Zephyrhills’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold only 3 old photos of Zephyrhills. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Zephyrhills began as the town of Abbott on April 18, 1888, and consisted of 280.74 acres. It was briefly renamed Hegman from 1890 to 1892 until its name was reverted to Abbott. A voting district was established in 1893 followed by a post office in 1896. In 1909, Captain Howard B. Jeffries, a Civil War Union veteran from Pennsylvania, purchased 35,000 acres and created the Zephyrhills Colony Company with a plan to create a community for Civil War veterans. In 1910 the town voted to change its name to Zephyrhills; it was incorporated in 1914.
In 1941, one resident reported that Zephyrhills had a sundown town policy forbidding Black people from living within the city limits.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowStart Zephyrhills’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Zephyrhills’s history is told.
3 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewFlorida [Hamilton County - Saraso…, 1940: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Zephyrhills, decade by decade
1980s
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Florida [Hamilton County - Sarasota County (part)] (1940) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (6). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.