Tallahassee: The Town
A fifty-million-dollar eyesore dominates the square mile of downtown Tallahassee - the vertical vents of the towering New Capitol Building , at Apalachee Parkway and Monroe Street (Mon-Fri 8.30am-5pm; free). Florida's growing army of bureaucrats had previously been crammed into the 1845 Old Capitol Building (Mon-Fri 8am-5pm; free; tel 850/488-6167) that stands in the shadow of its replacement. For a more rounded history - easily the fullest account of Florida's past anywhere in the state - visit the Museum of Florida History , 500 S Bronough St (Mon-Fri 9am-4.30pm, Sat 10am-4.30pm, Sun noon-4.30pm; free). Detailed accounts of Paleo-Indian settlements, and the significance of their burial and temple mounds - some of which have been found on the edge of Tallahassee - are valuable tools in comprehending Florida's prehistory. The imperialist crusades of the Spanish are outlined with copious finds. There's little on the nineteenth-century Seminole Wars - one of the bloodier skeletons in Florida's closet - but plenty on the crucial c.1900 railroads.It's well worth making the trip out to the Florida A&M University campus west of downtown, where the Black Archives Research Center and Museum (Mon-Fri 9am-4pm; free) holds one of the largest and most important collections of African-American artifacts in the nation, with oral histories and music stations, as well as an awe-inspiring group of Ethiopian crosses.
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