FLORIDA PLACE TO EXPLORE
Railroad Square Art District
Leon County · Panhandle & Emerald Coast
Ten acres of former rail yard and lumber yard at 661 Railroad Square, now holding more than seventy studios, galleries and small businesses.
ABOUT THIS PLACE
The site was a rail yard during the Second World War and afterwards the McDonnell Lumber Company. The Boynton family bought it in the 1950s and renamed it Railroad Square in the 1980s, letting the old warehouses to artists cheaply, and the district grew out of that rather than out of any plan. It is still family owned. What is in the buildings now is a mixture that would not be designed on purpose: painting and printmaking studios, galleries, a microbrewery, a climbing gym, vintage clothing shops and a theater company. On the first Friday of every month the galleries open late for the First Friday Gallery Hop, with live music and food trucks, and it has run for more than twenty years. A skateable art park was added in 2021 with what is described as the longest snake run in Florida. A tornado struck the district on May 10, 2024, and did severe damage; rebuilding has been going on since
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