1. Winter-Routh House 302 Main Street
This two-story frame house with prominent front gable was built ca. 1895. Early owners were Laura J. Winter and her husband, Joesph H. Winter. In 1921 the house was sold to Charles H. Routh, a Seaboard Railroad conductor.
2. Dr. George Ambrose House This stately, old two-story house was built in 1882, about two years after George Ambrose arrived in Waldo. The house was not far from Raulerson & Ambrose General Merchandise, the business he operated in Waldo with Hardee Raulerson.
3. Geiger House
C.E. Geiger, an engineer employed by the Seaboard Railroad in 1910, lived in this house. The house was also occupied by Ed Donnegan, who worked for the railroad and married Geiger's daughter, Belle.
4. John Winter House 120 1st Avenue
This house was constructed for John L. Winter and Effie Parke several years after their marriage in Waldo on April 27, 1892. In 1900 Winter was made supervisor of buildings and bridges for Seaboard Air Line Railroad (known as Seaboard Railroad) and in 1913 became a vice-president of the Bank of Waldo.
5. Typical Bungalow 118 1st Avenue
This "cottage-style" home was constructed ca. 1910-15 to house one of Waldo's many railroad workers. Residents of Waldo have been employed by the railroad since 1859.
6. Newman House
The Newman family moved to this corner in the 1890's and the house on the property is known to have been occupied by Newman family members since the early 1900's.
7. Dr. Joe Strickland House
In the 1890's when this house was built for Joe Strickland, one of Waldo's first doctors, it was described as a "mansion." The house was later occupied by J.L. McCauley, who was employed by the railroad as an engineer in 1901.
8. Cauthen-Boring House
This old home was built for Thomas M. Cauthen, an influential member of the Waldo community in the 1880's. It was later occupied by Arthur Boring. Boring's father, Methodist circuit rider Reverend Issac Boring, had preached near Bellamy Station (renamed Waldo in 1858).
9. George H. Barker House
Captain Barker built this house which was originally located across from the George Ambrose House on what is now U.S. 301. He operated the wood burning dredge which dug canals (1878-81) to Lake Alto and Lake Santa Fe. He was also captain of the F.S. Lewis which plied the new water route.
10. The Waldo School
In 1920 the seven acre "Branning Block" was purchased for a new school (The Brannings were in the Waldo area by 1830). The school was completed in 1923.
11. The Methodist Church
This lovely two-story frame church with stained glass windows and a bell tower was erected in 1910. The property was donated by Dr. Joe Boring, a Waldo physician.
12. Harry M. Agin House
Although the front of the house has been remodeled, the north side exhibits original turn-of-the-century styling. Agin was an engineer for the Seaboard Railroad and mayor of Waldo in 1919. He married Mary Bell.
13. Dr. D.L. Renault House
This two-story frame house belonged to D.L. Renault, a physician from Paris, France. Renault had established a practice in Waldo by 1883. Ben Fry, a conductor for the Seaboard Railroad, lived in this house during the 1920's and 30's.
14. Waldo Library
The small structure which houses the town library was originally a rectory for the church next door.
15. Episcopal Church
This beautiful old church was built in 1884 by the First Presbyterian Church of Waldo. It was purchased in 1918 by the Episcopalians. The wood frame building has a spire and stained-glass windows.
16. Boy Scout Log Cabin
The logs used to construct this cabin are much older than the structure itself which was built during the last twenty or thirty years.
17. Andrew Jolly House
285 S.W. 1st Blvd.
Andrew Jolly, who was born in 1864, lived in this house. During the 1880's Andrew owned an "apothecary shop." His son Frank was Waldo's druggist during the World War I era.
18. Thigpen House
Members of the Thigpen family lived in this cottage which dates from ca. 1910 to 1915. Thigpens were neighbors of William Sparkman, the earliest English speaking settler in the Waldo area.
19. Ransome Meade House
205 S.W. 3rd Way
This house was occupied by Ransome Meade, who was employed in Claude Sparkeman's store around the turn of the century.
20. Jim Wills House
325 S.W.3rd Way
The Wills family occcupied this house during the early 1930's. J.T.Wills became a conductor for the Seaboard Railroad during the years before World War I.
21. & 22. Una Lee Donaldson Houses
These two houses were recently moved from there original location on S.W> 4th Blvd. One was used as a telephone office sometime after telephones came to Waldo in the 1920's. Mrs. W.H. Donaldson was living in one of the houses in the 1970's.
23. Raulerson House
S.W. 5th Blvd.
The house on this property was at one time occupied by Sarah Elizabeth Raulerson and her widowed mother, Mary Clement Sparkman. Sarah was the granddaughter of William Sparkman and the first baby girl born (1848) to English speaking settlers in the Waldo area.
24. Alexander Store
L.B. Alexander came to Florida from Reynolds, Georgia. Soon after he married Nora Preston of Melrose on August 26, 1915, he became owner of this red brick building. He sold ". . . shoes, hats, and general men's wear." His wife sold "dress goods" and children's clothes.
25. Sparkman Store 204 S.W. 5th Blvd.
This store was rebuilt in brick by T.B. "Ben" Tillis after a fire in 1893 destroyed the wood frame buildings on Waldo's business block. The next owners were Charles Richard Sparkman (the grandson of William Sparkman) and his son Claude. The Sparkman store remained when other buildings; including the old three-story Cigar Factory, the Opera House (1872-77), and the Waldo Hotel (1869), were razed in the 1920's and '30's. Sparkmans were the proprietors until 1966.
26. Red Caboose
The caboose was acquired by the city of Waldo from the Seaboard System Railroad (CSX Corp.) in 1986. It serves as inspiration for the annual Waldo Railroad Days held in April. Two historical markers located nearby give a brief history of the town and information about Waldo during the Civil War.
27. John Ambrose House
The son of George Ambrose lived in this house which dates from about 1908. "Dr" John Ambrose was Waldo's druggist.
28. Bank of Waldo
The building, which was completed in 1913, is brick masonry with an inlaid tile stoop. The bank closed for the first time on July 22, 1929 and closed for good on February 6, 1932. The bank failure left many railroad men, commercial farmers, and businessmen destitute.
29. Pettit House 320 SW 2nd Way
The lot on which this house stands was purchased in the 1880's by Nathan Conan Pettit. He was a city council member (1883) and mayor of Waldo in (1907-8). Pettit women were Waldo school teachers. During the first decade of the twentieth century before the bank was built, the "Pettit Gardens" attracted train passengers who had disembarked to have lunch at the Waldo Hotel down the street.
30. The Cigar Factory
The El Toney Cigar Factory was moved ca. 1907 to the second floor of this two-story frame building which is believed to date from the 1880's. The business, which was owned by the Entenza family, had been in Waldo since the 1870's.
31. Manning House
400 S.W. 4th Blvd.
This house, which was owned by members of the Manning family in the 1970's, was used much earlier (1890's) as a school.
32. Joel Weeks House
This is one of Waldo's earliest houses. It belonged to Joel T. Weeks, a member of the city council in 1883, and his wife Catherine, inherited the house which remained in the Weeks family until 1941.
33. Lelia Sparkman House
285 S.W. 6th Blvd.
Built in the early 1900's, this house was occupied by Lelia Sparkman, a descendant of Waldo's founder William Sparkman.
34. Kinzer HouseW.E. Seigler, a Waldo businessman, and his wife, Lula, lived in this house during the first decade of the twentieth century. Their daughter, Illa, married an engineer for the Seaboard Railroad, W.D. Kinzer, and continued to live in the "old" house.
35. George Granger House
George Summer Granger, a railroad engineer, built this elaborate, Victorian-style house before 1894. It is located on "Cracker Hill." The original frame structure had a fanciful two-story full-length veranda and a narrow two and a half-story tower. The house remained in the Granger family until 1981.
This information has been researched and compiled by the Alachua County Historical Commission, and sponsered by the Alachua County Board of County Commissioners as part of the Alachua County Historical Tour Series (1992)