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Crestview, Florida
Crestview is the largest city and county seat of Okaloosa County, Florida, United States. The population was 27,134 at the 2020 census, up from 20,978 at the 2010 census. With an elevation of 236 feet (72 m) above sea level, it is one of the highest points in the state.
Crestview is a principal city of the Crestview–Fort Walton Beach–Destin, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Crestview was largely an outgrowth of the arrival of railroad service to the western Panhandle of Florida. The Pensacola and Atlantic Railroad Company, chartered in 1881, opened its line between Pensacola and Chattahoochee in January 1883. Two express passenger trains, the Atlantic Express and the Gulf Express, as well as a local accommodation train that made stops along the route, were in daily operation. The express trains took about six hours for the journey, while the local train took thirteen hours. When the railroad company was unable to cover its debt obligations, the Louisville and Nashville Railroad covered the shortfalls until 1885 and then foreclosed, absorbing the route into its system as the L&N's Pensacola and Atlantic Division.
In 1894, sawmill operator W. B. Wright opened the 26-mile (42 km) Yellow River Railroad between Crestview and Florala, Alabama via Auburn, Campton, and Laurel Hill. The L&N provided the line with freight cars and purchased the operation in 1906, renaming it the Yellow River Branch. Without significant shippers to sustain the line, it was eventually used for freight car storage in the early 1980s and was abandoned in May 1985, with 25.3 miles of track removed. Parts of the former right of way were paved as local streets.
Crestview was officially incorporated as a city in 1916. The 1920 US Census recorded the population of Crestview at 500 residents.
On July 23, 1920, Crestview hosted Okaloosa County's first public hanging. Robert Blackwell was convicted of murdering Nancy and Bud Davis in 1917 and was sentenced to death. A week before his execution, Blackwell confessed, and his confession was printed in local newspapers on the day of his hanging. The second and final public execution in Okaloosa County took place on September 23, 1921, when Putnam Ponsell and Jacob Benjamin Marin were hanged for the murder of John F. Tuggle. This double hanging was the last public execution in Florida.
In 1937, Smith-Johnson Company, Inc. opened a garment factory in Crestview, which utilized 250 machines and employed around 300 workers.
A modern bus terminal served by Greyhound Lines' Jacksonville-Los Angeles route, with connections north to Atlanta, Memphis, and New York, opened on the corner of Ferdon and Pearl Streets on May 9, 1941. The terminal featured waiting rooms, a lounge, smoking rooms, a restaurant, and a loading concourse. It was segregated.
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Crestview, Florida
Crestview is the largest city and county seat of Okaloosa County, Florida, United States. The population was 27,134 at the 2020 census, up from 20,978 at the 2010 census. With an elevation of 236 feet (72 m) above sea level, it is one of the highest points in the state.
Crestview is a principal city of the Crestview–Fort Walton Beach–Destin, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Crestview was largely an outgrowth of the arrival of railroad service to the western Panhandle of Florida. The Pensacola and Atlantic Railroad Company, chartered in 1881, opened its line between Pensacola and Chattahoochee in January 1883. Two express passenger trains, the Atlantic Express and the Gulf Express, as well as a local accommodation train that made stops along the route, were in daily operation. The express trains took about six hours for the journey, while the local train took thirteen hours. When the railroad company was unable to cover its debt obligations, the Louisville and Nashville Railroad covered the shortfalls until 1885 and then foreclosed, absorbing the route into its system as the L&N's Pensacola and Atlantic Division.
In 1894, sawmill operator W. B. Wright opened the 26-mile (42 km) Yellow River Railroad between Crestview and Florala, Alabama via Auburn, Campton, and Laurel Hill. The L&N provided the line with freight cars and purchased the operation in 1906, renaming it the Yellow River Branch. Without significant shippers to sustain the line, it was eventually used for freight car storage in the early 1980s and was abandoned in May 1985, with 25.3 miles of track removed. Parts of the former right of way were paved as local streets.
Crestview was officially incorporated as a city in 1916. The 1920 US Census recorded the population of Crestview at 500 residents.
On July 23, 1920, Crestview hosted Okaloosa County's first public hanging. Robert Blackwell was convicted of murdering Nancy and Bud Davis in 1917 and was sentenced to death. A week before his execution, Blackwell confessed, and his confession was printed in local newspapers on the day of his hanging. The second and final public execution in Okaloosa County took place on September 23, 1921, when Putnam Ponsell and Jacob Benjamin Marin were hanged for the murder of John F. Tuggle. This double hanging was the last public execution in Florida.
In 1937, Smith-Johnson Company, Inc. opened a garment factory in Crestview, which utilized 250 machines and employed around 300 workers.
A modern bus terminal served by Greyhound Lines' Jacksonville-Los Angeles route, with connections north to Atlanta, Memphis, and New York, opened on the corner of Ferdon and Pearl Streets on May 9, 1941. The terminal featured waiting rooms, a lounge, smoking rooms, a restaurant, and a loading concourse. It was segregated.