When you think of the Kathleen area, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? We’ll admit — we didn’t know much about it.
We sat down with Lois Sherrouse-Murphy, a fifth-generation resident who has served as president of the Kathleen Area Historical Society since 2012, to discuss some of this area’s history. Consider impressing others with hyper-local history facts our new go-to party trick.
The Kathleen area is not made up of just Kathleen.
While Kathleen is the largest community that most people think of when they think of this part of the city, there are actually eight historic communities that comprise the area: Kathleen, Galloway, Gibsonia, Green Pond, Griffin, Providence, Socrum, and Winston. You’ll see nods to these communities throughout the northern parts of Lakeland, from road names to the names of schools.
Of those communities, Socrum is the oldest — it was settled in the late 1840s, 40 years before Lakeland.
Kathleen was not always unincorporated.
While the Kathleen area is considered an unincorporated community of northern Lakeland today, that was not always the case. The one-square-mile town was briefly incorporated from 1914 to 1928 and even had its own mayor, town council, and sheriff + nine general stores and three doctors.
Agriculture ruled all — even school schedules.
Like many other rural communities in Florida, Kathleen’s roots are steeped in agriculture, with a special focus on strawberries, cattle ranching, and sugarcane.
The strawberry industry in particular was so important to the area that schools like Kathleen Middle and Griffin Elementary built their schedules around peak strawberry farming season, meaning students did not attend class from January through March. This practice ended around 1952, and the last class of Kathleen area “strawberry school” students graduated in 1954.
Pro tip: The Kathleen Area Historical Society still harvests sugarcane and turns it into syrup that is sold at its country store. You can even watch the process firsthand at Heritage Park each fall.
The area’s farming activity inspired an award-winning novel.
Author Lois Lenski’s 1945 children’s novel “Strawberry Girl” is based on strawberry production in the Kathleen area. According to Sherrouse-Murphy, Lenski spent several years living in the Kathleen area studying strawberry farms before writing the novel, which went on to win a Newbery Medal in 1946.
Come and “set a spell” on the porch of the Kathleen Area Historical Society after attending one of their many community programs or events.
Photo by LALtoday
The Kathleen Area Historical Society is open to everyone.
You don’t have to be a member of the Kathleen Area Historical Society to participate in their programs and events. Keep an eye on the organization’s Facebook to stay in the loop about upcoming happenings, from monthly spaghetti dinners + history speakers to the annual Heritage Day held in March. Most events are held at the society’s home base, Heritage Park.
What other communities do you want to know the history behind? Let us know.
