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A Day in DeLand A Day in DeLandStory and photos by MIKE WALKER Monday a week ago I had business in DeLand, the county seat of Volusia County and home of Stetson University, so I took this time also to wander around downtown DeLand and shoot some photos. I had been to DeLand before as a good friend attends Stetson and another friend is a DeLand native, but I had not looked at the town in the context of its urban planning, historic
DeLand is an interesting place: my friend (and Stetson senior) Chris Morris was not even aware at first that DeLand was the county seat of Volusia County and, like many who live in the county, assumed instead that Daytona Beach held that honor. DeLand has had the varied roles of being an agricultural center, a training base for military aviation, and of course the home of Stetson University. It is a college town that, like Gainesville or like Athens, Georgia, also is the seat of its county and thus a local governmental center. What in many ways sets DeLand apart though is the emphasis community leaders have placed on historic preservation and the fruits of these efforts. From its first years when it was known as Persimmon Hollow to the interventions and visions of Henry DeLand and John Stetson, DeLand has grown as first a center of agriculture then tourism, then education. The 1880s through the 1930s saw some very impressive architecture contributed to downtown DeLand and now the Downtown DeLand Historic District retains this charm and various efforts proceed to renovate and restore historic buildings. Stetson University's own campus is also a robust collection of historic buildings and adds to the town's charm.
While I walked around the downtown, I realized I was probably better informed than most visitors about DeLand as I had literature and information from the Historical Society, a friend's personal views on the city, and an education in architectural history all on my side. Though
In DeLand a sense of balance is brought forth with aspects such as a mural that reflects the town's history as a Naval Air Station and flight training center during World War II while at the
Another unique store was a small, hole-in-the-wall, comic books store. With its weathered doorway and ample signs posted on the door and window, I just had to take a picture of this place. Like Athens, Georgia, DeLand has a large dose of college town charm in such establishments. Another thing I noticed as an avid cyclist and skateboarder was not one but two skateboard shops in town, with one of these being also a bike shop geared towards BMX bikers. I spoke with kids working at both shops, and both stores appear to be doing a good business. There were other kids in both stores, just hanging out and talking shop so it seems like most such businesses, these two were also contributing to the local community as physical
The Volusia County Court House is a fine work of Greek Revival architecture of the style often found applied in courthouse design in the South after the Civil War up to the 1950s. Like other county seats in the South, but less-commonly so in Florida, much of the town was planned around a court house square, which in the case of DeLand is not far from Woodland Avenue, the main street of downtown. More recent city and county buildings have been built in a fashion to include the position and style of the courthouse in mind and thus have allowed architecture of various periods to co-exist without much functional or visual disjunction. One of the most impressive aspects of DeLand to me is that planning has resulted in a very appealing city yet things like the independent comic books store and the skateboard shops have not, apparently, found it too difficult to exist in this environment. Much like the smaller city of Lewisburg, West Virgina, which DeLand reminded me of a lot, much of the charm is that while a very pleasant place to visit, there are unique aspects to the city that are sincere and fun. There has not been an effort to turn to historic preservation as a mechanism towards tourism alone nor as a means to creating a haven for only the wealthy. There is a good and very organic slice of all aspects of DeLand's population apparent in the composition of its downtown. The historian and writer J.B. Jackson wrote years ago of the importance of the courthouse square in American towns of small to moderate size, noting that this legacy came about from early times in colonial Virginia and spread westward and southward with new exploration and new communities. What Jackson noted was how the courthouse and its attached square became not only a locus of government but one of social circles and that often leading banks and churches would be positioned elsewhere around the square. The town green is a similar concept but one more associated with New England over Southern communities. In DeLand, we find a fine example of the combined and continued planning from early origins of this town to the city it is now. While walking around it, I often recalled things from reading Jackson's essays on the American vernacular landscape and it was rewarding to see those things manifest and in vivid living color in DeLand. I think in the example of DeLand other communities of its size or perhaps smaller can learn some useful lessons germane to historic preservation and renovation. First, efforts between city, county, and non-governmental associations and institutes must work in tandem and should work in a manner where what tasks one unit cannot for some reason accomplish, others will take on and perhaps be able to manifest. Second, by looking at the composition of the actual city and thinking about the unique needs of the specific population, efforts can be made to not simply retain impressive and important historical architecture but to further the current and projected ambitions of the community. Third, cities are communities of scale: the original scale of DeLand as it evolved up to around the 1940s or so was that typical to a moderate Southern town (before we felt that we had to call any town a "city") and that small-town feeling very much has been retained. DeLand has done something very special in manifesting such a wide and sweeping preservation effort and I can only hope other Florida cities and towns are learning from their ample example. For the rest of us not directly engaged in preservation, I hope that this article will encourage tourism in DeLand. It's a really fun place to just walk around on a sunny afternoon. The West Volusia Historical Society is a good place to learn more about DeLand; their website is: http://www.delandhouse.com MIKE WALKER is a writer and journalist based in Gainesville, Florida. He studied architectural history at the Savannah College of Art and Design and remains concerned with preservation efforts in Florida and elsewhere. He may be contacted via email at: cloudrace@prontomail.com |
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