854, is the oldest one in the city.

1856 First courthouse built

In 1858, the town, then called Archer after Florida's first secretary of state, James T. Archer, was laid out.

By 1860, Alachua County had more than 8,000 inhabitants, while Gainesville, its main city, had some 232 residents.

1864 Battle of Gainesville.

1869 Gainesville officially incorporated

Archer has the distinction of beingPrecinct Two which elected President Rutherford B. Hayes to office in 1876, after considerablecontroversy over “ballot stuffing.”

Melrose Platted in 1877 and once called Banana, the town thrived with the opening of Sante Fe Canal, connecting the town with Waldo.

Moore Hotel Opened in 1882 as a tourist hotel for Hawthorne visitors and sportsmen and run continuously by the Moore family until the present, it now is used as an apartment complex.

Hague Another town created by the coming of a railroad line in 1883, it got its name from its first postmaster, Archelaus Hague.

Alachua When a railroad line bypassed Newnansville in 1884, the town of Alachua was created and quickly became an agricultural center.

1885 Second courthouse built

1886 Second major downtown fire on south side of Gainesville square

Newberry After the discovery of rich phosphate deposits in western Alachua County, a town called "Newton" was established on a new railroad line in 1894.

The name was soon changed to Newberry, after a South Carolina town and incorporated as such in 1895.

In 1899 construction began on a new schoolhouse to be located on a four acre site on the hill where the Alachua Elementary School is now located.

1900 Gainesville Graded and High School built (later named Kirby Smith Center). County population is 32,000.

Later a two story wing was added to accommodate more students when Newnansville school closed May 3, 1904.

1906 University of Florida opens with two buildings and 102 students

1911 Post Office built

On June 10, 1916, a delegation asked the county school board to sell bonds amounting to $15,000.00 to repair the existing building and build a new high school.

1917 First library opens.

1923 New high school built (Buchholz High)

By 1924 the first building officially called Gainesville High School was completed on West University Avenue.

The University Auditorium and Smathers Library, both built in 1925, are both examples of the Collegiate Gothic style found on campus.

1926 Dixie Hotel constructed (later finished as Seagle Building)

1928 Hotel Thomas opens.

1935 Gainesville airport constructed

The Yearling won a Pulitzer Prize in 1938, while her book Cross Creek artfully captured "Cracker" Florida.

1939 Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' The Yearling wins a Pulitzer Prize

They also established the Campville Brick Co., which became the town's main industry until its closing in 1940.

The university expanded to more than 9,000 students, then admitted women in 1947 and built a medical school in the next decades.

1950 City adopts quadrant system for street names

The current site opened in 1955, after the student body had outgrown the original building.

Howard W. Bishop Middle School was built in 1962 as a Junior High School and was named after the former superintendent of Alachua County Schools Howard Wayne Bishop.

1964 New Post Office built.

1967 Veterans Administration Hospital opens

1969 Neil Butler becomes the first African-American elected to the City Commission since Reconstruction.

Student numbers continued to increase over the years and in 1970, after integration forced Lincoln High School to close, Gainesville High School emerged as the only public high school in the city.

1972 Historic Gainesville, Inc., a preservation group, formed and saves the Thomas Hotel from destruction

In March, 1982, the School Board established a department dedicated to the support of district administrative computing activities.

Gainesville population is 81,000 and the county's is 151,000 1983 Historic Preservation Ordinance enacted.

In 1984, the Alachua County School Board named a new elementary school in northwest Gainesville after Mr.

In 1986, the Outdoors Trading Co. restored the building, opened a successful restaurant and created a Theater of Memory in the old opera area.

1987 First African American woman serves on City Commission

Purchased by Micanopy in 1989, it was restored and transformed into a local historical museum.

Restored in 1990, it became Gainesville's first bed and breakfast.

1994 Money Magazine names Gainesville No.