Tallahassee's Historic Districts

Tallahassee has three locally mapped historic districts, Myers Park, Calhoun Street and Park Avenue, alongside several National Register districts.

The Tallahassee Trust for Historic Preservation publishes district maps for the Myers Park Historic Residential District, the Calhoun Street Special Character District and the Park Avenue Special Character District, plus a map of individually listed locally designated properties on the Local Historic Register. Its home page notes that the Spring edition of its newsletter focused on downtown's historic Park Avenue and Calhoun Street districts.

The federal list adds more names. The Tallahassee-Leon County GIS heritage page says downtown alone has four National Register historic districts, naming the Calhoun Street and Park Avenue districts, where some of Florida's finest Territorial Period buildings stand, and Magnolia Heights, Tallahassee's first suburb, along East Park Avenue and Cadiz Street. Beyond downtown, the Florida Department of State reports that the Los Robles Neighborhood Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in November 2015.

In Tallahassee, local designation is zoning that brings design review, while National Register listing is federal recognition that by itself places no restrictions on a private owner.

The National Park Service says that under federal law, listing in the National Register places no restrictions on what a non-federal owner may do with a property, up to and including destruction, unless the property is involved in a project that receives federal assistance, usually funding or licensing and permitting. It adds that owners may still be subject to state or local preservation laws. A Los Robles homeowner whose house contributes to the National Register district is therefore not, on that basis alone, required to seek design approval.

The local tools are different. The Trust describes two: the Historic Preservation Overlay, or HPO, a zoning layer shown on a map, and the official Local Historic Register. An owner who believes a property has significant architectural or cultural meaning in Tallahassee can apply to add it to the Local Historic Register and have it zoned HPO.

That request goes through public hearings. The City of Tallahassee's zoning page lists a current request to add a Park Avenue East property to the Local Register of Historic Places and to change its zoning from Office Residential-1 to Office Residential-1 with Historic Preservation Overlay. The Planning Commission hearing was held October 6 at the Renaissance Center, and the City Commission public hearing is set for November 4 at 6 p.m. in the City Commission Chambers at 300 S. Adams St. The City takes questions on active land use projects at 850-891-6400.

Regulated work on an HPO-zoned property needs a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Architectural Review Board, which the Tallahassee Trust administers.

The Tallahassee Trust for Historic Preservation says it is both the official Tallahassee-Leon County Architectural Review Board, the ARB, and a community nonprofit, and that it oversees design standards for historic properties through the Certificate of Appropriateness, or COA, process and local landmark designations. Its guide to how it works lists administering the ARB, overseeing the Historic Preservation Overlay and reviewing COA applications.

The ARB meets on the first Wednesday of the month at noon in the first-floor Growth Management Conference Room of the Renaissance Center, 435 N. Macomb St. The Trust's applications page sets a Tuesday, October 20 deadline for the November 4, 2026 meeting and a November 17 deadline for the December 2 meeting, with applications sent to the Trust director by email. Applicants should bring photos of the property's current condition and preliminary sketches or product brochures for the proposed work. The same page posts a guide to whether a COA is needed and a list of regulated work items.

The standards are published. The Trust links the Secretary of the Interior Standards, the Historic Tallahassee Design Manual and the Myers Park Historic Residential District Design Guidelines, along with the City of Tallahassee Historic Preservation Ordinance, the Leon County Historic Preservation Ordinance and historic property sign regulations. It also posts separate City and County historic preservation district applications, since one review board serves both governments. At the policy level, the joint Tallahassee-Leon County Comprehensive Plan carries its own Historic Preservation Element. The Trust office is at 423 E. Virginia St., 850-488-7334.

Park Avenue is a historic district because it preserves the cleared 200-foot strip of the territorial town and the chain of parks planted on it.

The 1979 National Register nomination for the Park Avenue Historic District says that when the City of Tallahassee was incorporated in 1825, its limits included a cleared strip two hundred feet wide around the town, traditionally said to be a buffer against the remaining Indians. The northern side, officially named McCarty Street until 1905, survives as Park Avenue, and the district is anchored to that street. The county GIS page adds that the district holds the oldest continuously open spaces in the City of Tallahassee.

The parks came in stages, the nomination says. The first, Leon Park, was laid out with the Leon Hotel, which opened in 1883. In 1885 Captain W. C. Lewis laid out a second park in front of the Lewis mansion, and in 1891 a group of local women formed the Tallahassee Improvement Association, which named and planted five more parks over the next decade. In 1938 the Tallahassee Garden Club, with the City, named and planted all seven parks. The nomination also lists National Register buildings along the avenue, such as the First Presbyterian Church, completed in 1838, and The Columns, completed in 1830.

Los Robles is an early planned 1926 subdivision, Magnolia Heights is the city's first twentieth-century suburb, and Myers Park is a locally regulated residential district.

The Florida Department of State records that the Los Robles subdivision was platted in 1926 on the site of a 37-acre farm whose 19th century farmhouse was relocated but still stands in the neighborhood, and that the National Register district has 70 contributing residences of various styles plus one city-owned park. The nearby Woman's Club of Tallahassee was listed on the National Register in 1987. The county GIS heritage page places Los Robles just east of Lake Ella, notes that the name is Spanish for The Oaks, and points to its Spanish-style stucco exteriors and ceramic roof tiles.

Magnolia Heights, the same county page says, reflects Tallahassee's turn into a government and educational center, on a tree-lined section of East Park Avenue first graded in 1900. The page gives two counts: its introduction says the district has 25 historic buildings along East Park Avenue and Cadiz Street, while its district profile says it is made up of 40 buildings dating from 1899 to 1934.

Myers Park is the one residential district with its own published design guidelines from the Trust, which also offers a self-guided Myers Park Tour on its Explore Tallahassee page.

Florida law lets Tallahassee and Leon County each adopt a historic property tax exemption on rehabilitation improvements, and each government chooses whether to use it.

According to the Florida Division of Historical Resources, Section 196.1997, Florida Statutes, allows counties and municipalities, here the City of Tallahassee and Leon County, to adopt ordinances granting a property tax exemption for up to 100% of the increase in assessed improvements resulting from an approved rehabilitation of a qualified historic property. The exemption may remain in effect for up to 10 years and applies only to the portion of the tax levied by the government granting it.

Eligibility follows the two systems described above. Qualified properties may be residential or commercial and must be individually listed in the National Register, a contributing building in a National Register district such as Los Robles, or designated as historic under a local preservation ordinance. The rehabilitation must follow the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation, applications are reviewed by the local preservation office in a Certified Local Government or otherwise by the Division, and a covenant is required for the term of the exemption.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, with fresh reads of the Tallahassee Trust's home, regulation, applications and explore pages, the City zoning and Comprehensive Plan pages, the National Park Service National Register FAQ, the 1979 Park Avenue nomination, two Florida Department of State pages and the county GIS heritage neighborhoods page.