The Sprague House Bed and Breakfast Inn

The Historic Bed and Breakfast Inn of Crescent City, FL

Welcome to Crescent City;

You will take a step back in time when you visit this little town filled with old Florida charm. Crescent City is a small, picturesque community full of beautiful turn of the century homes, and churches. Parks abound here, as well as the wonderfully quaint shops, and fine dining establishments.

As you drive though the countryside, you will see several orange groves and ferneries surrounded by majestic mossy oaks. Even though Crescent City is a small country town, it is a short drive to Palatka, Deland, Daytona Beach, Jacksonville, St. Augustine, and the Ocala National Forest. It is a scenic two-hour drive to Orlando, Disney, Cape Canaveral, and Gainesville. Crescent City is located between Jacksonville and Orlando on Highway 17. Crescent City offers a quiet place to get away from it all. Crescent City sits between Lake Stella and Lake Crescent, one of the largest fresh-water lakes in Florida, connecting to the St. Johns River. Lake George is just to the west. Crescent City is at the heart of the "Bass Capital of the World".

Lake Crescent is 16,000 acres and it is one of the largest freshwater lakes in the State of Florida.  The lake is approximately 13 miles in length and 2 miles wide. It connects to the St. John's River on the North via Dunn's Creek. Amazingly, this area is largely undeveloped; the entire eastern shore of Lake Crescent is the same as it was 100 years ago.

The Catfish Festival:

Takes place the first full weekend of April and brings approximately 30,000 visitors to Crescent City. A large collection of Arts and Crafts vendors fill the town. Antique Cars shows, and live music are a big part of the festival. Food served includes fried catfish and chicken dinners, swamp cabbage, alligator tail, and fresh strawberry shortcake. You will want a good seat to watch the Catfish Parade. Most of the roads are closed for the parade, but the Sprague House is only a few short blocks away from the festivities. You can easily walk to the heart of the Catfish Festival in 5 minutes.
 

Crescent City history:

South Putnam was settled in the 1700's when English landowners established rice and indigo plantations along the shores of the St. John's River. Prior to that it was home to Native American Indian tribes that fished the river, hunted the forests and grew food crops.

Crescent City, on the western shore of Dunn's Lake, was first settled in 1852; however, there is evidence of earlier property owners before that time.

What is now Crescent City was once part of the "Old Oliver Plantation." This was a tract of about 1,800 acres. In 1867 and 1870 large portions of original tract were sold to three men and their wives and became the City of Ellington, named for one of the wives. In 1876, Charles R. Griffing and his wife Jennie purchased the land and began C.R. Griffing & Company. The existing lake, known as Dunn’s Lake at that time, was thought by Mrs. Griffing to have a crescent shape. She changed the name of the lake to Lake Crescent. In 1876, an area of the shore was surveyed and platted. The name chosen was Crescent City. Another lake on the west was named Lake Stella because it looked like a star.

The primary route for settlers was on the St. John's River by steamship from Jacksonville. Rail service to the community, inaugurated in 1886, facilitated the transport of local goods and increased traffic to the area.

The early economy was based on agriculture in the form to truck crops and citrus and tourism. Intensive advertising by Griffing's Crescent City Real Estate Company in the northeast and midwest attracted a significant number of winter residents to the shores of Crescent Lake. A movement to form a municipal government was begun in 1883, and two years later Crescent City was formally incorporated. By 1890 the population had grown to 554. A Legislative Act extended the original boundary in 1911. The "Great Freeze" of the winter of 1894-95, however wiped out the areas citrus groves and caused many of the city's residents to abandon their holdings. During the Great Depression little in the way of new construction occurred in the city. Both the local banks failed and many residents were forced to seek relief through government-sponsored programs. It was not until after WW II that Crescent City fully recovered from the affects of the depression. Although orange growing was the principal industry, the tourist business was also important.  Fern had begun to be a profitable business and many of the frozen groves were turned into ferneries with some becoming pastures for raising cattle. Today, Crescent City remains a rural area. Occupying 2,000 acres under natural and artificial shade, this area's cut foliage is distributed around North America, supplying approximately 84% of the US cut foliage. It is also shipped overseas and is one of FL leading export commodities. At one time, much commercial fishing took place here with Crescent City becoming known as the "Bass Capital of the World" It was named such by the Putnam County Courier after Al McClaine, fishing editor of Field and Stream magazine selected Crescent City's waters as being the best for largemouth bass.

Crescent City is on the

 NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES