UF Professor Helps Preserve One Of The Last Untouched Coastal Towns

May 13, 1997

FERNANDINA BEACH — Charlie Gallagher’s dirt-road, clapboard neighborhood may be on the National Register of Historic Places, but he doesn’t get too excited about it. Maybe it’s because he’s seen so much of Old Town’s history firsthand.

“I was born in this house 72 years ago,” he said, sitting on his front porch and gazing toward the nearby Amelia River. “It’s been just like this all my life, just like it is now.”

But the semiretired shrimper and fish camp owner knows change is coming. Developers, responding to news of plans for street paving and sidewalk and sewerage installation, are buying land and readying to build up one of the last undeveloped spots on Florida’s east coast.

Gallagher just hopes he and his neighbors don’t become strangers in their own land. A University of Florida architecture professor and a team of architects are seeing to it they don’t.

Fernandina Beach city officials called on William Tilson last year to create guidelines to keep growth from overwhelming the roughly 30-acre community of eclectic architecture at the north end of Amelia Island.

Tilson and his team started the work in August. Their aim: To preserve the area’s diverse history and general feel without imposing overly strict limits and stymying growth.

Given Old Town’s historic significance, that could be a tall order.

“Old Town was the last town platted by the Spanish in the western hemisphere. This is really a pure example of Spanish land planning,” said Tilson, who thoroughly researched Old Town’s history.

First settled by the Spanish in the 1560s, the area was the original site of the town of Fernandina. Like many places in Florida, it was under several flags — including the British from 1764 to 1783, the Spanish again in 1811 and American in 1812.

When a railroad head was established after the Civil War farther south in what now is downtown Fernandina Beach, Old Town was left behind. A paper mill built later at Old Town’s southern edge further isolated the area. In recent years, downtown Fernandina Beach became a trendy Victorian shopping and dining spot. Old Town saw no such revival.

In February 1995, Fernandina Beach secured a $600,000 federal Community Development Block Grant. That’s when developers began buying up land in earnest. It’s also when city leaders realized they needed to act quickly.

“There was a sense of urgency because we knew the development was coming and without any guidelines the place was going to be overdeveloped,” said Jose Miranda Jr., a Fernandina Beach architect who served on the city’s historic district council and helped bring Tilson into the picture.

The improvements, already delayed once, are scheduled to begin in mid-June and take three to four months to finish.

Tilson said he doesn’t foresee Old Town guidelines dictating such details as paint colors and window styles. Rather, he said, the idea will be to reflect the area’s diverse nature in a more casual way.

Among the things he plans are streets paved with coquina — a crushed seashell construction material commonly used by the Spanish — and maintaining their 20-foot width.

Also, the original plat called for lots that are 46 feet wide and 92 feet deep, fairly small by modern standards. Tilson wants to make sure that even if lots are combined, development will conform to the historic pattern of building. That might mean larger modern buildings would be divided into smaller elements to maintain the scale and massing suggested by the Spanish grid plan. Perhaps most importantly, said Tilson, Old Town’s current residents must not be shoved aside to make way for development.

Bill Kavanaugh, owner of the Tiger Point Marina in Old Town and a sixth-generation resident of Fernandina Beach, said he likes what he sees and hears about Tilson’s plan for the community.

“It’s been a stepchild for all these years,” said Kavanaugh, 45. “Hopefully, they’ll maintain the historic architecture of the village. History’s real important.”