A brief history of the Gaines Street Corridor

The 500 block of West Gaines Street.

The Gaines Street corridor is one of the oldest economic thoroughfares in Tallahassee. Dating back to founding of Tallahassee, the street is named for famed 19th century U.S. Army general, Edmund Pendleton Gaines. In 1834, the Tallahassee Railroad Company was incorporated. In 1837, mule-pulled railroad operations began between Tallahassee and the St. Marks River with cotton produced at “Middle Florida” plantations as the primary source of traffic.

The railroad originally terminated near the intersection of Gaines Street and Railroad Avenue. With the company eventually establishing its railroad machine repair, construction shops and depot in the vicinity, Gaines Street became an economic hub after Tallahassee became the state capitol in 1845. The Tallahassee Railroad was acquired by the Pensacola and Georgia Railroad (P&G) in 1855. In 1860, the P&G connected their operation to Lake City, where the Florida, Atlantic and Gulf Central Railroad had recently completed its line between Lake City and Jacksonville. By the Civil War, Gaines Street had become home to several industrial uses, including grist mills, foundries, brickyards and sawmills.

After the Civil War, the Reconstruction Era African American neighborhoods of Lincoln Valley (later destroyed with the construction of the Civic Center) and Stearns-Mosely were established along the corridor. By the 20th century, the Gaines Street corridor emerged into an industrial district where the Seaboard Air Line Railroad (successor to the P&G) and Georgia, Florida & Alabama Railway converged. Early 20th century industries included the Tallahassee Iron Works, Capitol City Grocery, Standard Oil Company, Tallahassee Lumber Company, Anderson’s Feed and Grain, and the Tallahassee Wagon Works.

By 1925, an average of 110 freight cars were terminating in the corridor each month while 75 people a day boarded trains at the Tallahassee depot. In 1925, the City of Tallahassee zoned the surrounding area as a business section, allowing business development without the consent of the adjacent African American neighborhoods. This decision was reinforced by the 1946 Taylor Plan, which established the western section of the Gaines Street corridor as an industrial area.

Gaines Street’s importance as a railroad and industrial hub declined in the later half of the 20th century. In 1983, the SAL officially abandoned the historic St. Marks railroad branch. The right-of-way later became the Tallahassee-St. Marks Historic Railroad State Trail. By the 1990s, Gaines Street had become a narrow four-lane state highway served a hodge podge mix of vacant properties, industrial uses and warehouses converted into nightclubs and bars catering to Tallahassee’s college students.

During this decade, the Florida Department of Transportation began studies to widen Gaines Street. Desiring a different outcome, the City of Tallahassee successfully worked with FDOT to transfer ownership of Gaines Street from the state to the city in 2004. Working with engaged residents and community organizations, the city developed a new vision and plan for the revitalization of Gaines Street as a mixed-use district, leveraging the corridor’s central location between Florida A&M and Florida State Universities. In 2014, the retrofit of Gaines Street into a pedestrian friendly corridor featuring medians, parallel parking, wider sidewalks and extensive landscaping was completed. 10 years later, the vision of a revitalized Gaines Street corridor has come to fruition.

Doug Burnette Park was created as a WPA project in 1938. The park received a makeover as part of the Gaines Street Corridor Improvement project.

Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997, Tallahassee Station was originally built in 1858 as a freight depot for the Jacksonville, Pensacola and Mobile Railroad Company. One of only three surviving railroad depots in Florida built prior to the start of the Civil War, the station was a stop on Amtrak’s Sunset Limited service until passenger operations were suspended in 2005.

The 124-room Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton Tallahassee Capitol-University opened at 824 Railroad Avenue in 2018.

Located at the intersection of Gaines Street and Railroad Avenue, the Residence Inn Tallahassee Universities at the Capitol was the first large infill development project to be completed along the Gaines Street corridor. Located on the former site of the Georgia, Florida and Alabama Railroad’s passenger depot and Tallahassee Lumberyard, the hotel opened in 2007.

603 West Gaines Street is a 29,820-square-foot warehouse that was originally built in 1953. Today, a number of business are located in the building, including Oyster City Brewing Company’s craft brewery, Gaines Street Pies, Catalina Cafe, Matte Athletics and Nova Tallahassee.

The Oyster City Brewing Company at 603 West Gaines Street.

More than 3,800 additional housing units planned for the Gaines Street corridor in 2024. See an interactive development activity map here.

Gaines Street was the location of Lakeland-based Publix chain’s first GreenWise Market when it opened in 2018. In 2023, Publix dropped GreenWise Market name on all of its stores.

The Stadium Centre, at the intersection of Gaines and Gay Streets. Intended to cater of Florida State University students and provide a revitalized space on Gaines Street for local residents, the Stadium Centre Community opened on Gaines Street in 2014.

Stadium Centre is built on property once occupied by the Pichard Brothers Planing Mill.

*The 700 block of West Gaines Street (right) is the location the now defunct The Warehouse on Gaines Street music venue. *

The Warehouse on Gaines Street was located in a collection of historic warehouses that once were occupied by wholesale beer and grocery businesses once served by the G.F.&A. Railroad. Over the next few months, this site will be demolished to make way for the 9-story mixed-use Park Place Tallahassee project. When complete in 2027, Park Place will add 180 apartment units to the Gaines Street corridor.

The Flex at Stadium Centre opened in Fall 2019. The student housing development is located at the corner of Stone Valley Way and Gaines Street.