WELCOME to the Historic Haile Homestead at Kanapaha Plantation. In 1854 Thomas Evans and Serena Chesnut Haile moved their family from Camden, South Carolina to Gainesville, Alachua County, Florida. Their 6,200 sq ft home was built by 56 enslaved laborers. The 1860 census showed 66 slaves living here. The Hailes survived bankruptcy in 1868 and turned the property into a productive farm, growing a variety of fruits and vegetables, including oranges. Serena Haile died in 1895; Thomas in 1896. The homestead which passed to son Evans, a prominent defense attorney, became the site of house parties attended by some of Gainesville’s most distinguished citizens.
The Historic Haile Homestead is unique in the Nation for its "Talking Walls." For reasons lost to time, the Hailes had the unusual habit of writing on the walls; all together over 12,500 words in almost every room and closet, with the oldest writing dating back to 1850’s. The homestead was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. A restoration was completed in 1996. Still partly owned by descendants of Evans Haile, the Homestead is one of the few remaining homesteads built by Sea Island cotton planters in this part of Florida.
Come visit the Historic Haile House and see this gem of history, frozen in time - let the walls speak to you of joys and sorrows of more than a century ago. Visit the Allen & Ethel Graham Visitors Center and Museum! Learn about the enslaved laborers and freedmen, whose stories are intertwined into the fabric of our tours! There are videos to watch while you wait for your tour to begin: "Beginnings" and "Enslavement to Freedom." Learn about a group of cotton planters who relocated from South Carolina to Florida. And more importantly, learn about what slavery was, the brutal truth of it, and how Reconstruction and Jim Crow impacted freedmen in Alachua County and Florida.

PHYSICAL ADDRESS
8500 SW Archer Road
Gainesville, FL 32608

MAILING ADDRESS
4941 SW 91st Ter., Ste 101
Gainesville, FL 32608

https://www.hailehomestead.org
Contributor: Elizabeth Rarden LeFiles (50036121)