Gulf Hammock, Florida

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Intersection of US 19 and County Road 326, looking east along CR 326

Gulf Hammock is an unincorporated community in Levy County, Florida, United States. It is near the edge of, and named for, the large wetlands area known as Gulf Hammock. It is located where US 19-98 and County Road 326 cross, near the Wekiva River,[a] approximately 6 miles (9.7 km) southeast of Otter Creek.[1]

The area that is now the community of Gulf Hammock was settled by 1846, near where a north-south road crossed the Wekiva Run. The crossing was originally called Walker Landing. A hunting lodge, called the Wingate Hotel, was located in the area in the 1870s (the hotel was later converted to a barn).[2][3]

In the early 20th century, Gulf Hammock was a small community with a post office, a general store and a school. After the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad opened a rail line through the area in 1913, the community moved to a location adjacent to the railroad. In 1916 a post office named "Gunntown" was opened, named for the owner of the major industry in the community, a crate factory. In 1926, patent medicine entrepreneur Edwin Wiley Grove and two brothers named Dowling bought the crate factory and all of the land in the community of Gulf Hammock, as well as 132,000 acres (530 km2) of timber land between the Suwannee and Withlacoochee rivers. That same year the name of the post office was changed to "Gulf Hammock", which remains in use as of 2021. Grove died in 1927, and the Grove-Dowling company went bankrupt in 1929. All the holdings of Grove-Dowling were bought by the Patterson-McInnis Company in 1930.[3][4][5]

In 1929, Gulf Hammock had about 1,500 residents. It was a company town: all of the houses, two (segregated) churches (schools met in the church buildings), hotels, a hospital, the crate factory, a saw mill, a planing mill, a commissary, and a garage and Ford dealership, were owned by the company. The commissary was housed in a 150-by-200-foot (46 by 61 m) building which also housed offices for company officials. The commissary was well stocked, attracting customers from other communities in the county. The company paid the salaries of the doctor and nurses at the hospital, the pharmacist in the commissary, and the white preacher, and sometimes subsidized the salaries of the white teachers, who were employees of the county school board.[6]

Notes[]

  1. ^ The Wekiva River, also known as Wekiva Creek and Wekiva Run, is a tributary of the Waccasassa River, and has no connection with the Wekiva River that flows north of Orlando into the St. Johns River.

References[]

  1. ^ Gulf Hammock on Google Maps
  2. ^ Gunnell, S. E. (February 1, 1977), "A Little of Gulf Hammock", Search for yesterday: a history of Levy County, Florida, Chapter 3: 7
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b Snider 1980, p. 15.
  4. ^ Bradbury, Alford G.; Hallock, E. Story (1962). A chronology of Florida post offices. Florida Federation of Stamp Clubs. p. 35.
  5. ^ "Gulf Hammock Post Office". USPS Post Office Locator. Retrieved 2021-09-01.
  6. ^ Snider 1980, pp. 15, 17.

Sources[]

  • Snider, Carol Swaggerty (October 1980), "Gulf Hammock, the town", Search for yesterday: a history of Levy County, Florida, Chapter 10

Coordinates: 29°15′11″N 82°43′27″W / 29.253156°N 82.724304°W / 29.253156; -82.724304



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