There was nothing here until 1959. Before that, it was swamp on Hernando County’s Gulf side — no roads, no lots, no name on a map. Developer Charlie Sasser bought it that year and spent the next six years dredging canals through the wetland, using the earth pulled out of the ground to build the … Read more
Weeki Wachee used to be a city. Not a big one — for most of its life, it was one of the smallest incorporated cities in the entire country, and its mayor was a working mermaid. The city was chartered in 1966 for one purpose: getting the name onto maps and street signs to help … Read more
Spring Hill didn’t grow up the way most Florida towns did. There was no fishing village, no railroad stop, no slow build from a general store. In 1967, the Deltona Corporation and the Mackle Brothers looked at a stretch of rural Hernando County land and built an entire planned community from scratch. It worked, and … Read more
Brooksville has been the county seat for more than a hundred years, and it still runs through the same three roads it always has — US-41, US-98 and State Road 50 cross right downtown, forty-five miles north of Tampa and fifteen miles east of the Gulf. The town itself is older than the intersection. Two … Read more
Everybody in Hernando County knows the drive south. Tampa is the default answer to “what is there to do,” and it costs you an hour each way plus parking. Go the other direction and things get closer. Homosassa is up US-19. Crystal River is a few minutes past it. Tarpon Springs is south on the … Read more
Brooksville has more than one historic landmark — it has a four-story Victorian house with 14 rooms and seven gables, painted in colors that catch you from Main Street. The May-Stringer House dates to the Queen Anne era, and walking through its front door feels less like entering a museum and more like stepping behind … Read more
Downtown Brooksville holds its art inside City Hall. Gallery 201 sits behind government doors as the only gallery on Main Street, offering free admission to a rotating collection of regional work spanning painting, sculpture, photography, and mixed media. The space runs artist receptions and curated exhibitions that keep community art events on the calendar year-round. … Read more
The mermaids of Weeki Wachee have been performing underwater since before television was a household fixture — and nearly eight decades later, the show still runs exactly like it did in 1947. Weeki Wachee Springs State Park sits on the Gulf Coast near Spring Hill, where professional swimmers take turns stepping into an underwater theater … Read more