Southeast Gainesville Residential District

747 SE 2nd Pl Gainesville, FL

The Southeast Gainesville Residential District is comprised of bounded by East University Avenue, SE 9th Street, SE 5th Avenue and Sweetwater Branch.

The area is associated with the early residential development of the city of Gainesville and is comprised mainly of a group of late 19th and early 20th century houses that reflect the variety of distinct architectural styles and types popular during that period of American history. The buildings found in the district range from representative types of ordinary wood frame vernacular construction to well-defined examples of such styles as Second Empire, Queen Anne, Eastern Stick, Bungalow and Colonial Revival. The visual and physical character of the built environment of the Southeast Gainesville Residential District can be tied to those historical events that fostered the growth of the city of Gainesville from its beginnings as a railroad oriented marketing center to its later development as a university town and commercial and professional services axis for north central Florida. Moreover, the variety of building types in the neighborhood reflect the financial and social positions of the people that resided there and included members of both the working and professional classes of the community, some of whom were founders of the city’s businesses and industries.

The city of Gainesville was founded in 1854 when the board of commissioners of Alachua County decided to move the county seat from Newnansville to the right-of-way of the Florida Railroad, which had begun construction of a rail line to link the city of Fernandina, located in northeast Florida on the Atlantic Ocean, with the town of Cedar Key, found on the Gulf of Mexico in the central part of the state. Since there was a potential for local market centers to develop along the railway, the Florida Railroad Company decided to establish five depots along the route to accommodate the shipment of local agricultural products and to encourage commercial developments beneficial to the railroad. The site selected in Alachua County was destined to become the city of Gainesville.

The Southeast Gainesville Residential District is a National Register of Historic Places.

TAGS: All,All,19th Century