An Enchanted Step Back into 1930s Florida
Visiting Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park
If your name was Marjory/Marjorie and you lived in Florida in the early 1900s, you were destined to be an environmental advocate.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas championed the Everglades. Marjorie Harris Carr fought against a canal that would have sliced Florida in two. And Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings introduced Americans to the beauty of Florida’s nature and living with the land.
The Florida State Park system recognizes all three women by preserving their homes (Marjory Stoneman Douglas House, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park) or naming a section of land after them (Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway).
Stoneman Douglas’ house isn’t open to the public, and the Greenway is 110 linear miles. But if you want an easy way to step back in time and marvel at what life was like in Florida when these women lived, all you have to do is visit Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park, about two hours northwest of Orlando, near Gainesville.
Rawlings left New York and arrived in Cross Creek, Florida, in 1928 following her divorce. After receiving rejections of her typical gothic romances, Rawlings was encouraged by her publisher to write about her life and experiences in rural north-central Florida. These stories and novels led to Pulitzer nominations and a win (The Yearling) and eventually a 1983 movie, titled after the autobiographical account of her time in Florida (Cross Creek).
The state park preserves Rawlings’ 1930s homestead, including her 1940 Oldsmobile and some of the orange trees from her grove.
Interpretive tours are offered, but visitors can also walk around the house and view the inside of most rooms and their original furnishings through the windows. A typewriter sits on a wooden table on the screened-in front porch, as if waiting for its writer to return. The outhouse and barn still stand, as does the tenant house, where many of the workers who assisted with farm duties lived as part of their wages.
Visitors are encouraged to pick fruit from the orange, grapefruit, and tangerine trees. Chickens and ducks pay the humans no mind as they wander out of their pens to hunt for bugs and nibble on dropped fruit.
After watching the movie Cross Creek, I was expecting to see the eponymous waterway as I visited the homestead. Alas, the directors must have taken creative license, as there is no water visible near the home. The creek is a short drive away, though there is a boat ramp to Orange Lake on the edge of the park.
Rawlings wrote in Cross Creek (1942), “I do not know how anyone can live without some small place of enchantment to turn to.” The Florida State Park Service has done a wonderful job preserving that enchantment. The park was quiet - except for the roosters! - and stepping back into what life was like in Florida 100 years ago brought me a sense of peace and calm.
Just Go!
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park sits between Gainesville and Ocala.
Hours: 9 a.m. - 5 p.m., 365 days a year. Check the website for tour days/times. Tours are the only way to access the interior of the house.
Fees: $3/vehicle. There is no ranger station; use the honor box to pay.
Before You Go: I highly recommend watching Cross Creek (1983 movie) or reading the book before visiting. It will lend context and increase your enjoyment of the visit.
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The Marjory/Marjorie thing is delightful and slightly eerie - like Florida was summoning its environmental guardians by name. I wonder if there were other Marjories in Florida at the time who ignored the call and just lived normal lives, completely oblivious to their destiny.
The fact that you can still pick fruit from her trees, that the chickens still wander, that the typewriter still sits there - that continuity is precious. We're losing that everywhere else.
Happy Thursday Karen :)