The Great Floridians 2000 program was designed to recognize
individuals who distinguished themselves through their philanthropy,
public service or personal or professional service, and who have
enhanced the lives of Florida’s citizens.
Anyone could nominate an individual to be designated a Great Floridian
2000 by submitting a Great Floridians 2000 application. These
applications were periodically reviewed by the appointed Great
Floridians 2000 Committee, a group of seven distinguished historians
from throughout Florida.
The program, begun in 1998, was completed in 2000.
The distinctive blue plaques honoring the men and women in the
program are attached to buildings or structures in the cities where the
designee left their mark. No biographical information is included on the
plaques.
William Amory Underhill
William Amory Underhill Photo courtesy United States Department of Justice
William Amory Underhill was born in 1910, received his law degree
from Stetson University and served from 1940 to 1942 as a Volusia
County prosecuting attorney. During World War II, he was a special
attorney for the U.S. Justice Department in Washington. He was an
Assistant U.S. Attorney General during the administration of President Harry Truman and a special Washington counsel to the Florida
Comptroller. He was a Stetson University Trustee from 1977 to 1986
and a member of the College of Law Board of Overseers from more than
20 years. He was a member of the Bert Fish Foundation and treasurer of Florida House, the first state house in the nation’s capital. He was the
founding president and a life member of the DeLand Jaycees and a life
member of the DeLand Area Chamber of Commerce.
William Amory Underhill died in 1999.
William Amory Underhill Great Floridians 2000 plaque, located at the Volusia County Historic Courthouse.
A brief biographical summary of Underhill’s career can be found HERE.
An online memorial for William Amory Underhill may be found HERE.
As mentioned, Underhill served as a member of the Bert Fish
Foundation. You may find the Bert Fish Great Floridians 2000 post HERE.
The remains of William Amory Underhill are interred in the Mausoleum at Oakdale Cemetery.
To read all my Great Floridians 2000 posts click HERE.
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Get this incredibly haunting image of the Volusia County Historic Courthouse, shrouded with fog, in puzzle form. Order your 252 or 520 piece jigsaw puzzle HERE.
• Pressed paper chipboard with adhesive, 0.06″ (1.53 mm) thick
• 252 pcs puzzle size: 10.62″ × 13.62″ (27 × 34.6 cm)
• 520 pcs puzzle size: 15.74″ × 19.74″ (40 × 50.1 cm)
• Digitally printed
• Semi-gloss finish
• Vibrant colors
• Can be used as wall decor
• Blank product components sourced from the US
Fog shrouds the Volusia County Historic Courthouse in downtown DeLand, FL
In May 1982, when Dixon H. Reeves, and his wife Harriett, paid contractors to break ground on a house site at the corner of south Beach Street and Mound Avenue in Ormond Beach, they did not fully comprehend the damage they were going to do to an irreplaceable cultural artifact. In fact, once the city manager issued a stop work order, the Reeves sued the city for damages. The property ownership reverted to Mr. and Mrs. Melvin Barron, who the Reeves purchased the property from, and the Reeves eventually received a $4,000 settlement from the city.
Ormond Indian Burial Mound
Where the Reeves wish to build their home was the site of a Timucuan Burial Mound. In Timucuan society, bodies were not buried but instead they were placed on top of the ground and dirt piled on top. In some instances, the flesh was allowed to decay, and the bones were bundled and placed at the mound site. At times, items owned by the deceased were broken and included in the interment.
Despite the mound having received considerable damage through the years, including digging by “pot hunters” and construction of adjacent roadways, archaeologists believe as many as 125 Timucuans had been buried on the site. For anybody caught digging on this, or similar sites, you will more likely than not be charged with a third-degree felony. See this link for additional information.
With a lack of consensus among city leaders a fund was started to help purchase and preserve this sacred site. The Barron’s agreed to sell the property to the city for $55,000. Despite confirmation on the importance of the site from professional anthropologists and archaeologists, it took an anonymous donation of $30,000, along with the fundraising drive, to help secure the sale as shortsighted elected city officials balked at the price and potential ongoing costs.
Today, the site is owned by the City of Ormond Beach and is a park in a residential area. Visitors can see the mound from all sides, surrounded by roads and houses. Parking is available across the street at Ames Park so please do not park on park lands or in the yards or drives of nearby property owners. Please do not climb on the mound as it is a fragile archaeological site.
If you are interested in Native American History and mythology, this fascinating book is one you should have in your libary. This fascinating and informative compendium of Native American lore was assembled by one of twentieth-century America’s premier ethnographer/anthropologists. Hartley Burr Alexander recounts the continent’s myths chronologically and region-by-region, offering a remarkably wide range of nomadic sagas, animist myths, cosmogonies and creation myths, end-time prophecies, and other traditional tales. Click the photo to order directly from the publisher and to see their other Native American selections.
Sign Text
Historic Marker placed by the City of Ormond Beach and the Ormond Beach Historical Trust
The Ormond Mound was constructed by the prehistoric people of this area sometime after A.D. 800. The skeletal remains of more than 125 early native (sic) Americans are buried in this sand burial mound. Interring bodies in earthen mounds was a common burial practice in the late pre-historic period. The bones of most of the deceased were “bundled” and buried during special ceremonies. As more bodies were buried and covered with layers of sand, the mound grew over time. The Mound is preserved as one of the finest and most intact burial mounds in Florida through the efforts of the community that worked to save this site in 1982.
City of Ormond Beach
Ormond Beach Historical Trust
This marker is placed by the City of Ormond Beach and is not a part of the Florida Department of State marker program.
If you wish to learn more about Timucuan culture there is an excellent book I can recommend.
Perhaps the definitive book on the subject is written by Dr. Jerald Milanich, The Timucua.
This is the story of the Timucua, an American Indian people who thrived for centuries in the southeast portion of what is now the United States of America.
Timucua groups lived in Northern Florida and Southern Georgia, a region occupied by native people for thirteen millennia. They were among the first of the American Indians to come in contact with Europeans, when the Spaniard Juan Ponce de Leon landed on the Florida coast in 1513. Thousands of archaeological sites, village middens and sand and shell mounds still dot the landscape, offering mute testimony to the former presence of the Timucua and their ancestors.
Two hundred and fifty years after Ponce de Leon’s voyage the Timucua had disappeared, extinguished by the ravages of colonialism. Who were the Timucua? Where did they come from? How did they live? What caused their extinction? These are questions this book attempts to answer, using information gathered from archaeological excavations and from the interpretation of historical documents left behind by the European powers, mainly Spain and France, who sought to colonize Florida and to place the Timucua under their sway.
Bry, Theodor de, 1528-1598. XXIV. Mode of Drying Fish, Wild Animals, and other Provisions. 1591. State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory. <https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/294790>, accessed 22 October 2022.
The State Library and Archives of Florida (Florida Memory), has an excellent page of Theodor de Bry’s Engravings of the Timucua. These incredible works of art date from before the year 1600. The 42 pieces are all available for viewing and low resolution copies are available for download. A sample de Bry image is seen at the left.
Sources:
Daytona Beach News Journal
Florida Master Site File VO00240
Ormond Beach Historical Trust, Inc. “The Story of the Timucua Indian Burial Mound in Ormond Beach, Florida.” Pamphlet published April 2000.
This post may contain affiliate links. If you click these links and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission. This commission does not affect any price that you pay. All views and opinions provided are my own and are never influenced by affiliate programs or sponsors providing products.
Jack Kerouac House
1418 Clouser Avenue
Orlando, FL 32804
By Kerouac_by_Palumbo.jpg: Tom Palumbo from New York, NY, USA derivative work: Sir Richardson at en.wikipedia – This file was derived from: Kerouac by Palumbo.jpg:, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=85963062
When most people think of the Beat Generation, certain visuals often come to mind.
Unemployed young adults, sitting around a coffee house in San Francisco, smoking away, rambling on self-importantly about books most of main stream America has never read seems to often fit the description. These descriptors are really about beatniks and not a literary movement. For those a bit more acquainted with the Beat Generation, certain names will come immediately to mind; Kerouac, Burroughs, Kesey, Ginsberg, and maybe even Ferlinghetti. Literature titles such as Howl,Naked Lunch, and On the Road are probably the most famous. Despite the passage of nearly seventy years, these books and others of the movement are still in print and widely read today.
In July of 1957, only months before the groundbreaking On the Road would receive tremendous praise in the New York Times, the then 32-year-old Kerouac rented a small apartment for him and his mother. The home did not have air conditioning and the Florida heat was almost too much for Kerouac, who took to writing at night. Today, visitors to the city of Orlando have the opportunity to see the home where Jack Kerouac and his mother lived during 1957, the year that catapulted him to fame.
On the Road by Jack Kerouac The praise was not to be long, nor universal. The beatnik movement seemed to take over. Musician David Amram believes that the beatnik movement was a manufactured one, arguing Beat writers such as Kerouac were not the goateed, beret wearing, pretentious types. Rather, he described themselves as hicks, not wanting to draw attention to themselves. Author Bob Kealing, a noted Kerouac expert, has put forth that Kerouac himself claimed that those of the Beat Generation “were searching for spiritual truth and meaning beyond the confines of post-World War II life.” This search is what confounded and worried critics.
Meanwhile, in his small Orlando apartment, Kerouac continued typing away on his follow-up, to
be titled Dharma Bums. In a rapid fire twelve days of output, Kerouac finished the novel on
December 7, 1957, Pearl Harbor Day. Kealing reminds us that to Kerouac, the term “dharma”
meant truth.
In April 1958, Jack and his mother packed into a station wagon owned by Robert Frank and
made off for Long Island, New York. Dharma Bums was published in October of that year.
Fame was not something Kerouac was ever comfortable with, nor does it seem that he sought it
out. Kerouac was to become too familiar with the bottom of a bottle, and on October 21, 1969, at
age 47, he died a painful death from cirrhosis of the liver. His remains were transported to
Lowell, Massachusetts, where he was buried at Edson Cemetery.
Jack Kerouac House, Orlando, FL
Listed today on the National Register of Historic Places, the future of the Orlando, Florida Kerouac House was not always assured. Once it was determined that this location was the residence of Kerouac during a critical time in the author’s life, efforts began in order to purchase and rehabilitate the house. Led by Kealing, former bookstore owners Marty and Jan Cummins, and others, they founded the not-for-profit Kerouac Project of Orlando. With the generous financial support of Jeffrey Cole and Cole National, they were able to purchase and rehabilitate the house. Today, the Project provides several writer in residence opportunities each year, allowing the visiting author to live and work in the home made famous by Jack Kerouac.
The home is not open to the public. Those wishing to see the house may drive by and briefly stop to take it in. There is not public parking available and this is a residential area so please be mindful of those who live in the area and if you are taking photos be on the watch for traffic. A state of Florida historical marker is on-site. The text reads
State of Florida Historic Marker–Jack Kerouac House Orlando, FL
Writer Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) lived and wrote in this 1920s tin-roofed house between 1957 and 1958. It was here that Kerouac received instant fame for publication of his bestselling book, On the Road, which brought him acclaim and controversy as the voice of The Beat Generation. The Beats followed a philosophy of self-reliance and self-expression. The unedited spontaneity of Kerouac’s prose shocked traditional writers, yet it brought attention to a legion of emerging poets, musicians, and artists who lived outside the conventions of post-World War II America. Photographs show Kerouac in the house’s back bedroom, with piles of pocket notebooks in which he scrawled thoughts and dreams while traveling. In April 1958, following completion of his follow-up novel, The Dharma Bums, and a play, the Beat Generation, Kerouac moved to Northport, New York. He died in 1969 at the age of 47. In 1996, author Bob Kealing discovered the house’s significance while researching an article to mark Kerouac’s 75th birthday. In 1998, The Kerouac Project established a retreat here for aspiring writers in tribute to him. In 2013, the house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
To learn more about Jack Kerouac and his time in Florida, readers should find a copy of Bob Kealing’s excellent book, Kerouac in Florida.
Kealing, Bob. “The Road to Kerouac: He Came to Orlando in 1957.” Oorlrlando Sentinel. March 9,
1997.
National Park Service. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Jack Kerouac
House. 2013.
This post may contain affiliate links. If you click these links and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission. This commission does not affect any price that you pay. All views and opinions provided are my own and are never influenced by affiliate programs or sponsors providing products.
Desolate Angel
Women of the Beat Generation
The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac
Allen Ginsberg, HowlNaked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
The front side of the Lake Monroe Historic MarkerThe backside of the Lake Monroe historic markerThe old Lake Monroe Bridge with the historic marker showing in front.
Marker Text
The Lake Monroe Bridge was the first electronically operated swing bridge in Florida. In 1932-1933, the
state used Federal assistance to build the bridge, which replaced a wooden toll bridge that was manually
operated. The construction of the bridge provided economic relief for an area hurt by the economic
collapse of the Depression era. The bridge was fabricated by Ingalls Iron Works of Birmingham, Alabama;
the swing machinery manufactured by Earl’s Gears and Machine Co., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and it
was erected by W. W. White Steel Construction of St. Petersburg, Florida. Kreis Contracting Company of
Knoxville, Tennessee was the general contractor for the Florida Department of Transportation. The
Florida Department of Transportation and Seminole County cooperated in preserving the swing span as
a fishing pier when the new Benedict Bridge was completed in 1994.
The Lake Monroe Bridge had historic impact on the communities of the area, but also is of historical
value as an example of a branch of bridge engineering.
The Lake Monroe Bridge was 627 feet, and included a 235 foot swing span. It carried the main route
linking Daytona Beach and Tampa, via DeLand, Sanford, Orlando, and Lakeland. It could pivot 360
degrees on its curved rack and two spur pinions.
The Warren-type through truss construction had a central panel section peaked to accommodate the
drive machinery. The Warren-type truss is considered the most economical type of construction for
continuous spans. It is characterized by diagonals that alternate in direction. The first diagonal beam
starts at base level and goes up to the top. The next level diagonal starts at the top and goes down to
the base level. The diagonals are in tension and compression in alternate panels. To meet the heavy
stresses of the swing span operation the bridge arms were heavily reinforced and had riveted
connections at all stress points. The harbor for Lake Monroe Park in Volusia County was created by fill
taken from the approaches to the Lake Monroe Bridge.
Seminole County Board of County Commissioners
This marker is not part of the State of Florida historic marker program.
The April 6, 1934 Lake Monroe Bridge dedication. Image courtesy Florida Memory n028431
Local newspaper reports state that dedication of the $75,000 Bridge took place at a 3 p.m. ceremony on
April 6, 1934. Participants included Florida Governor David Sholtz and the Stetson University band. An image of the dedication is shown above.
See some beautiful early images of Sanford, FL in this title from the Images of America Series. From its days as a leading river town, to being the Celery Capital, to being the home to many incredible mid-century modern homes, Sanford has an incredible history.
Also recommended is African Americans of Sanford, which recognizes and applauds those who have helped to preserve Sanford’s history as well as those who have participated in making it.
This post may contain affiliate links. If you click these links and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission. This commission does not affect any price that you pay. All views and opinions provided are my own and are never influenced by affiliate programs or sponsors products.