Historical Markers & Historic Places

Clay County Historical Commission    SR 16 at Shands Bridge                       
Pupo is first mentioned in 1716 as the place where the trail from the Franciscan Indian Missions in Apalachee (present-day Tallahassee) to St. Augustine crossed the river. The Spanish government built the fort on the St. Johns River sometime before 1737. Pupo teamed with Fort Picolata on the Eastern Shore, these forts protected the river crossing and blocked ships from continuing upstream. In 1738 after an attack by the British-allied Yuchi Indians, the fort was enlarged to a 30-by-16 blockhouse, surrounded by a rampart of timber and earth. During General James Oglethorpe’s 1739-40 advance on St. Augustine, Lt. George Dunbar unsuccessfully attacked Pupo on the night of December 28th. On January 7th and 8th, Oglethorpe himself took two days to capture the Spanish blockhouses. Oglethorpe reinforced the fort with a trench, which is still visible. Upon the British retreat from Florida, Fort San Fransisco de Pupo was destroyed. Though the fort was never rebuilt, the site remained a strategically important ferry crossing. In the 1820s, Florida’s first federally built road, the Bellamy Road, used the river crossing on the route between St. Augustine and Pensacola.

1890 Clay County Courthouse

When Clay County was created in 1858 by the Florida Legislature, Middleburg was named as temporary county seat. As a result of an 1859 election, Whitesville (Webster) became the official county court site. Clay County’s first courthouse was located there. In 1871, Green Cove Springs was chosen as the new county seat. Courts met there in 1872, but it was 1874 before a two-story frame courthouse was completed. In 1889, a new, large two-story brick building was ready for use. The Old Clay County Courthouse served as the seat of county government until 1973. This structure was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.

Middleburg Methodist Church

On the church grounds on Main Street                       
Founded on or before July 27, 1828, by Isaac Boring, a Methodist Circuit Riding Preacher, this church was first known as Black Creek Methodist Church. This frontier Methodist society met in homes until the present church was built in 1847. In continuous use since that date, the structure represents the oldest Methodist meeting place in Florida. Built mostly by slave labor from native lumber and hand wrought nails from local blacksmiths, the church features heart of pine exterior with clapboard square edge siding, a design unique to this period. The windows and mahogany pews were brought from overseas ports. The bell was cast in New York in 1852 and shipped here prior to 1860 by George Branning. It was tolled for the first time for the funeral of his son on February 29, 1860, who died during a swamp fever epidemic. The wide aisle was left down the center to segregate the men and women. The back pews were reserved for slaves. The pews were put together with wooden pegs and hand drawn. The marks of the draw-knife can still be seen. During the mid 1800’s the cemetery was used to bury the town Protestants. The Catholic Cemetery was located 120 feet north. In recent years, the cemetery became the burial ground for the community in general.

Middleburg

Corner of Wharf Street and Main Street                   
Middleburg developed in the early 1800’s as a transportation center linking the St. Johns River with the peninsular interior. Originally settled in the 1820’s as Clark’s Ferry, a crossing on Black Creek, it became a major military depot during the Second Seminole war (1835-1842) with establishment of Ft. Heileman. The Clark-Chalker House dates from that era, when the population reached 800. Served by roads and riverboats, Middleburg gained its name in the 1840’s, thrived on the surrounding timber, citrus, and farm economy, and became the first Clay County seat of government in 1858. The United Methodist Church was built in 1847. The 4th Massachusetts Cavalry burned much of the town in 1864. Prosperity returned in the 1870’s as river traffic and the citrus industry burgeoned. The population numbered 700 in 1890, before a devastating freeze (1895) and decline of the river trade undermined the local economy. Many houses in the unincorporated town date from the Victorian Era and are found in a historic district listed in the National Register of Historic Places (1990).

Green Cove Springs

City of Green Cove Springs     229 Walnut Street at Spring Park                   
High ground along the river and a flowing mineral spring drew the first inhabitants to this area some 7,000 years ago, but historic development dates from 1816 when George I. F. Clarke erected a sawmill in this vicinity under a Spanish land grant. The first settlement, called White Sulfur Springs, was established in 1854, with a wharf, a store, and several houses clustered around a public square. During the Civil War, Federal troops frequently skirmished with Confederate forces in the vicinity and finally occupied the town in 1864. Renamed in 1866, Green Cove Springs became the seat of Clay County government in 1871.
Tourism flourished, surpassing citrus culture and lumbering as the area’s economic base. River steamers brought visitors to the “Saratoga of the South”, noted for the healthful qualities of its famous spring and for hotels and boarding houses said to rival the finest to be found in northern resorts. By the 1890’s, the population reached more than 1,500. But, an expanding railroad system carried tourists southward and a great freeze in 1895 destroyed the surrounding citrus groves.
The city’s tourist industry declined sharply. The advent of the automobile age and the creation of a state highway system provided the basis for economic recovery in the 1920’s, when the city shared in the general prosperity of the Florida Land Boom. But the collapse of the boom and the depression of the 1930’s marked the end of the early development of the city. Between 1940 and 1945, the city experienced renewed development.

The population increased from 1,752 to 3,026 as a result of the wartime construction of Benjamin Lee Field, a 1,500 acre air auxiliary complex, by the U.S. Navy. By the end of World War II, thirteen piers were constructed by the Navy and the Green Cove base became home port to a “mothball fleet” of some 600 ships. With its share of returning war veterans, the community’s population grew through the 1950’s to a total of 4,233 in 1960. In 1961, the Navy decommissioned its base and the reserve fleet was transferred to another facility. In 1984, the city annexed the former naval base into its corporate limits, tying this part of its heritage to its future growth and development.