St. Cloud’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold only 2 old photos of St. Cloud. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗During the 1870s, Hamilton Disston of Philadelphia took an interest in developing the region while on fishing trips with Henry Shelton Sanford, founder of the city of Sanford. Disston contracted with the Florida Internal Improvement Fund, then in receivership, to pay $1 million to offset its Civil War and Reconstruction debt. In exchange, Disston was awarded half the land he drained from the state's swamps. He dug canals and, in 1886–1887, established St. Cloud sugarcane plantation, named after St. Cloud, Minnesota, although many longtime locals claim the town was named after Saint-Cloud, France.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowStart St. Cloud’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how St. Cloud’s history is told.
2 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewSt. Cloud & Sugar Belt Railway tr…, 1909: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from St. Cloud
See all 3 →
St. Cloud, decade by decade
1930s
![Florida [Hamilton County - Sarasota County (part)]](https://images.towntapestry.org/story/2430/dffb3290441899c108ec-s.jpg)
1990s
4 historic places in St. Cloud
St. Cloud has 4 listings on the National Register, and they protect 181 historic buildings, because St. Cloud Downtown Historic District alone counts 177.
Where they are
When they were listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as St. Cloud & Sugar Belt Railway train (1909) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (5) and the National Register (1). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.