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Lake City, Florida: A Sesquicentennial Tribute (2009) H. Morris Williams, Dr. Kevin M. McCarthy

Chapter Seven 1870 - 1879

Chapter Seven: 1870 - 1879

The 1870s saw the start of one of Lake City’s most important
educational institutions, although it would not be until the 1880s that it
actually opened. Based on the Morrill Land Grant Act enacted by the
U.S. Congress in 1862 (see the previous chapter), officials incorpo-
rated the Florida Agricultural College (FAC) in 1872, and its eight-
member board of trustees set about looking for an appropriate site.
They considered places in Gainesville and Eau Gallie, but then chose
Lake City after local officials offered $15,000 in cash and one hun-
dred acres. The trustees also noted that the Lake City climate was
“unsurpassed in America for its equable mildness” and the community
had a “high reputation for morality and love of order.” It would, how-
ever, be another decade before the school opened in Lake City.

FAC trustees at first chose Eau Gallie for the site
of the new college, but a change in political
administrations in Florida negated that decision.
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