To honor the famed author Zora Neale Hurston, a museum has been created in her hometown of Eatonville, Florida, and we talked to those involved. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.54% of the population. EATONVILLE The Zora Neale Hurston National Museum of Fine Arts and Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community Inc. (PEC) 227 East Kennedy Boulevard. Eatonville is named for Capt. Eventually, through the goodwill of Lewis Lawrence, a northern philanthropist, and Josiah Eaton, a local landowner, Joe Clarke and others acquired 112 acres, and they comprised the original city limits of the Town of Eatonville. A Post Office opened at Eatonville in 1889,[8] and closed in 1918. It was the first such town to be incorporated. Find Perfect Houses for Rent in Eatonville, FL. The Hurston is named after Zora Neale Hurston, an African-American writer, folklore, and anthropologist who moved to Eatonville at a young age and whose father became mayor of Eatonville in 1897. I taught school at Hungerford Elementary School in Eatonville, Florida for two years from 1983 to 1985. It appears that Florida, and the City of Maitland area, unlike other southern states after the Civil War, took a more moderate attitude toward the Blacks who had finally been given equal rights under the 13th and 14th amendments. Eatonville is known as one of the first - and some would argue it is the first - incorporated all-Black town in the United States. The St. Lawrence AME Church of Eatonville, Florida was founded in 1881 and is older than the Town of Eatonville. Eatonville, Florida, was incorporated as one of the first all-black towns in the country on August 15, 1887. As of the census[3] of 2000, there were 2,432 people, 761 households, and 548 families residing in the town. About 21.9% of families and 25.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 29.3% of those under age 18 and 24.5% of those age 65 or over. Your choice of any three (3) books published by the Florida Historical Society Press, Select an amount or enter the amount you'd like to give in the box provided. The family moved to Eatonville when Zora was one year old, after her father, John, heard … The federal building in nearby Orlando, Florida is named after her. It is part of the Orlando–Kissimmee metropolitan statistical area. Find Perfect Houses for Rent in Eatonville, FL. Before the days of racial integration, Club Eaton was a popular stop on the Chitlin' Circuit, hosting performers ranging from B.B. The town was incorporated in 1887 as the first African-American incorporated town in the United States. I grew up outside of Orlando in the small town of Maitland, which borders the smaller town of Eatonville.. The Hurston family moves to Eatonville, an incorporated, self-governed, all-African American town north of Orlando, Florida. In order to reconstruct the dining hall, Cluett contributed a major amount of money and then personally insisted the hall be renamed “Calhoun Hall”, after … Twelve of these works are at the Maitland Art Center in the adjacent town of Maitland. Eatonville is named for Capt. The median age was 31 years. All FHS members receive our newsletter, The Society Report, a 10% discount at Florida Books and Gifts bookstore, and early notice of special events, including our Annual Meeting & Symposium. In 1979 she was abducted and murdered by a man named Linroy Bottoson after he stole 37 money orders from the post office. They named the town in honor of Josiah Eaton who eventually also served as its mayor. Website +1 407-647-3307. The majority are African American.[7]. All FHS Members receive our newsletter, The Society Report, a 10% discount at Florida Books & Gifts bookstore, and early notice of special events, including our Annual Meeting and Symposium. For every 100 females, there were 88.7 males. Every winter the town stages the Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities. Following the Civil War, these men left America to settle in South America but during their voyage they turned back and settled in Florida. [6] Author Zora Neale Hurston grew up in Eatonville and the area features in many of her stories. Hurston reports that Eatonville came into existence because three white ex-Civil War officers, looking for adventure on a ship bound for Brazil, changed course and landed instead in central Florida. Like Ocoee, Florida, which was explored in the previous two episodes, it is located in Orange County. Just on the opposite end of the school, seemingly in one of the old buildings, is a Diabetes center named the “Healthy Eatonville Place”, a neighborhood place for health and wellness. Email. "Its mission is to provide a place "in the heart of the community" where the public … 120 Other Attractions within 5 miles. In 1990 the town founded the Zora Neale Hurston Museum of Fine Arts. By Gary McKechnie. Incorporated in 1887, it is the oldest such town in the United States. Eatonville is a town in Orange County, Florida, United States, six miles north of Orlando. 1904 Mother Dies Hurston's mother Lucy Potts Hurston dies. In the early 1880s, a band of Union Army veterans established a colony on the site of Fort Maitland, which was a Seminole War military outpost and antebellum plantation community due east of here. Florida was still an unsettled, wild frontier at the end of the 19th century, as Hurston notes: “This had been dark and A dining hall named after Cluett burned down in 1922, a year and a half later a stone structure bearing the same name was erected in its place. [5] The Eatonville Historic District and Moseley House Museum are in Eatonville. Hurston reports that Eatonville came into existence because three white ex-Civil War officers, looking for adventure on a ship bound for Brazil, changed course and landed instead in central Florida. It’s one of the last large tracts available along Interstate 4, Central Florida’s main artery, and the interest from big-name real estate companies shows how valuable it is. 1. Eatonville was incorporated in 1886 as the first self-governed, all-black city in America. An early politician, Judge Speer,named the town after a man named Orlando who worked for him. The electronic edition of The Florida Historical Quarterly, our award winning journal If you would like to receive the print edition (or both!) ‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties, Florida's Black Public Officials by Canter Brown Jr. University of Alabama Press, 1998, "Alabama's oldest black city fading away", https://www.visitflorida.com/en-us/listing.a0t40000007qtiMAAQ.html, "Profile of General Population and Housing Characteristics: 2010 Demographic Profile Data (DP-1): Eatonville town, Florida", "United States Postal Service Postmaster Finder", "Eatonville Had Own Answers To The Cotton Club", "US Gazetteer files: 2010, 2000, and 1990", "In a Town Apart, the Pride and Trials of Black Life", "Zora Neale Hurston Dust Tracks Heritage Trail, Zora Neale Hurston Branch Library", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eatonville,_Florida&oldid=999062279, Populated places established by African Americans, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using infobox settlement with possible area code list, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2019, Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz area identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Joseph E. 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