Tallahassee

History

Origins

The name " Tallahassee" Muskogean often translated by " is an Indian word; old man champs" or " hurdy-gurdy ville". This name probably comes from the Indians Creeks (also called Indians Séminole) who migrated in this area at the end of XVIIIe and at the beginning of the XIXe century. Creeks were not the first to realize of the success of the the Appalachian Mountains as farmers: already, on the XVIIe century, several Spanish missions were pressed on the territory of the Appalachian Mountains to get food with the colony St Augustine.

Before the arrival of the Spanish missionaries, the first European to discover Tallahassee was the Explorateur Hernando de Soto, which spent the winter of there 1538 to 1539. Then, during the War of 1812, more precisely at the time of discussed the raid on Florida, Andrew Jackson discovers a phantom city. The memories of John Banks, one of the soldiers taking part in this raid, report this event:

Tuesday, the 31, we arrived in a city called Tallahassee. The Indians had given up it before we do not arrive there. We saw an Indian, wide close to a pond, dead. She had apparently not died for a long time; she had been left there by the Indians who fled with the front of us. We burned the ville.

Construction

Whereas Florida became an American territory under the impulse of Andrew Jackson, of the plans to build a capital were established. Indeed, at the time, two cities play a major political role in the state: Pensacola and St Augustine. As none of the two cities wanted to concede the direction of the state with the other, and to avoid multiple displacements between these two cities, a capital of state must be selected. Dr. William Hayne Simmons and John Lee Williams leave in June 1823 then respectively St Augustine and Pensacola to find itself halfway: their roads will cross in Tallahassee, where since 1824, the first parliamentary session can take place, chaired by William Pope Duval.

1845 will be revolving for the city: the March 8th, the inhabitants meet to celebrate the entry of Florida in the Union 3 days before. This same year, a building of a old Greek Style is set up to be used as seat with the new capital: it is the building which one knows today under the name of " Old Capitol".

During the American Civil War, Tallahassee was the only capital confederated in the east of the the Mississippi not to be taken by the forces of the union.

After the American Civil War, the majority of the industry of Florida moved towards the South and Is, a tendency which one finds besides always now. The end of the Esclavage put a serious crushing argument at the production of Coton and Tabac, and the engines of the economy of the state became the culture of the Citron, the shipbuilding industry even the Tourisme, all these sectors developing particularly in the south and is for geographical and/or climatic questions.

Tallahassee in XX^e century

During XX^e century, Tallahassee remained an administrative city calms, where the politicians met to decide projects relating to Miami or Tampa, located at several hundred kilometers from there. In the years 1960, a movement took place to try to move the capital with Orlando, nearer geographically to the populated zones of Florida. Nevertheless, the statute of capital of Tallahassee was confirmed and an important plan of rehabilitation and town planning was decided.

After having estimated the growth of the city for the 25 next years, this program projected the construction of: 220000 square kilometers of governmental buildings in the middle of the city, like: 3500 residences, of the public gardens and other infrastructures. This program was based on the participation of the inhabitants with an aim of having the broadest possible dialog. 6 projects were selected, then amalgamated to find a structure satisfying the greatest number, and constructions took place in the district of new Capitole, built in 1978 opposite the old building.

Space available to north was used for the development of public buildings and deprived, connected to each other by footbridges above them streets to allow a fast communication. CBD was built around administrative and deprived offices, mixed with a residential zone of average density, shopping malls, restaurants etc in order to encourage the development of an alive zone 24:00 on 24.

Behind Capitole, a broad zone of seven blocks was closed with circulation for the creation of a great pedestrian center, with administrative buildings like the town hall ( City Hall ), the court ( County Courthouse ), and the Parliament of state (House off Representative) in the South, and the house of the gouvenor ( Governor' S Mansion ) in North. Buildings of the beginning of the century were preserved to create a commercial pedestrian space with stores, coffees and galleries of exposures. The green areas of the district were extended, connecting the political center to the universities.

Geography and climate

Tallahassee is located at 30° 27 ' 6 NR and 84° 16 ' 22 W. According to the office of census of the the United States, the city has a Superficie 254.5 km ² of which 247.9 km ² of ground and 6.6 km ² of water. Tallahassee is known for its undulating ground: Capitole being located on one of the highest hills of the city. The altitude of the ground varies sea level with 65 Mr.

The fauna and the Flore are typical of what one can find in the plains of the south. Although the palm trees push downtown indeed, only the cold resistant species (as the Palmetto) are present. The pines and the oaks are the majority trees.

With regard to the climate, the summer is usually hotter than that of peninsular Florida , and it is one of the rare cities of the state whose temperature can go up above 38°C. The average temperature in summer is of 32°C. In same time, the city knows temperatures more fraiches in winter: in December and January, the average temperature is of 18°C with a minimal temperature around 6°C. Apart from the night, the temperature is very seldom negative. The record of the lowest temperature recorded is of -20°C, the February 13rd 1899.

Surprisingly, the city also knew several snowfalls in the last century, with a coat of 8 cm recorded in 1958. Nevertheless, the inhabitants of Tallahassee can only see flakes approximately once every four years, and snowfalls significant (snowy coat of more than 2cm) are observable only every fifteen years. Spring is one season very noticed with the flowering of Azalée S and Cornouiller S at the end of February at the beginning of March. The autumn is not, on the contrary, very marked, although sheets fall from mid-November at mid-December. Let us note that Tallahassee is the town of Florida with more the wide variation of temperature during the year.

The city can be touched by hurricanes: a hurricane passes in the area on average every three years and crosses the city every nine years.

Demography

After the census of 2000, Tallahassee counted: 150624 inhabitants, formant: 63217 hearths and: 29459 families. The density was then of 607.6 hab/km ². One counted: 68417 residences. The racial distribution of the population was of 60,42% from White, 34,24% of Blacks, 4,19% the Hispanic ones (also counted as Blancs or Blacks) and 2,40% the Asian ones

Among: 63217 hearths, 21,8% lodged one or more children of less than 18 years, 6,0% an adult of more than 65 years, 30,1% were married couples, 13,2% of the unmarried mothers and 53,4% were not family hearths. A hearth on average consisted of 2,17 people and a family of 2,86. The Middle Age of the population was 26 years.

The average annual income of a person alone was of: 30571 $, and of: 49359 $ for a family. The average revenue per capita was of: 18981 $.

With regard to education, the county of Leon has the most rate of schooling of Florida with nearly 50% of the population having made higher learning, in particular thanks to the presence of many universities in Tallahassee. For comparison, the average in Florida east of 22,4% and the national average of 24,4%.

Political life

Municipality

Although Florida is very mainly a republican state, Tallahassee traditionally was a city progressist, voter in great democratic majority.

Administrative offices

August 1st

Universities

Tallahassee is a university big city ( college town ) since about a third of its inhabitants works or studies in one of the establishments of higher education of the city. The Florida State University is the most important campus of the city, with close to: 50000 students, thésards or Professor S. His students are done called the Séminoles (or in a concise way, Noles ) of the name of the Indian tribe living in the area. The public corporations of the city are:

Florida A&M University
Florida State University
Tallahassee Community College

and establishment private:

Barry University School off Adult and Continuing Education - Tallahassee Campus
Falgler College - Tallahassee Campus
Keiser College - Tallahassee
Lewis Mr. Lively Area Vocational Technical School

Sports

Tallahassee is especially famous for its high level in university sport: the Noles (student of Florida State University) shine in university championship of American football and Baseball.

Apart from the university sport, the Tallahassee Tigers are a team of Basket-ball which should start to play in American Basketball Association 2000 in November 2007.

Transport

Airports

2 Airports serve the city:

Regional Tallahassee Airport (KTLH)
Commercial Tallahassee Airport (K68J)

Public transport

StarMetro (in the past TalTran) is a service of travelling bus in the city. It has 49 lines of day (of 6:00 to 22:00 in week and saturdays, of 9:00 to 18:00 Sunday) and 5 lines of night: all these lines are circular, and pass by the coach station of C.K. Steele Plaza. Although they serve all the city, most of these buses is devoted to the service road of the various university campuses of the city.

Railroads

CSX, company of Freight, directs two lines in the city. The Sunset Limited of Amtrak had a stop with Tallahassee, but this one, not very profitable, was suspended following the passage of the Ouragan Katrina.

Life with Tallahassee

Festivals and events

Red Hills Horse Trials
Springtime Tallahassee
Southern Shakespeare Festival
Winter Festival

Tourist points

Alfred B. Maclay Gardens State Park
Florida State Capitol
Florida Supreme Court
Lake Elected
Lake Jackson
Lake Jackson Mounds Archaeological State Park
Lake Talquin
Mission San Luis of Apalachee
Myers Park
Railroad Public garden Art Park
Tom Brown Park
Young Actors Theater
Wakulla Springs State Park close to Crawfordville
Natural Bridge Battlefield State Historic Site (Woodville)
Challenger Learning Center
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory

Twinning

Tallahassee is twinned at five cities:

Personalities of the city

Ricky Carmichael - Champion of Motocross
George Clinton - musician
Paul Dirac - Physical Nobel Prize of for its work on the antimatter
Ernst von Dohnányi - pianist and type-setter
Faye Dunaway - actress
Faith Eidse - novelist
Carlisle Floyd - type-setter of opera
Cheryl Hines - actress
Sir Harold Kroto - Nobel Prize of Chemistry for its work on the Fullerène S
Allison Miller - actress
Prince Achille Murat - nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte
Burt Reynolds - actor
Robert Schrieffer - Prize winner of the Nobel Prize for its theory on the Supraconductivity (Theory BCS)
T-Bread - rapor
Shea Wigham - actor
Gift Yaeger - novelist

Twisted Method - Group of music
No Address - Group of music
Creed - Group of music
The Cruxshadows - Group of music

Anecdotes

the town of Tallahassee is quoted many times in the series Lost, the missings , the 13^e episode of the 3^e season being called besides The Man From Tallahassee .
It is faster of going from Tallahassee in Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, Arkansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, with the the Mississippi, the Tennessee or the Kentucky that of going to Key West.

See too

Random links: