Beautypically

In Gainesville, a lot of old mansions and buildings of the late 19th and early 20th centuries have been preserved. Many of them are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In particular, Major Bailey’s house, built in 1854, located on Northwest 6th Street, which has a traditional pillared veranda. Matheson House, on 1st Southwest Avenue, built in 1867, is similar to it. Another pretty building, built as a private mansion in 1895, is the house of Mary Pfeiffer MacKenzie. Today, this lovely building with a corner polygonal turret houses a hotel. Built in 1910, the building of the Thomas Hotel is better known today as the Thomas Center, a classical Renaissance building that now houses a center for local arts and culture. And in the beautiful building of the former post office and court (1911), built according to antique models, today is the Hippodrome Theatre. The building of the Masonic Lodge (1908), which still performs its functions, also looks curious.

The building of the Seagle Hotel (Dixie Hotel, Kelly Hotel) began to be built in 1920, during the economic boom, but for a long time it remained unfinished. In 1983, the building was extensively restored, and today it is the tallest in the city center.

According to toppharmacyschools, the Florida Museum of Natural History is located on Hull Road. Here you can see a wonderful exhibition of tropical butterflies (for an additional fee). Other permanent exhibits focus on Florida’s aquatic ecosystems and wildlife, as well as prehistoric times and modern life in the state.

One of the highlights of the city is the 34th Street Wall. It was built in 1979 to keep the hill from collapsing on the nearby university’s golf course. The 300-odd-meter-long wall has been covered in graffiti for years, and today there are about 250 layers of paint on some sections of it. Most of the graffiti is done by students, although, to tell the truth, this is not entirely legal.

Historically, Gainesville is considered a heavily drinking city, so bars can be found here literally on every corner. At one time, a local ban on alcohol was even introduced here. Bars close at 2 a.m. under a “rave law” that was introduced in the late 1990s as the city became one of the state’s top rave scenes.

The Boman Center is located on the campus of the university and includes two buildings along the shores of Ellis Lake. The main is a very specific structure, something like a pavilion or a chapel. The inside can seat 96 people and the building is used for meditation, weddings, funerals, chamber concerts and parties.

The Samuel Harn Museum of Art is also owned by the university and is located on the southwest side of campus. It is one of the largest university art museums in the southeast of the country, with over 6,200 works in the permanent collection alone. These are objects of art from Asia, Africa, modern and contemporary works, as well as photographs.

3 things to do in Gainesville:

1. Come at sunset to the House of Bats on the campus of the university. Just at this time, Brazilian mice will begin to fly out of the house to hunt for insects in nearby gardens.
2. Stop by the Union Street Farmers’ Market on Wednesday for freshly baked buns.
3. Take a trip to Newnan Lake, east of the city, and spend a weekend in nature, fishing, barbecuing and lounging.

The Kanapaha Botanical Garden was opened to the public in 1986 and boasts the largest bamboo garden open to the public in Florida. In addition, there is a butterfly garden, an azaleas and camellias garden, a cicada garden, an arboretum, a rock garden, a rose garden, and a vineyard. The botanical garden got its name from the lake located nearby. In addition, Gainesville has a small Santa Fe Zoo, the only accredited teaching zoo in the country, with most of its alumni working for Disney’s Wild Kingdom. About 80 species of animals from all over the world live here, including gibbons, lemurs, Galapagos tortoises and tree kangaroos.

Devil’s Millhopper State Geological Park is one of the region’s most famous curiosities. It is located in the northwestern part of the city and is a bottle-shaped cavern about 35 m deep, in which a miniature rainforest grows. Small streams flow down the steep limestone slopes, disappearing into cracks in the soil. Plenty of greenery is preserved in the shade of the slopes even during the driest summer months. This is more than a curious geological formation, discovered in the early 1880s. Since then, fossilized shark teeth, sea shells and fossilized animal bones have been found here.

You can have a picnic and learn more about this curious place with the help of special displays.

The first state reserve in Florida, Paynes Prairie, was established in 1971. It lies slightly south of the city. Here you can see alligators, wild horses, bison and more than 260 species of birds. There are 8 hiking trails in the park, you can also ride horses and bike here. Special exhibitions and audio-visual programs are organized in the visitor center, near which there is a 15-meter observation tower, which offers a panoramic view of the reserve.