Join Us for Our 2024-2025 Season and Commemorate Tallahassee’s Bicentennial!

Current members will receive upcoming program details by email. Not a member? Join today!

Become a ​Food Sponsor for Our 2024-2025 Season!

We are calling for food sponsors for each month of the upcoming season! What food you provide, and how much, is up to you!

This is an opportunity to promote yourself or your business as much, or as little, as you’d like! We will give you a shoutout in our Apalachee Redux newsletter, on the THS website, and at the kick-off of that month’s meeting!

Please email Rebecca Cruz (rebeccacruz1515@gmail.com) if you are interested in becoming a food sponsor.

The Tallahassee Historical Society Podcast is Live!

Tune in with the Tallahassee Historical Society as members share stories from 200 years of Tallahassee…

Our Apalachee Publication is Back!

New issues of Apalachee are available to all THS members and can be picked up in-person at upcoming meetings! Not a member? Join today!

A digital copy of the magazine is available here.

Construction of Florida’s First Capitol is Underway!

Since June 8th, Habitat for Humanity and the First Florida Capitol community build team has been hard at work recreating the log cabin capitol that Florida’s Territorial Legislature held its legislative session in in 1824.

Stay tuned as progress on the First Florida Capitol continues! Email info@ffctlh to learn how you can get involved.

 

The Second Annual

Tallahassee Antiquarian Book Fair

Feb. 21-22-23 of 2025 ~ at The Elks Club on North Magnolia

 

It’s time to add another book to your library collection and another print to your wall! Join us, and find thousands of books & prints for sale by 20+ old & rare book and print dealers from all over the Southeast: History, Florida, Children’s, First Edition Literature & Fiction, Biography, Botanicals, portraits, advertising.

2025’s Theme: History When It Happened

This is your opportunity to read & examine (with good lighting & a magnifying glass!)…

  • A World War II Scrapbook
  • An Abolitionist Newspaper from 1841, The Friend of Man
  • One of the first botanicals to come off the printing press in 1452
  • A magazine article from the Century Magazine of August 1894, “The Right & Expediency of Woman Suffrage”
  • An illustrated Musick Instruction book from 1669

So much more to come!

Upcoming Activities

Thursday, September 26th:

Pre-Season Meeting
Speaker: Doug Smith
“The 1890s Tallahassee Street Railway”
5 PM
The Tallahassee Museum


*Thursday, October 10th:

Monthly Meeting
Speaker: Dr. Larry Omar Rivers
Reception at 6 PM
Program at 6:30 PM
“James Hudson: Forgotten Forerunner in the Crusade for Civil Rights”

Click to register
*Thursday, November 14th:

Monthly Meeting
Speaker: Doug Smith
“George Saxon & the Development of Modern Tallahassee”


Thursday, December 12th:

Monthly Meeting
Speakers: John Foster
“19th Century Florida Tourism”


*Thursday, January 9th:

Monthly Meeting
Speaker: Michelle Hearn
“The Union Bank”

All monthly meetings (*) will be held at Mission San Luis
(2100 W. Tennessee St, Tallahassee, FL)
Reception at 5:30 PM
Program at 6:00 PM

​The Gladstone: Are There Options?

 

In early August 2024, it was announced that the Gladstone, an historic house dating back to 1897, is to be demolished following its purchase by the State of Florida. The building is located one block east of the Florida Governor’s Mansion. Continue reading to hear what our President, Bob Holladay, has to say about it…

 

If the Gladstone—the 1897 Victorian home on North Monroe—is demolished in the next couple of weeks, there are a lot of us who will be complicit. That includes individuals who have driven by it every day while it sat vacant, commented on how much they would like to see it used for something, but then didn’t suggest anything. I’m certainly one of the guilty ones. I always thought it would make a great headquarters for the Tallahassee Historical Society, but I never asked the next questions. Now it is probably too late. Cassius was right in Julius Caesar: “The fault, Dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”

When the news about the pending destruction of The Gladstone went public on Twitter (X) and in this newspaper, some members of our board asked me to inquire about alternatives to destruction. One of those alternatives might be to move the house, though the few experts that I have talked to have stressed the expense, the fact that it would probably have to be cut into several sections, not to mention the mayhem involved in removing electric utility lines. But there is a legacy of moving buildings in this community as evidenced by structures like The Columns and the Union Bank. The home is owned by the Department of Management Services, and they are working with the Division of Historical Resources. I don’t know for certain, but I get the feeling that neither department/division is happy about tearing down a Victorian-era building that those of us who have been allowed inside would testify has a good bit of structural soundness. It is messy inside, but structurally pretty formidable.

There are questions to be asked. How much will it cost to demolish the Gladstone versus how much would it cost to move ? Would the state consider moving it instead or partnering with the local private sector to move it? Is there a piece of property where it could go? Might the city be interested in helping save The Gladstone?

Who would own it, renovate it, pay the taxes on it, and the insurance—all questions that would have to be answered. Are they worth exploring in a very short time?

I am told by those who know more than I (almost everybody) that it is the last Queen Anne style home in the city and that 95 percent of Tallahassee’s period residences are gone. It does, I think, represent a part of Tallahassee’s identity that is disappearing, and it does raise deeper questions about the nature of progress, and what a culture should emphasize.

The Tallahassee Historical Society is pleased to ask some of these needed questions. Our intention has not been to antagonize any governmental entity or other organization. But as the primary local historical organization in Leon County, we consider it our duty to ask. But saving the Gladstone, or any building like it, will take more than questions and will take a plan including multiple organizations of both the public and private sector.

Bob Holladay

President, Tallahassee Historical Society

Proud to Partner with

Visit Tallahassee

and the

Leon County Division of Tourism!

For People Interested in the History of Tallahassee

Founded in 1933, the Tallahassee Historical Society, Inc. is a 501(c) (3) organization that welcomes individuals who enjoy learning about and sharing state and local history. Evening meetings on the second Thursday from October to April offer programs by experts on topics ranging from history and culture to architecture, archeology, and preservation. In May, members gather for a festive picnic. The society also schedules daytime lectures and partners with other organizations to present special events. Every activity features stimulating conversation and rewarding fellowship.

Our Mission

To foster a deeper understanding of and appreciation for the history of Tallahassee, Leon County, and surrounding areas.

Support the Tallahassee Historical Society’s mission today... Donate or become a member!

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