Shuffleboard: Florida’s Favorite Old-Time Pastime
Nothing says old Florida quite like shuffleboard, and St. Petersburg is its world capital, home to the oldest and largest shuffleboard club on Earth.
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Fish Camps: The Rustic Heart of Old Florida
Before resorts and condos, there were fish camps, rustic riverside outposts with cabins, bait shops, and fried-fish dinners that still hold the soul of old Florida.
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Anna Maria Island: The Old-Florida Beach Town That Said No to High-Rises
Just off Bradenton, Anna Maria Island keeps the high-rises out, the pace slow, and the old-Florida charm intact, anchored by a historic wooden pier and miles of quiet white sand.
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Spanish Moss: The Plant That Drapes Every Live Oak and Isn’t Even a Moss
It’s not Spanish and it’s not moss. The gray-green curtains draping Florida’s live oaks are actually a bromeliad, a cousin of the pineapple, and Henry Ford once stuffed his Model T seats with it.
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Roadside Orange Stands: The Disappearing Sweet Spots of Old Florida
Hand-painted signs, fresh-squeezed juice, and bags of fruit picked that morning. Florida’s roadside citrus stands were the sweetest stops on any highway.
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Sunken Gardens: The Tropical Paradise Inside a St. Pete Sinkhole
In 1903, a plumber drained a sinkhole behind his house and started planting. Over a century later, Sunken Gardens is still one of St. Petersburg’s most beautiful surprises.
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The Yearling: The Pulitzer Winner Written in a Florida Farmhouse at Cross Creek
The most celebrated Florida novel was written in a farmhouse on a 72-acre orange grove near Gainesville. It won the Pulitzer, became a Gregory Peck film, and you can still visit where it was written.
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Micanopy: Florida’s Oldest Inland Town and the Street That Time Forgot
Micanopy is Florida’s oldest inland town, founded in 1821. It is a one-road collection of antique shops, live oaks, and front porches that moves at a pace the rest of the state forgot a long time ago.
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Cedar Key: The Gulf Island Where Clams Saved a Town
A net ban nearly killed Cedar Key’s fishing economy. Instead, this tiny Gulf island reinvented itself as the clam capital of America.
