Tuesday 4: Your Town Updated

 This week's Tuesday 4 is once again about "Your Town". I didn't have time to put anything new together so I will attempt to update this post I did a few years ago to bring it up to date. Some of these questions may be different than the most recent version of "Your Town".

Your Town


Welcome to Tuesday 4 begun by Toni Taddeo and continued in her honor.



Let's talk about your town this week!

1. Do you like your town? Is it a city, town ? Can you describe it for us?

First, let me share a couple of links with you that will give you the history and other information about our little town. If you click on these links, you will see everything you need to see and then some.
Town of Interlachen  ,  https://www.florida-backroads-travel.com/interlachen-florida.html

And after you have looked at those sites, I will show you a few of my own pictures from around town.

But to answer your  questions: 

• Yes, I do like our town. It is a small town, but big enough to cover our basic needs like a decent grocery store, doctor, wonderful church,  2 Dollar Generals, gas stations, mechanic, schools for those who still have children in school, and beautiful little lakes interspersed in and all around us; Hence, the name: Interlachen, which literally means between the lakes.

2. Are there any special points of interest in your town?

I personally like the little old historical part of our town where it originated back in the mid 1800's.  However, there really aren't any businesses in that part of town anymore...just the city hall and a park and the museum and some old buildings, oh, and of course our church, First Methodist, and the old Congregational Church I do wish more had been done to preserve and revitalize  the old downtown area, but "progress"  for our town developed out along the highway, as is the case in many small towns across our country...and the original downtown gets bypassed and forgotten.

Here are a few pictures from around our historical downtown area:

This little park/caboose is where the original train depot used to be.

This building below used to be a hotel back in the highlight days of our little town, before the "Big Freeze" in the 1890's that wiped out the citrus industry in this north/central part of the state. Here is a quote from the town website:

"The Town of Interlachen was settled in the late 1870’s when the building of a railroad opened the area. It developed as both a citrus growing center and a winter resort. When severe freezes in the 1890’s made it apparent that commercial citrus production was not economically viable, the town evolved into a retirement haven and later a bedroom community for Gainesville and Palatka."

This building below used to be a general store and post office. Sadly, it has fallen into decay and it is very sad to me that it was not preserved.  More recently, since this picture was taken, there were tenants living in this building and sadly it caught fire in the upper story and is now condemned and waiting to be demolished I assume.  There is yellow tape around the building and it has been condemned. That makes me very sad.

This picture below is a replica of that building in its glory days, and this can be seen in the town museum:

The woman who runs the museum and the historical society literally made this replica, and it is very detailed and interesting. You can see more close-up pictures of this "doll house" and other items found in the museum and around town in this previous post: https://pamelasopenwindow.blogspot.com/2018/07/walking-down-memory-lane.html

The museum is housed in this building, "Interlachen Hall", which is one building they did manage to preserve:

Here are a few of the old homes in the historical area:

(I believe this one is actually for sale, if you are interested)  Update: No, it is sold now! 

And of course, you've seen lots of pictures of our church before. This little church is the main reason we ended up moving here in the first place...that, and the fact that our son and his wife live here too...

3.Does your town have parks, restaurants?

Restaurants are few...We have this fairly new restaurant, "True Grits", (with a John Wayne theme), and we often go here after church with church friends and family for a late breakfast/early lunch.    (See below...we don't go here as often now as we once did).

Probably our more favorite place is this "Hog Wild Cafe", but it doesn't serve breakfast...just lunch and dinner (BBQ).  But it is a fun place with lots of interesting things to see and they are more accommodating for our large groups:

We were happy to find the fireplace warming up the restaurant a couple of weeks ago when we had a raw, wet, chilly day:

This is the interior, which, as you can see, has lots of interesting stuff to see as well as good food.

It is also where I got to enjoy this sweet kitty on my lap on the front porch this past Sunday while we waited for them to open the doors at 11:00 a.m.:

Oh, there is another restaurant in town, "Nana's Cafe", but we don't go there very often as it is a bit of a "greasy spoon" kind of place. However, a lot of the local old timers do like it. The food is good...just needs some freshening up inside...  It is now Nanna's Country Cafe', and it has been sold to new owners and has been updated and we usually go there every Sunday after church with church friends!

And a Poppy's Cafe and Bakery, which is a small little place only open Mon-Fri. from 8-2.  Only been there a couple of times.    Poppy's has been sold, but nothing new is in there yet  so it is an empty building.

Oh, and we do have a McDonalds, Domino's Pizza, and a Chinese Take out place.

Update: and we are going to have a new Taco Bell in town soon I hear! (2023).

Update 2023: And thanks to our son and daughter in love, our town now has Dixie Cottage! 

And even though our kids no longer own this furniture/decor/gift store, they are still vendors there and have contributed to the overall interest in coming to visit our little town!

Okay, back to the town...We have good schools, K-12.

This is the high school:

And the middle school:

And I don't have a picture of the elementary school, but it is a nice modern school too.

However, Interlachen does have a lot of poor families scattered throughout out community.  Our county is one of the poorest in the state.  Our church is active in supporting local ministries in the community, like this Soup Kitchen, which feeds the hungry Mon.-Fri. at noon:

And there are several food banks and thrift stores. Our church has a thrift store and we often just give clothing and items away to those who are truly in need of them.

We also provide coats for children in the fall, and school supplies to the elementary school children as well as Christmas gifts for every child in the elementary school. It is a  wonderful ministry provided through the generous giving and love by our very small church of loving people.

4. Do you think your town needs changes to make it better and if so what changes would you make?

Well, every town needs improvements I am sure. Ours could use some better roads for one thing. We still have many dirt roads throughout our community, and a lot of very run down old mobile homes that are abandoned out in the less developed areas.  I wish something could be done to remove a lot of them that are uninhabitable.  I also wish our historical section could be preserved better and some interesting shops be opened that would attract more visitors and shoppers to our community. 

Other than that, I really don't want it to grow too much more or it will lose that small town feel that I love.

Okay, now, let's go visit our other bloggers over at Tuesday 4 and learn more about their towns!  Thank you, Annie, for continuing this tradition!!