It was 120 years ago Thursday that the University of Florida moved from Lake City to Gainesville.
Now a campus known for its charm and historic roots, the move had a rocky start.
It's hard to find someone who was around in 1906 who remembers UF moving, but there is one account.
“ I haven't been on the campus of the university since the dedication of Sledd Hall, and you will have to look up the date," said Frances Sledd Blake on a tape in UF's archives.
She was the Daughter of the University’s first President, Andrew Sledd. The tape is from a 1974 interview conducted at a nearby restaurant.
“There were three small state schools that were to be amalgamated to make the University of Florida. One was at Tallahassee, one was at Lake City, and I think the other one was in Ocala," Sledd Blake said.
This was because Florida passed the Buckman Act. The 1905 legislation restructured the state university system and consolidated colleges throughout the state into three distinct universities.
One of those was UF.
Before the move, the Lake City campus was designated as the state's flagship institution. Any discussion of changing towns was controversial, but Gainesville was persistent and offered incentives like affordable land, public school buildings and free access to fresh water.
That’s according to a 1905 article in the Gainesville Sun. Here’s more from the article: “Several prominent citizens of Lake City were present and presented their claims in a forceful and impressive manner, but evidently with insufficient Force to convert the requirement of the board.”
Lake City did not like the idea of the move at all.
“They did not like the losing of actually the money that came in from the students and from the college. They didn't want to lose the business," Sledd Blake said.
After hearing both proposals, the State Board of Education decided to make Gainesville UF’s new home.
Gainesville was so happy about it, they even took out a column in the paper: “A sacred trust has fallen to our city, and in all the varied changes in the coming years,” they said. “We will ever hold next to him on high, our duty to these institutions where the minds of our youth are to be molded for the perpetuity of our state and the nation.”
And if residents in Lake City didn't like the idea of the move, they were even angrier on moving day.
“They threatened Father with tarring and feathering him if they could catch him, and of course, that was a dare, which he accepted," Sledd Blake said.
Despite the threats, UF moved from Lake City on July 23, 1906. Everything from books to furniture was packed onto wagons and taken to the new location in Gainesville. With threats of violence looming, some university employees felt they needed to take extra precautions.
“ Another incident in that connection was that they said they would shoot the first man who drove a dray to the depot carrying any of the equipment," Sledd Blake explained, talking about a wagon.
UF officials say one professor even rode with a loaded rifle on his lap on the drive from Lake City to Gainesville, but there were no problems.
The move took place without incident, and school commenced on September 26th, 1906.