Our Generation Florida

Planters and Printers in Old Homosassa

By Sandra Friend

By the 1850s, David Levy Yulee had made quite a name for himself. Born in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, he was brought to the Florida Territory in 1817 by his family and attended law school in St. Augustine. After attending Florida’s first constitutional convention, he was elected a territorial delegate to the U.S. Congress, and became Florida’s first U.S. Senator when Florida achieved statehood in 1845. All the while he managed businesses ranging from the Atlantic & Gulf Railroad – which ran from Fernandina Beach to the Cedar Keys – to his 5,100-acre sugar plantation, Margarita, on the Homosassa River, with his mansion set on Tiger Tail Island and connected to the mainland by a plank road.

By 1851 the sugar mill had 1,000 workers, primarily slaves. Yulee joined the Confederate Congress when Florida seceded, and used his mansion at Tiger Tail Island in the Homosassa River as a storehouse for ammunition and supplies. So it was no great surprise that the Union Blockading Squadron, patrolling coastal Florida, targeted the plantation. In May 1864, after a failed attempt at ambushing Yulee on the road from Homosassa to Archer, a Federal naval detachment burned the mansion to the ground. The mill, standing inland, escaped damage but fell into ruin as the plantation was abandoned.

Now partially restored, the original machinery stands in place beneath a tightly-knit canopy of ancient live oaks that marks the entrance to Old Homosassa, the waterfront community beyond Homosassa Springs. There is no entrance fee to explore the Yulee Sugar Mill Ruins Historic State Park; just park your car and walk through the complex to learn the historic process of turning sugarcane to sugar, which Yulee adapted from his Caribbean birthplace.

The other building under these oaks will catch your attention as well. Each Thursday through Saturday, curator Jim Anderson opens up the Olde Mill House Gallery & Printing Museum, a small collection devoted to a vanishing art—typesetting. In addition to its displays of letterpresses and movable type, this museum showcases antique typewriters and other printing ephemera. A portion of the building is taken up by the Museum Café, which serves up authentic Ybor City Cuban sandwiches piled with salami, ham, spiced pork, and Swiss cheese. Stop in for a café con leche and to see the restored 1924 Model T truck in the middle of the dining room. On the second week of October, it’s crowded under the live oaks, as the Olde Mill House hosts Blues and Barbecue, a festival featuring Florida artists of the musical and culinary kind.

Old Homosassa is just a little off the beaten path. From US 19 north, turn left onto W Yulee Drive at the shopping center with the Burger King out front. From US 19 south, turn right. When Yulee Drive meets Fishbowl Drive, bear left.

Yulee Sugar Mill Ruins Historic State Park

www.floridastateparks.org/yuleesugarmill

The Olde Mill House Gallery & Printing Museum  
and Museum Café   352-628-1081

www.visitcitrus.com/museumitem.asp?companyID=272