Dudley Farm Historic State Park: Stop to Smell the Flowers!
Dudley Farm Historic State Park emphasizes one thing above all else: the essence of home.
The farmstead includes a cute, little farmhouse, but it goes beyond that—visitors are encouraged to think of it as a second home (if only for the afternoon). Kick off your shoes, sit on the porch, stroll through the garden, and pump your own water as you’ve always lived here! The goal is to find yourself transported to the early days of agricultural Florida when life was simpler and work was harder (and school was walked to, uphill, both ways).
Dudley Farm is the kind of place that makes me think of the quaint, sepia homestead in The Wizard of Oz. A place where family, friends, and little dogs can gather together and have a fantastic day and remember what’s really important.
Located in Newberry, Florida, near Gainesville, a self-guided tour or participating in scheduled park activities makes for an awesome (and affordable) family day trip!
Putting the “Home” in Homestead
Canvases with “Live, Laugh, Love” hung in sunny kitchens have become something of a laughable cliché, but how someone lives, what makes them laugh, and who they love are excellent building blocks to understanding a person—or in this case—an entire era of Florida history.
Today, Dudley Farm is still living, laughing, and loving life like it did back in the mid-1800s, providing us with a snapshot that can be used to understand 19th-century agricultural Florida as a whole—and it’s a snapshot that’s both fascinating and inspiring.
In 1845, Florida became a state (which is another fascinating story), and settlers began moving in and buying land for cotton production. Philip Benjamin Harvey Dudley and his wife, Mary, were part of this great migration and bought the land for Dudley Farm in 1859. As they began farming, the first rumblings of a possible Civil War were reverberating across the country.
Dudley served as a captain in the Confederacy and was part of the Alachua Rangers 7th Regiment. His original log cabin home is no longer standing, but old limestone foundations mark the outline of tenant dwellings or possible slave quarters. Of course, by the war’s end, Dudley’s 960-acre plantation was no longer worked by slaves but by hired hands, and part of his endeavor turned from cotton growing to grazing cattle.
Dudley Farm was passed down to his son, Dudley Jr., who built the farmhouse you can visit today. Dudley Jr. also added a general store and further diversified the farm’s produce, growing corn, sugar cane, and sweet potatoes, as well as selling milk, butter, and sausage, just to name a few new things!
When Dudley Jr. passed away, his wife, Fannie, and his sons kept working the farm. As time went on, they implemented amazing new technology like combines and threshing machines, and shifted crops again, moving away from cotton altogether and growing tobacco in its place. They also started an orchard and began raising chickens.
The youngest of Dudley Jr.’s twelve children, Myrtle, was the last of the family to live on Dudley Farm before donating the homestead and other buildings (along with 24 acres) to the park service in 1983. The state would end up purchasing several hundred more acres to preserve the rural landscape, and in 2021, Dudley Farm Historic State Park was officially designated as a National Historic Landmark.1
A Day At Dudley Farm Historic State Park
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The farmhouse is the same one Dudley Jr. built—not a recreation!—which is a rare and wonderful commodity for a historical site. In fact, all eighteen buildings on the property are original and contain restored original furnishings. If that wasn’t immersive enough, the staff are always dressed to the nines in their period costumes and are busy doing actual farm chores.
Here at Dudley Farm Historic State Park, they’re busy raising crops and tending to “cracker” horses, cows, turkeys, and chickens! Want to get in on the action? You can head to the hand pump and test your strength by pumping out fresh, sparkling water from the ground below. (Now imagine having to do that every time you wanted water. What a workout!)
If you’re feeling exhausted from all that hard work, you can take a seat in a comfortable rocking chair on the porch of the wooden, two-story home and watch the local wildlife wander by. Deer, wild turkeys, and songbirds are common critter companions. If you’re lucky, you’ll even spot my personal favorite of Florida’s animals lumbering through the fields: a gopher tortoise!2
You can also meander through the garden, lovingly tended throughout the years. Colorful flowers sway in the breeze, waving to you in cheery welcome. With dazzling blooms and serene vibes, this garden is one of the best-loved areas in this
Further natural wonders await those who strike out on the Pause and Ponder Trail, a short loop around the Dudley Farm visitor center that leads through some enchanting woodlands. Marking the beginning (and end) of the trail is a picnic area where you can have a delightful outdoor lunch and listen to the call of pileated woodpeckers and the rustle of magnolia leaves overhead.
Farmers’ Market and Cane Festival!
One of the most notable Dudley Farm events is the annual Cane Festival.
Usually held in late Autumn, Dudley Farm grinds their sugar cane into delicious cane syrup—with mule power!—just like they did “back in the old days!” Other demonstrations include blacksmithing, woodworking, and butter churning—activities that are quickly becoming dying art forms. It’s one thing to read about such chores in dusty textbooks, but to see them performed firsthand makes you truly appreciate how our ancestors lived just a short three generations ago. (It will also make you more thankful for modern amenities!)
With so much to see, it’s great fun for the entire family, especially since there are games for the kiddos, too!3
On select weekends throughout the year, you can also swing by and shop at the Dudley Farm Farmers’ Market! Here you can find organic produce, baked goods, handmade products, and beautiful potted plants. (You can check out this year’s market schedule on their website!) If you ask me, there’s nothing better than browsing through a farmer’s market on a cool, sunny, Saturday morning.
Between leisurely self-guided tours around the farmstead, park activities, and the gorgeous rural setting, Dudley Farm Historic State Park will have you saying there’s no place like home!
Have you been to Dudley Farm Historic State Park? Did you have the strength to handle the hand pump? Let us know in the comments below!
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Photo: Unsplash
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