and Related Structures
The new county seat was laid out in the traditional gridiron pattern with a total of eight blocks. Typically, a centrally located block was designated for the courthouse and a wooden two-story one was built in 1856. The first railway tracks reached Gainesville in late 1859, making the town a shipping center for local products. By 1860 the town's population had reached 269, and a general store and three hotels clustered around the Courthouse Square. By 1883 two more railways served the city, one on the south edge and another that traveled through the center of town down Main Street.
With the railways came more hotels and industry; retail and office buildings crowded around the Square. The manufacturing interests, though, tended to locate in the southern section of the city near present day Depot Avenue. A series of fires in 1884 erased many of the downtown buildings, including the Arlington Hotel, visited by Teddy Roosevelt and U.S. Grant. Now brick buildings replaced the original wood structures; a new Opera House provided entertainment and a magnificent red brick courthouse was erected in 1885. Public improvements followed with public water, gas, electricity and telephones all available by the late 1890s. The city weathered the collapse of the citrus industry during the hard freezes of the 1890s as phosphate mining and lumbering became the staples of its economy. By 1900 Gainesville had a population of over 4000. With the coming of the twentieth century, Gainesville's newest and biggest hotel, The White House, was built by in 1909 by Major Thomas.
Ironically, Gainesville's most significant addition, the coming of the University of Florida in 1905, foretold the eventual decline of the downtown area. New developments, businesses and construction moved steadily westward. Still, until World War II the Courthouse Square remained the center of Gainesville business and social life. Here political gatherings were held at election time and famous speakers like William Jennings Bryan orated. The circus and minstrel parades centered in downtown and courting couples sipped soft drinks at Miller's soda fountain or viewed silent pictures at the Lyric Theater. During the earlier part of the twentieth century downtown was mainly mercantile with a few lawyers, doctors and dentists practicing their professions from offices above the grocery, hardware, furniture and clothing stores.
During the late 1920s and 1930s the automobile trans-formed part of the old downtown with related retail services like car dealerships, gas stations, vulcanizing shops and tire and battery stores. Eventually the Main Street railway tracks, some older buildings and spacious treelined medians disappeared to accommodate an ever increasing number of cars. Following World War II, when the student body of the University grew rapidly, the city expanded, too, moving into the Northwest and Southwest areas and leaving behind the central city with its narrow streets, small shops and insufficient parking. New suburban malls now took over as retail and shopping centers, while government and related services became crucial to downtown survival.
In the 1960s and 1970s a reversal of this trend occurred as downtown redevelopment brought a new courthouse, post office, city hall and library. Along with a three-story Judicial Building, a new downtown plaza emerged with a fountain and outdoor amphitheater. Paralleling the restoration and renovation of older homes in the Northeast and Southeast, downtown began to preserve and readapt its historic buildings: the abandoned old post office was converted into a home for the Hippodrome State Theater, the Seagle Building was renovated into luxury apartments, and the decaying Commercial Hotel became county offices. In 1987 alone the Star Garage became a legal center, the old Gainesville Sun building was transformed into the Sun Center, and the Florida Theater was extensively renovated. Finally in 1989 work began on a new public library and on the restoration of the unique Bethel gas station. Downtown has not only survived, but with a number of new and restored restaurants, the vernacular-styled Arlington Square Apartments and a historic streetscape, it is thriving and vibrant.