PBA Galleries

Includes: 

• Warranty deeds for land sold to Lizzie Kegema Hosley. 1886-1887.
• Letter from the St. Andrews Bay Railroad  & Land Co to L.K. Hosley, of Sommerville, Mass., explaining why the offer of 40 acres for $1 was contingent on her purchasing 299 building lots. On color lithographed letterhead featuring oranges and fishing.
• Notice on taxes to be paid by owners of property at St. Andrews Bay.
• Two envelopes with printed notices, "This sealed envelope contains one Free Land Warrant," but they look empty, like the promises from the St. Andrew's Bay R.R. & Land Co.
• Envelope addressed to Lizzie Kegema Hosley of Somerville, Mass., from the St. Andrews Bay R.R. and Land Co., Northern Office, Cincinnati, Oh.

The old cliche of being sold Florida swamp land was evidently not such a cliche after all. By the start of the Florida railroad building boom in the 1880s, two different companies planned to build rail lines to open this timber land as the port at St. Andrews. The first was the St. Andrews Bay Railway Company. The company got  as far as grading 30 miles of right-of -way before going bankrupt. The second company to try was St. Andrews Bay Railroad and Land and Company, which the present material concerns. This company began heavily advertising the benefits of living and working in St. Andrews, creating a land boom during 1885 and 1886. Included in the advertising was a proposed railroad that that stretched from Alabama down to Southport, crossing North Bay and eventually terminating in St. Andrews. As with the previous attempt the line was never built and the land boom  turned into a bust.