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.
Southwood
SouthWood is an 8,700-acres by St. Joe/Arvida that was approved in 1999. Homeowners enjoy the more than 1,000 acres of green space, including the 123-acre Central Park and Lake located in the heart of the community. Also anchored with a town center, the Capital Circle Office Complex, FSU Developmental Research School and John Paul II Catholic High School, SouthWood is Tallahassee’s most active neighborhood in the past 10 years for recent home sales. Prior to the Civil War, Southwood was a large cotton plantation owned by George Taliafero Ward.
Killearn
The interchange of I-10 and Capital Circle NE in Killearn. Dating back to 1964, Killearn was the first planned community in Tallahassee with underground utilities. It was developed on 3,800 acres of the then Velda Dairy Farms property. The name Killearn came from a village in Scotland where Reverand Archibald Maclay was born. Reverand Archibald Maclay was the great-grandfather of Alfred Barmore Maclay. Maclay was a banker and financier from New York who established Killearn Gardens as his winter home.
Interstate 10
The interchange of I-10 and Capital Circle NW. In 1949, US 90 was the main east-west highway across Tallahassee. During the planning of I-10, the highway’s route was initially proposed through the center of town. However, by the time of its late-1970s completion, this proposal was dropped in favor of the current route north of the city.
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Article by Ennis Davis, AICP. Adobe Photoshop aerial overlays by Ennis Davis, AICP. 2016 aerials courtesy of Google Earth. 1949 historic aerials courtesy of the University of Florida George A. Smathers libraries Digital Collection. Contact Ennis at: