“In order to plan your future you have to know your past” were some of the words Margarett Collier echoed Saturday afternoon as the Alger-Sullivan Historical Society unveiled a historical marker near the intersection of Jefferson Avenue and Front Street honoring the site where the town of Century entered into a new century.
The marker commemorates the Alger-Sullivan Lumber Co., which was the cornerstone in which the current Century has its foundation.
Collier, one of the founding members of the Alger-Sullivan Historical Society, was on site for the official unveiling.
“At this point this was the century of life,” Collier said of the monument erected near the old lumber mill site. “Why do we bother and have the expense? People matter. Things come and go, societies come and go. Hopefully we learn by remembering the people who cared about this town.”
She said the work of the historical society is important to help people understand what was and what can be.
“We need to show pride in the community, we have a wonderful community,” she added.
Jerry Fischer, president of the historical society, said Century was a company town and he remembers moving there in the 1960s and hearing the beating and banging at the mill all night.
“You're probably sitting where the ice house was,” Fischer told the crowd gathered. “All the houses were painted gray. Mr. Hauss ran the town, they (the mill) provided the meat and they had the jobs.”
Edward A. Hauss was president of the Alger-Sullivan Lumber Co.
He said the mill built the houses because they didn't want people to leave. He also said if you were a good baseball player, you got a job at the mill.
Century Mayor Henry Hawkins welcomed the crowd saying “there's nothing like preserving your history.”
“We are yet moving forward,” Hawkins said.
The Alger-Sullivan Lumber Company Residential Historic District monument was sponsored by the Alger-Sullivan Historical Society, the town of Century and the Florida Department of State.
It reads: in 1901, one of the largest and most advanced southern pine sawmills east of the Mississippi River was built here. In the tradition of the era, the Alger-Sullivan Lumber Company built its own town to house and supply the families of mill workers. By 1915, the mill town of Century included a hotel, hospital, commissary, post office, executive club, business district, schools, churches, and segregated housing districts for black and white families. Housing ranged from small shotgun houses to large two-story, executive homes. Standing along Church Street is one of the lumber company's last built town structures – a large theater and recreation hall completed in 1922. After a remodeling in 1946, it became lumber company offices. The deteriorated black residential district along Pond Street was largely demolished and the homes replaced in 1986 through a state block grant. The remaining residential district along Front, Church, Fourth and Mayo streets, and Jefferson and Pinewood avenues represents a rare intact example of an early-twentieth century planned company town in Florida. The district, consisting of 45 historic buildings and a formal garden site, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
