Changing Tallahassee: Then and Now

An interesting comparison of 1949 and 2016 aerials illustrating the impact of time and change on the shape of Florida's capital city: Tallahassee.

Downtown Tallahassee Downtown Tallahassee in 1949. Until World War II, most of the city’s population (27,237 1950 census) lived within one mile of the Capitol. Today, Tallhassee is home to 190,000 residents over 100 square miles of land area.

Gaines Street Corridor In 1949, the Gaines Street corridor was Tallahassee’s premier warehouse district and home to the city’s passenger rail stations and freight terminals. Over the last decade, the old industrial district has been reborn as a pedestrian friendly mixed-use neighborhood between the main campuses of FSU and FAMU.

Cascades Park In 1949, Centennial Field was used for minor league baseball and football. Just east of Centennial Field, the City of Tallahassee operated a manufactured gas plant, producing coal tar, along St. Augustine Branch, just north of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad (now CSX). In 2005, an agreement was finalized to remediate the contaminated site. In 2014, the newly designed 24-acre Cascades Park opened along the stream.