Julianne Hare

Historic Frenchtown, Heart and Heritage in Tallahasse Julianne Hare

Frenchtown, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Tallahassee, has long been a site of great change and development. The land has been home to Native Americans, the base of exploration by the Spanish conquistadors, the battleground for Andrew Jackson and the center of African Americans' struggle for equality in the area. Today, Frenchtown is changing again, this time in an effort to preserve its vibrant history and culture.

The early history of this tight-knit community is rich with well-known characters and some of American's most dramatic movements for change. Hernando Desoto camped near Tallahassee during the first winter of his 1539 expedition. A few hundred years later, the black middle class community that developed during the Reconstruction Era, soon to be known as Frenchtown, became a vital, prosperous part of greater Tallahassee. Decades passed, and the neighborhood soon saw the establishment of landmarks such as the Red Bird Café, where stars such as Ray Charles, Little Richard, Cannonball, and Nat Adderley kept local audiences rapt with their memorable performances. But just as the nesset-red clay of Northern Florida changes to silty-soft sand, times changed in Frenchtown too. The Civil Rights movement enveloped the small Tallahassee community. Racial desegregation and urban flight in the 1960s and 1970s forced businesses to close and the population to disperse.

This is the story of a small community - a community that is essential to the black culture of Tallahassee, as well as the state of Florida as a whole. Julianne Hare masterfully narrates the story of Frenchtown in all its varied history, from the days of the conquistadors to the present-day efforts to raise the community to its former majesty.