EATONVILLE, Fla. – The town of Eatonville has made it onto the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 2024 list of America’s most endangered historic places.
Settled by newly-freed slaves and incorporated in 1887, Eatonville is the oldest Black-incorporated municipality in the U.S. It was founded by Joseph Clark, who purchased the land from its Maitland owners with help from New York philanthropist Lewis Lawrence and former Union Capt. Josiah Eaton, the town’s namesake. Having since been sliced in half by Interstate 4, the town has a modern-day population of 2,349, some 73% of whom are Black or African American, according to the 2020 Decennial Census.
It’s also known in large part for the annual Zora! Fest, which recognizes and celebrates Eatonville’s history as the home of famed literary author Zora Neale Hurston.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that’s issued an annual list of “America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places” since 1988. The latest list is said to exemplify the nonprofit’s “continued commitment to telling the full American story” with a focus on diversity, listing sites both inside and outside the continental U.S., according to the National Trust.
Eatonville was chosen for the nonprofit’s 2024 list due in part to how its historic properties and cultural landscape “do not have the necessary legal protections to support preservation-sensitive growth and development,” the National Trust said on its website, adding many of the town’s historic buildings are in need of investment and rehabilitation.
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The other 10 entries on the 2024 list are as follows:
- Cindy Walker House, Mexia, Texas.
- Estate Whim Museum, Frederiksted, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands.
- Hudson-Athens Lighthouse, Athens, New York.
- Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, California.
- Minute Man National Historical Park, Walden, and Nearby Landmarks, Massachusetts.
- New Salem Baptist Church, Tams, West Virginia.
- Roosevelt High School, Gary, Indiana.
- Sitka Tlingit Clan Houses, Sitka, Alaska.
- Tangier American Legation, Tangier, Morocco.
- Wilderness Battlefield Area, Orange County, Virginia.
Read further on SavingPlaces.org.
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