Apalachicola by Beverly Mount-Douds (English) Paperback Book

Apalachicola

by Beverly Mount-Douds

Once the third-largest port on the Gulf of Mexico, Apalachicola's diverse and colorful past remains visible today. With more than 900 historic homes and buildings in the National Register Historic District, visitors are invited to stroll along the picturesque, tree-lined streets where Victorian homes display the charm of years gone by. This delightful little fishing village has a warm and friendly atmosphere, making it even more appropriate that Apalachicola's name is a Native American word meaning "friendly people." When Apalachicola was established in 1831, its major industry was the shipping of cotton, and the city soon became an important port on the Gulf of Mexico. When the railroads expanded throughout the United States, Franklin County developed several large lumber mills to harvest and process wood from the surrounding cypress forests. These lumber magnates built many of the magnificent historic homes that still line Apalachicola's streets today.

FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New

Publisher Description

Once the third-largest port on the Gulf of Mexico, Apalachicola's diverse and colorful past remains visible today. With more than 900 historic homes and buildings in the National Register Historic District, visitors are invited to stroll along the picturesque, tree-lined streets where Victorian homes display the charm of years gone by. This delightful little fishing village has a warm and friendly atmosphere, making it even more appropriate that Apalachicola's name is a Native American word meaning friendly people. When Apalachicola was established in 1831, its major industry was the shipping of cotton, and the city soon became an important port on the Gulf of Mexico. When the railroads expanded throughout the United States, Franklin County developed several large lumber mills to harvest and process wood from the surrounding cypress forests. These lumber magnates built many of the magnificent historic homes that still line Apalachicola's streets today.

Author Biography

Author Beverly Mount-Douds is a genealogist and historian with many ancestral links to the area around Gulf County. She is the founder and president of the Gulf County Genealogical Society and a member of the St. Joseph Historical Society. Her previous works include Images of America: Gulf County and the self-published Lighthouse Keepers. It was with the help of the Apalachicola Municipal Library, the Apalachicola Bay Historical Society, and the residents of Apalachicola that these images were acquired and the stories behind them could be written.

Review Text

Title: Apalachicola in Pictures Author: Despina Williams Publisher: The Times Date: 10/29/09 Beverly Mount-Douds daydreams about elegant tea parties hosted by "Sunshine" Gibson. She envisions Minnie Barefield roaming the streets of Apalachicola, collecting rent money in her syrup bucket. And she wishes she'd had the pleasure of meeting Margaret Key, a fellow author, historian and genealogist. As the first edition of her photographic history book, Apalachicola, rolls off the presses, Mount-Douds can't stop thinking about the black and white images of Apalachicolians past. "I feel like I know them," said Mount-Douds, flipping through her latest book, part of Arcadia's "Images of America" series. "They've come to be like live people in mind because I've read so many stories. It brings them alive to me." Mount-Douds, a Highland View resident, knew little about Apalachicola when she first began researching the historic city two years ago. As a research assistant for a Florida State University project aimed at identifying historic landmarks for an online and print publication, Mount-Douds became intrigued by Apalachicola's rich history. Having previously completed a photographic history of Gulf County and a chronicle of area lighthouse keepers, Mount-Douds knew she'd found her next project. "A light bulb went off in my head," recalled Mount-Douds. "'Why not do one on Apalach?'" In collecting historical photographs of Apalachicola, Mount-Douds found invaluable guides in Sweet Shoppe proprietor Dolores Roux and former librarian Ann Sizemore. Roux introduced Mount-Douds to members of Apalachicola's prominent families and Sizemore made available the library's photographic collections. After a year of collecting and cataloguing photographs, Mount-Douds organized her book into seven sections. Chapters are devoted to people, industry, recreation, celebrations, the historic Chapman High School, homes and landmarks. Regular attendees of the Florida Seafood Festival may be surprised to learn that the event began as a Mardi Gras festival around 1915. The book's 1916 cover shot depicts a sharply dressed Homer Oliver driving Mardi Gras queen Genevieve Pierce and maid of honor Dorothy Sawyer in a 1915 Buick. The festival evolved into the Harbor Day festival in the 1960s, then the Apalachicola Seafood Festival in the 1970s, and now the Florida Seafood Festival. The seafood industry is well depicted in the book, with images of the Standard Fish and Oyster Company, Taranto's Seafood and the C.H. Lind Oyster and Fish House. No book on Apalachicola is complete without its famous export, the oyster. The book showcases the seafood festival's first oyster-shucking champion, Zora Lee Alford (50 oysters in 2 minutes, 48 seconds) and Edward Philyaw, slurping a raw one down at age 5. Other images depict Apalachicola's once prominent sponge industry, steamboats sailing the Apalachicola River and the Coombs Lumber Company, one of the most successful sawmills of its day. Sprinkled among prominent historical figures like botanist Dr. Alvan Wentworth Chapman, and ice machine inventor Dr. John Gorrie are lesser known figures like Barefield, a mixed-race woman with an interesting past. Barefield's boyfriend, lumberman Charles Dobson, built her a stately home using the same blueprint as the historic Coombs house. Though the census described Barefield as a boarding house owner, those in the know note that she operated "Minnie's Palace of Pleasures," a brothel. In a poetic twist of fate, the brothel later became a convent for nuns with the Holy Family School. It was purchased and

Details ISBN0738568171 Author Beverly Mount-Douds Publisher Arcadia Publishing (SC) Series Images of America (Arcadia Publishing) Language English ISBN-10 0738568171 ISBN-13 9780738568171 Media Book Format Paperback DEWEY 975.9 Illustrations Yes Pages 127 Short Title APALACHICOLA Year 2009 Publication Date 2009-10-28 Audience General/Trade

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TheNile_Item_ID:138016384;

• Condition: Brand new
• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN-13: 9780738568171
• Author: Beverly Mount-Douds
• Book Title: Apalachicola
• ISBN: 9780738568171

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