{"id":260,"date":"2017-11-07T19:41:42","date_gmt":"2017-11-07T19:41:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/waltonpast2present.com\/wp\/?p=260"},"modified":"2017-11-07T19:41:42","modified_gmt":"2017-11-07T19:41:42","slug":"britton-hill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/waltonpast2present.com\/wp\/?p=260","title":{"rendered":"Britton Hill"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Marker on Britton Hill<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NATURAL FEATURES OF NORTHERN AND CENTRAL FLORIDA<\/p>\n

Florida, as a whole, forms a part of the geographical province known as the Coastal Plain\u2014a broad tract of relatively low land which extends from New York to Mexico, rising gradually from the coast to a height of a few hundred feet and for the most part apparently flat or gently rolling. Although Florida is a region of comparatively slight relief, its surface presents considerable diversity, ranging from a nearly level plane in the coastal region and the Everglades to a deeply dissected upland in the northern portion of the state, where it is trenched by steep-walled valleys, and to a highland in the peninsula, where it shows many more or less rounded depressions separated by narrow divides. Altitudes within the state range from sea level to more than 200 feet above, at places on the ridge that form the center of the peninsula, and to about 300 feet above, at the western end of the state near the western boundaries of Gadsden, Walton, Santa Rosa and Escambia counties.<\/p>\n

Harry Gardner Cutler, History of Florida: Past and Present<\/em>, Vol. 1, Lewis Publishing, Chicago, 1923, p. 6.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Lakewood Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The point \u201cabout 300 feet above\u201d referred to Britton Hill, the highest natural elevation point in the state of Florida, which is located in northern Walton County near Lakewood.<\/p>\n

In 1902, William H. Britton of North Carolina purchased the Lake Lumber Company in Florala, Alabama, and 640 acres of land two miles east of the lake in Florida. He moved the mill to his Florida land in 1904 and named the area Lakewood, probably after a town in North Carolina.<\/p>\n

On October 15, 1904, William H. Britton incorporated the Britton Lumber Company with stock distributed to his brother, Thomas J. Britton (pictured below in the mid-1920s); his brother-in-law, E. P. Rodwell; Duncan McPhail; and W. A. Mills.<\/p>\n

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\nIn 1907, the Britton Lumber Company bought 21,000 acres of timberland from the estate of William C. Yawkey, whose family owned the Boston Red Sox. At that time, the company had 18 miles of railroad track, which extended from Lakewood to Darlington, 3 locomotives, and a 40,000 foot capacity mill.<\/p>\n

William H. Britton died in 1909, and his brother-in-law, E. P. Rodwell, became president of the company. Thomas J. Britton became the secretary\/treasurer, and Duncan McPhail became the manager.<\/p>\n

In its prime, Britton Lumber Company owned 25,000 acres and employed up to 400 people. There were 101 buildings in Lakewood, including a saw mill, planing mill, shingle mill, dry kiln, two stock sheds, an office building, commissary, depot, post office, doctor\u2019s office, two churches, a hotel, and homes for employees.<\/p>\n

Britton Lumber Company is said to have supplied the wood floors for such famous buildings as the Waldorf Astoria and Grand Central Station in New York City. Its mills operated at high capacity throughout the 1910s but began to slow down in the 1920s as the supply of lumber dwindled. Business further deteriorated after a major fire destroyed many of the buildings in 1932 and the Great Depression took its toll. Britton Lumber Company ceased operations in the early 1930s although the Britton family maintained a small mill in Lakewood until the death of Thomas J. Britton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NATURAL FEATURES OF NORTHERN AND CENTRAL FLORIDA Florida, as a whole, forms a part of the geographical province known as the Coastal Plain\u2014a broad tract of relatively low land which extends from New York to Mexico, rising gradually from the coast to a height of a few hundred feet and for the most part apparently […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","hide_page_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[69,70,72,73,71,74],"class_list":["post-260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lakewood","tag-britton","tag-lakewood","tag-mcphail","tag-mills","tag-rodwell","tag-yawkey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/waltonpast2present.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/waltonpast2present.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/waltonpast2present.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waltonpast2present.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waltonpast2present.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=260"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/waltonpast2present.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":264,"href":"https:\/\/waltonpast2present.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260\/revisions\/264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/waltonpast2present.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waltonpast2present.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waltonpast2present.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}