The Island Hotel (also known as Parsons and Hale's General Store) is a historic building in

Cedar Key Cedar Key is a city in Levy County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 687, down from 702 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Gainesville, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. The Cedar Keys are a cluster of ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

, located at 224 2nd Street. On November 23, 1984, it was added to the

U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. The building was erected between 1859 and 1861 by Major John Parsons and Francis E. Hale for use as a general store. It has

tabby A tabby cat, or simply tabby, is any domestic cat (''Felis catus'') with a coat pattern distinguished by an M-shaped marking on its forehead, stripes by its eyes and across its cheeks, along its back, around its legs and tail, and characteris ...

walls that are thick and oak beams that are wide. The Cedar Key Post Office and

customs house A custom house or customs house was traditionally a building housing the offices for a jurisdictional government whose officials oversaw the functions associated with importing and exporting goods into and out of a country, such as collecting ...

were also located in the building in the 1860s. The building may have housed both Union and

Confederate A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

troops at various times during the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

, as the town changed hands more than once. Part of the building was used as a

boarding house A boarding house is a house (frequently a family home) in which lodging, lodgers renting, rent one or more rooms on a nightly basis and sometimes for extended periods of weeks, months, or years. The common parts of the house are maintained, and ...

by the end of the 1880s. The store closed in 1910. The building became a hotel in 1946.

References

External links

Island Hotel & Restaurant

Buildings and structures in Levy County, Florida Hotel buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Florida Vernacular architecture in Florida Tabby buildings 1861 establishments in Florida National Register of Historic Places in Levy County, Florida Hotel buildings completed in 1861 Cedar Key, Florida {{LevyCountyFL-NRHP-stub