- City:
- Madison, FL
- Site Type:
- Forestry and Agriculture, Resettlement Communities
- New Deal Agencies:
- Housing Programs, Work Relief Programs, Resettlement Administration (RA), Works Progress Administration (WPA), Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)
- Completed:
- 1935
- Quality of Information:
- Very Good
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
“Cherry Lake Farm (also known as Cherry Rural Rehabilitation Project) was a New Deal rural relief program initiated by the FERA and the Resettlement Administration (RA) and implemented by the WPA. The project involved moving 500 needy families from Tampa, Miami, and Jacksonville onto a 15,000-acre communal tract. The workers formed the cooperatively-owned Cherry Lake Farms (headquartered in the 1839 former plantation home, the Hinton House) and constructed a school, an auditorium, a coop store, barracks, a lumber yard, and a mill. Families lived in 170 cottages with phones, electricity, and running water?all furnished by jointly-owned utilities.” (www.floridamemory.com)
According to the National Association of Rural Rehabilitation Corporations, many of the original houses are still standing. The site is now being used as a 4-H Youth Camp.
Source notes
https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/132973 https://www.ruralrehab.org/briefhistory.htmlContribute to this Site
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Madge Murray Wiggins
Dean Boggs Bunch
I live in a cherry lake cottage, i love the quality of them, and they have such a good feel to them. I am trying to locate a map or layout of the project? And who first lived in my house in 1934? Any leads you can offer would be very appreciated.
I move to Cherry Lake when I was seven years old,1935.
My Dad worked for Government program called NYA
National Youth Administration. Youths were brought from cities. The young men were taught To be Carpenters, farming, take the of Chicken Farms, horses and cowed
The young Ladies were taught how they sew and can fruits, vegetables. Later families were moved there and became Farmers.
Later when the funds for that administration ran out,
My Dad worked for The Farm security Adminstration until
1945 when We sold our farm and moved to Daytona Beach, Fl. His name was Carl F Murray. Another man who worked there at the same time was Mr. Dice.
The Government required us to live the the old Southern Home called the Hinton House. We had three bedroom two bath home at the bottom of the the hill (from the Hinton House) were owned a large farm. We grew tobacco,cotton,watermelons, corn,peas,peanuts etc. We had a pecan orchard. The old Barn is still on the property today. We lived there about 4 or 5 years before moving back to our house, which we sold in 1945 and moved to Daytona Beach,Fl.. I live in Port Orange, fl now and I am 93 years old.
My father, Franklin Swope Bunch, who later achieved success as an architect in Jacksonville, graduated in architecture from the University of Florida in 1934. One of his first jobs was helping design the buildings at Cherry Lake. In 1945, he was one of the founding members of the firm of Kemp, Bunch, and Jackson, (later KBJ) Architects in Jacksonville. He was also president of the Florida Association of Architects and chair of the State Board of Architecture. He was elected to fellowship in the American Institute of Architects, an honor achieved by very few. He died in 2008 at the age of 95.