50 Fun Facts About Tallahassee

In which year did Tallahassee become the capital of the Florida Territory?

The third legislative session met there in a crude log building; Florida had only become a US territory in 1821.

Why was Tallahassee chosen as the territorial capital?

Delegates from St. Augustine had needed 59 days by water to reach the first session in Pensacola, so a midpoint was agreed.

The name Tallahassee is a Muskogean word usually translated as what?

Creek migrants likely used it for the cleared land an earlier people had left behind; the Creek and later refugees became the Seminole.

Which Spanish explorer's expedition wintered at Anhaica, in present-day Tallahassee, in 1539–40?

Archaeologist B. Calvin Jones located the camp in 1987, about half a mile east of today's Capitol.

The De Soto encampment is often called the first place in the continental US to celebrate what?

The site sits about half a mile east of today's Capitol.

Which Native people's capital was Anhaica, with their largest Spanish mission rebuilt in the city?

Mission San Luis de Apalachee was the largest of the 17th-century mission network feeding St. Augustine.

Which French hero of the American Revolution got 36 square miles from Congress, much of it now Tallahassee?

He never visited; his settlers tried limes, olives and silk, and the ones who stayed gave a city neighbourhood its name.

Which nephew of Napoleon settled near Tallahassee in 1826 and named his plantation Lipona?

He became a great friend of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who otherwise called the town 'a grotesque place of land speculators and desperados'.

What distinction did Tallahassee hold among Confederate state capitals during the Civil War?

A small engagement south of the city in March 1865, a month before the war ended, kept it that way.

Which small Civil War engagement was fought just south of the city on 6 March 1865?

Tallahassee sat in the heart of Florida's Cotton Belt, and the county led the state in cotton production.

How many storeys does the high-rise New Capitol, completed in 1977, have?

Since 2021 it has been the third-tallest state capitol in the country.

Which architect designed the New Capitol?

It is a New Formalist concrete tower with metal louvers, produced jointly with Reynolds, Smith & Hills of Jacksonville.

In which year was the Old Capitol, now a museum in front of the tower, completed?

It was finished just before statehood and was restored to its 1902 look, complete with red-and-white striped awnings, in 1982.

What was scheduled to happen to the Old Capitol in 1978 before officials changed their minds?

A citizens' campaign led by Secretary of State Bruce Smathers saved it, and its restored dome is the city's most photographed landmark.

In the 1960s a movement tried to move Florida's capital to which city?

It failed, and the state doubled down on Tallahassee with the new Capitol complex in the 1970s.

Which two universities give Tallahassee a student population above 70,000?

The county is the most highly educated in Florida, with more than half of adults holding a degree.

Florida State's teams are the Seminoles. What are Florida A&M's teams called?

FAMU plays in the SWAC, and its band has performed at presidential inaugurations, the Super Bowl and the Rose Parade.

What is the name of Florida A&M's famous band?

It played Bill Clinton's 1993 inaugural parade and Barack Obama's in 2009; the Marching Chiefs belong to FSU.

In which year did the school that became Florida A&M open its doors?

It opened as the Normal College for Colored Students and sits atop the highest hill in the city.

For 42 years, from 1905 to 1947, Florida State was what kind of institution?

The Buckman Act made it Florida State College for Women; by 1933 it was the third-largest women's college in the US.

Which federally funded research facility, the only one of its kind in Florida, is based at Florida State?

FSU is also the birthplace of the anti-cancer drug Taxol.

What are Florida State's colours?

The Seminole name was chosen by students in 1947 and is used with the blessing of the Seminole Tribe of Florida.

Which coach arrived at Florida State in 1976 and had only one losing season in 34 years?

His only losing season was his first; the field at Doak Campbell Stadium was named after him in 2004.

Doak Campbell Stadium is named after what kind of figure?

A 2020 petition sought to remove his name over his resistance to integration; the stadium opened in 1950 with 15,000 seats.

The FSU War Chant, later adopted by Braves and Chiefs fans, began during a 1983 game against whom?

The stadium's capacity more than doubled during Bowden's tenure, peaking at 82,300 before 2024 renovations trimmed it.

The arrest of two FAMU students on a whites-only bus section on 26 May 1956 sparked what?

Wilhelmina Jakes and Carrie Patterson's arrest led to a seven-month boycott; the segregation clause was repealed in January 1957.

Which Tallahassee neighbourhood is the oldest historically Black neighbourhood in Florida?

It sits on part of the Lafayette Land Grant, and a young Ray Charles performed there when visiting family.

Who became Tallahassee's first African-American mayor in 1972?

Commissioners rotated into the one-year mayoral post; Jack McLean became the second Black mayor in 1986.

For six weeks in late 2000, Tallahassee was the centre of world attention because of what?

Rulings by the Florida Secretary of State and the Florida Supreme Court decided the Bush-Gore contest.

How many officially designated canopy roads does Tallahassee have?

The live-oak tunnels are prized as a tranquil alternative to asphalt and signage.

Which tree is described as perhaps the most emblematic of the city?

The terrain is hilly by Florida standards, at the southern end of the Red Hills just above the Cody Scarp.

What temperature did Tallahassee hit in the Great Blizzard of 1899, Florida's only sub-zero reading?

The record high of 105 °F came on 15 June 2011; the city averages about eleven 100-degree days a year.

What was the greatest snowfall ever recorded in Tallahassee, on 13 February 1958?

Measurable snow is rare; 1.9 inches fell in January 2025, the biggest since.

Which two hurricanes struck Tallahassee directly between 1985 and 2020?

Hermine knocked out power to about 80 per cent of the city; Michael (2018) passed 50 miles to the west but still darkened 95 per cent of the county.

Which Auto-Tune-popularising rapper was born and raised in Tallahassee?

He shares a hometown with the emo band Mayday Parade, several of whose members still live there.

Which post-grunge band formed in Tallahassee in 1994?

Emo group Mayday Parade also started in the city and several members still live there.

Which funk pioneer, founder of Parliament-Funkadelic, has lived in Tallahassee since 1994?

The first notable musician associated with the city was Ray Charles, who performed there as a boy while visiting family.

Which movie monster was filmed at Wakulla Springs, 14 miles south of the city?

Johnny Weissmuller's Tarzan films and Airport '77 also shot there, in springs bought by Edward Ball in 1934.

The Florida Governor's Mansion in Tallahassee was designed to resemble which president's home?

Marion Sims Wyeth designed it, and LeRoy Collins was the first governor to move in, in 1957.

US forces burned which Native American village near Tallahassee in November 1817, starting the First Seminole War?

Chief Neamathla had refused orders to relocate; Andrew Jackson returned in force the following March.

Which county is Tallahassee the seat and only incorporated municipality of?

Voters have rejected consolidating the city and county governments four times.

Tallahassee is the largest city in which two Florida regions?

Its 2024 population of about 205,000 makes it the eighth-largest city in the state.

Which research station on Henry Beadel's old hunting preserve near Tallahassee is famous for prescribed-burn studies?

Wealthy northerners bought up former plantations as winter hunting preserves after the Civil War.

Which Mississippian-culture earthworks site, built around 1200, is a state park in the city?

Indigenous peoples had occupied the area for thousands of years before Europeans arrived.

Tallahassee's 1826 police department once claimed to be the second-oldest in the US behind which city's?

The claim has been debunked; Pensacola had a municipal force by 1821.

How often had Tallahassee won the National Civic League's All-America City Award by 2025?

Three wins through 2025. The city is also home to nearly 30 state agency headquarters and a thicket of law and lobbying firms.

With about 205,000 people in 2024, where did Tallahassee rank among Florida's cities?

Its wider metro area has roughly 400,000 residents, a fraction of Miami or Tampa Bay.

Which Amtrak train stopped serving Tallahassee in 2005, after Hurricane Katrina wrecked the tracks?

Service east of New Orleans was never restored; the earlier Gulf Wind train had run through the city from 1949 to 1971.

Tallahassee sits at the southern end of which hilly region, just above the Cody Scarp?

Elevations reach just over 200 feet, with the state capitol standing on one of the highest hills and FAMU's campus on the very highest.

The Orchard Pond Parkway near Tallahassee holds what distinction in Florida?

The area also has a 2.4-mile rail trail opened in 2009 on the old Georgia Florida and Alabama line.