A small city at a crossroads
From an outsider’s perspective, Hawthorne may seem unchanged, almost fixed in time. Its population, about 1,500, is only a small increase from what it was 50 years ago.
Like many American rural communities, Hawthorne has
struggled to find an identity. The market no longer demands the industries the community was built upon, and promised growth has not come.
Billy Carlton, 83, has heard all the promises of growth. He’s seen the city government budget grow – it’s 10 times what it was in the 1970s – but he hasn’t seen the city itself grow.
He’s been a pillar of the community, serving on the city commission off and on for nearly 60 years. Carlton thrived in the Hawthorne of the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s as a dairy farmer. He had 600 acres and 800 dairy cows. He delivered milk door-to-door to Gainesville, a small city itself of only 15,000 in the 1950s.
In Carlton’s younger years, Hawthorne was a rural agricultural town built on the farming of oranges, turpentine, lima beans and cotton.
But those agricultural staples, along with Carlton’s dairy farm, are no longer thriving. Carlton sold the dairy farm in the 1980s and sold the land about five years ago.
Carlton was born and raised in Hawthorne. His family history in the city stretches back to the 1860s, before the city even had a railroad running through it.
Carlton said he and his wife, Barbara Carlton, 82, have considered leaving Hawthorne at times. Their seven children, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren are spread across the country – two children in Texas, two in Orlando, one in Virginia, one in Connecticut and one in Michigan.
Carlton sees the potential for growth, but his optimism is tempered because he’s seen that same potential squandered in past years.
Growing Hawthorne
Bringing Hawthorne back to its prime and guiding the community in a new direction will not only be the job of Carlton and his fellow commissioners, but also the city staff and the city’s residents.
One of the new faces to the city staff is City Manager Ed Smyth. With only about six months to get acquainted, Smyth brings a fresh set of eyes to Hawthorne’s concerns, and he’s confident the city can capitalize on its untapped potential.
“Hawthorne has an amazing potential. Over the next few years, I see that we’re going to grow and develop, and we need to start preparing for that today.”
The city’s greatest potential is its prime location at the intersection of State Road 20 and U.S. 301.
This key intersection was supposed to be a boon for the community, but road developments have had the opposite effect, choking off the town’s downtown instead of bringing it business.
Smyth said he’s working to bring clean industries to the city and increase development on U.S. 301 and state road corridors.
His major challenge will be to put Hawthorne on the map and make it a destination, instead of just a small town to bypass on the interstate.
Smyth said a program that is working its way through the state legislature could help solve this problem and put Hawthorne on the map. The Wayfinding signs program, if passed, would provide funding for Hawthorne to obtain more informative signs that would help redirect bypassing traffic into the city, helping bring in more business to the city.
Preserving the Past
Hawthorne’s prime intersection is not its only upside. The city’s natural beauty has always been one of its selling points – boasting 400 lakes within 10 miles of the city limits.
Jane Segal, 79, recognized Hawthorne’s natural beauty when she was visiting in 1986. Segal had previously lived in South Florida and New York before that.
She said the Hawthorne she knows is often misunderstood.
“Hawthorne gets a bad reputation sometimes, and it doesn’t deserve it,” Segal said. “The people in Hawthorne love it. It doesn’t get the credit it deserves for being such a lovely community.”
Segal’s love for Hawthorne encouraged her to preserve the city’s beauty in a historical museum.
She began the initial steps in 1993 and finally opened the doors in 2002. The nine-year process included raising money, getting state approval and renovating the 100-year-old Methodist church the museum moved into.
Segal said she was pleased at how quickly people pitched in to help with the museum.
“That’s one thing about Hawthorne. All you have to say is ‘I want’ or ‘I need’ or ‘We should’, and it gets done,” Segal said. “People care about the community.”
The museum houses many relics of Hawthorne’s history, many donated by families like the Carltons whose roots go back as far as the town itself. Francis Moore donated his collection of paintings of Hawthorne historic buildings. Many of these buildings are no longer standing and were painted from memory or by referring to old photographs.
Bridging the past and the present
In 1970, Susan Carlton, Billy Carlton’s aunt, wrote about her life in Hawthorne in the book, “Time Exposure.” In the preface of the book, she wrote that she wanted to leave an account of a woman whose life had bridged two centuries – the 19th and the 20th. Susan Carlton died shortly after completing her book, but the words remain for future generations, offering a glimpse of a time past.
Hawthorne is currently striving to bridge the 20th Century to the 21st by bringing new industry to the city but preserving what makes the city special.
“People here are starting to look not so much to the past, but into the future but with an eye on the past,” Smyth said.