Pensacola Historic Preservation Society
September 2023
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In the speculative buzz of the 1830s, an ambitious group of local boosters and Northern investors dreamed of building a ‘new city’ east of downtown Pensacola. They formed the Pensacola City Company, purchased land, platted an audacious 1,800-acre city, cut streets through the pine trees, and auctioned off nearly a million dollars in mortgaged lots. Then the bubble burst. The land laid fallow for decades until the promise of a new railroad connecting post-war Pensacola to the interior sparked another speculative rush. But this time, heirs of the land's original Spanish owners fought back, at times quite literally, against the Pensacola City Company's efforts to finally develop the property. Thus began a three-decade legal battle that ended with an impeached federal judge and a US Supreme Court decision that ruled against the heirs while also raising serious questions about the integrity of West Florida's historical land records. Still, the heirs fought on, defending their property rights until their leader's death in 1915.
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