Dr. Tony Shaw writes a wonderful blog devoted to "obscure and outsider literature" which is one of the favorite items in my feedly feed. Dr. Shaw gets around quite a bit, and the blog abounds in photographs of and comments on his literary travels. Currently he is exploring Florida, and just offered this delightful post:
Palatka, Florida: City of Murals
Palatka is the county seat of Putnam County in northern Florida, which immediately got me to thinking of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' classic memoir Cross Creek, and sure enough, a look at the map show that Putnam County is directly west of Alachua County, where Cross Creek takes place. The Wikipedia article on Palatka gives plenty of information on what turns out to be a charming and historically interesting town, once a center of the Floridian tourist trade. Palatka boasts much solid architecture, such as the 1915 City Hall pictured above, which began its life as a U.S. Post Office.
When I lived in Wisconsin (2002-2009), I was involved in historic downtown preservation movements, and I have an abiding love for the small cities and towns of America that still possess a roots feeling. I'll never get to see most of them in person, so books (such as Arcadia Publishing's invaluable Images of America series), websites, and other documentation are crucial to my ability to visit them as an armchair traveler.
[Photograph of "Palatka City Hall01" by Ebyabe - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Palatka_City_Hall01.jpg#/media/File:Palatka_City_Hall01.jpg]
Cross Creek
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