History of the Pleasant Streeet Neighborhood

The Pleasant Street Historic District contains the oldest black residential area in Gainesville and has remained the religious, educational and social center for the black community for over a hundred years.

Many of the 255 contributing historic buildings in this north-west quadrant of original Gainesville were built by blacks in the post Civil War era and the early twentieth century. The District also contains an important collection of turn-of-the-century vernacular residences built by white families.

The tract of land on which the District developed was part of the Nehemiah Brush estate. When emancipated blacks moved into Gainesville after the Civil War, many congregated here where they could buy land and establish their own churches, schools and clubs. Many were skilled workers, tailors, blacksmiths, shoemakers, carpenters and teamsters who found ready employment in town. Between 1866 and 1886 over sixty-five individuals, mainly black, had purchased lots from the Brush estate.

Educational and religious organizations strongly influenced the community and became their social and cultural centers. Mt. Pleasant Methodist Church dedicated its first building in 1867 and remains the oldest black congregation in the city. When fire destroyed this church in 1903, the present red brick Romanesque Revival style structure was built in 1906. The Friendship Baptist Church, built in 1888, burned in 1911 and was replaced by the present Romanesque Gothic Revival building. The black community prized education and the Freedman's Bureau established Union Academy in 1867. By 1868 there were 179 students, and its first black teachers came in the 1870s. By the time the University of Florida was founded, this institution had an enrollment of 500 and also served as a normal school. This frame building was the central black educational institution until 1925 when it became a rec-reation center and then a retirement home before its demolition in the 1960s.

During Reconstruction many blacks held local and state offices. The political power of state legislators and city councilmen like Henry Harmon, Theodore Gass, Josiah T. Walls, Matthew M. Leavy and the Martin brothers had its roots in the district. The poll tax and Jim Crow restrictions disen-franchised the blacks in the late 1890s, and the district became more segregated and isolated, a town within a town. Yet black businesses grew and became more diversified. The District included doctors' offices insurance agencies, stores, a sawmill, social halls, theaters, churches and several private schools, as well as the Union Academy. So the District thrived as a self-contained, vibrant social and commercial center. In 1925, for example, a one-block area in the District contained three groceries, four lunch grills, a laundry, insurance agency and a building contractor's office, all black owned.

The majority of the structures located in the District were built before 1929. The housing forms and styles represent the changing patterns of folk housing and architectural tastes flour shotgun houses and bungalows to Queen Anne,Colonial Revival and Eastlake homes. The two Romanesque Revival churches in the District, Mt. Pleasant Methodist and Friendship Baptist, stand as the important local landmarks.

This information has been taken from the booklet titled: "Historic Gainesville: A Tour Guide to the Past," and edited by Ben Pickard. Published by Historic Gainesville, Inc. with funding from the Florida Department of State, Division of Historical Resources, 1990.