An Evolving Neighborhood
VIEWS OF TALLAHASSEE
Sanborn fire insurance maps and birds-eye views of Tallahassee can tell us a lot about how the neighborhood surrounding the Hagner/Knott House changed. Take a look at these maps and see the shifting and growing community around the house.
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, Tallahassee, 1884
Note the druggists, grocers, and general merchandise stores lining Monroe Street. At the corner of McCarty (misspelled on map) and Monroe Streets is the building that housed the original Walker library. Next to it is a cotton warehouse, vacant building, and then the residential neighborhood begins. The future Knott House is circled in red at the upper right corner.
Library of Congress Geography and Map Division
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, Tallahassee, ca. 1902–03
This map shows a new house next to the Hagner/Knott House (upper right, circled in red) and the Walker Library on the middle block, where the building still stands today.
Library of Congress Geography and Map Division
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, Tallahassee, 1909
The corner of Monroe Street and the newly-renamed Park Avenue (still shown here as McCarty) has gotten more crowded. The Hagner/Knott House is circled in red.
Library of Congress Geography and Map Division
From View of the City of Tallahassee, 1885
The future Knott House is circled in red (right of center). At this time, McCarty Street in front of the house is still one wide dirt street, with trees running down the middle, though it is no longer the edge of town. The park system that today divides Park Avenue has not yet been fully developed.
Collection of the Knott House Museum
From Aero-view of Tallahassee, 1926
The parks are more defined by this time. Even in the mid-1920s, houses thinned out just a few blocks from the Knott House (left of center, circled in red). On the corner of Calhoun Street and Park Avenue, the Cherokee Hotel opened in 1923. Next to it on Park stood the Western Union building, with the David S. Walker Library squeezed in between them. Beyond that was Monroe Street with its numerous shops and businesses.
Courtesy of the State Archives of Florida
In 1930, about 10,700 people lived in Tallahassee, and the town and neighborhood surrounding the house continued to evolve. The Cherokee Hotel was torn down in 1964, and the Western Union building followed in 1978. An office building and parking garage occupy the site today. Some structures remain, however. The Walker Library building still exists, though no longer as a library. The houses that have shared the block with the Knott House for a century or more also are still there. The neighborhood is now the Park Avenue Historic District, a National Register of Historic Places designation.
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