Park Summary for Print - Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park

A view of the Rawlings house surrounded by trees.

Welcome to Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park

Visitors to this Florida homestead can walk back in time to 1930s farm life. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings lived and worked in the tiny community of Cross Creek. Her cracker style home and farm, where she lived for 25 years and wrote her Pulitzer prize-winning novel The Yearling, has been restored and is preserved as it was when she lived here.

Marjorie Rawlings was honored as a First Floridian by Governor Crist in March of 2009. The United States Postal Service released a commemorative stamp in 2008 honoring Marjorie and the literary arts. In 2007 the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings house and farm yard was designated as a National Historic Landmark. The National Historic Landmark designation is the highest such recognition accorded by our nation to historic properties determined to be of exceptional value in representing or illustrating an important theme, event or person in the history of the nation.

Contact the Florida Park Service Information Center for general inquiries.
For Information about Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park, please call 352-466-3672.

Hours of Operation

Visitors may tour the house with a ranger Thursdays through Sundays, October through July (except for Christmas and Thanksgiving) at 10:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m. and 1:00, 2:00, 3:00, and 4:00 p.m. Tours at the park begin at the barn, walk through the farmyard and then through the historic house.

The farmyard, grove, and nature trails are open 9:00 a.m.to 5:00 p.m. daily, throughout the year.

Picnic facilities are located in the adjacent county park. Located in Cross Creek off County Road 325.

The park is open daily from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Driving Directions

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park is located between Ocala and Gainesville in Cross Creek, at 18700 S. CR 325.

Park Fees

Admission Fee:

$3.00 per vehicle. Please use the honor box to pay fees. Correct change is required. Limit 8 people per vehicle.

Guided Tours of the Rawling's house:

$3.00 per adult.

$2.00 per child, ages 6 – 12.

Free - Children under 6 years of age.

Activities at Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park

	Guided Tours Guided tours at the park begin at the barn, walk through the farmyard and then through the historic house. Tour guides will talk about Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' life, her writing, farm life in the 1930s, and Cross Creek. Tours are offered Thursdays through Sundays, October through July (except for Christmas and Thanksgiving) at 10 and 11 am and 1, 2, 3, and 4 pm. Tours are $3 for adults, $2 for children 6-12; younger children are free. Group tours can be scheduled, in advance, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Reservations are required for group tours. To make reservations or for more information, call 352-466-3672. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park does not have ADA accessible bathroom facilities on site, but, one bathroom facility is available on the adjacent Alachua County Park grounds. ** Please note: This bathroom facility does not fully meet ADA requirements, assistance may be necessary.
	Hiking Two fifteen minute hiking trails move away from the farmyard and into the woods. The East Grove Trail is a wide trail that begins directly in front of the historic house. It was once the access road to a young orange grove that Rawlings planted and now moves east through a hammock. Behind the house, a narrow jungle trail leads through fern forests to a cypress grove. The walk north from the parking area to the farmyard is along a trail through the citrus grove.
	Interpretive Exhibits The entire farmyard is set in the 1930s as it was in Rawlings time, creating a living exhibit. Each structure and artifact tells a story of life in that time. Guides and brochures are available to give additional information.
	Pets Well-behaved dogs are welcome at Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park. They must be kept on a 6-foot leash at all times. If you take a tour of the house, pets must be hand carried.

Special Events for Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park

There are no events listed at this time. Please call our park for more details on possible future events.

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park Ranger Programs

MARJORIE KINNAN RAWLINGS HOUSE TOUR
Ranger-guided walks inside the historic home are offered for a small fee, October through July, on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday (except Thanksgiving and Christmas) at 10 and 11 am and at 1, 2, 3, and 4 pm. Larger groups and school groups can reserve a guided tour on Tuesday or Wednesday with an advance reservation.
Park Admission Fee - $3.00/vehicle
Guided Tours of the Rawling's house: Adults - $3.00 per person
Children - 6 to 12 years of age, $2.00 per person
Children under 6 years of age are free.

Participation Requirements

Call 352-466-3672 for more details.
MARJORIE K. RAWLINGS AND BLACK HISTORY
Ranger led tour about Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and her changing understanding of what is was like to be Black in America. The program includes information about her work and letters, and her friendships with prominent Black Americans, including Zora Neale Hurston.
Available by reservation only on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, with an advance reservation.
Park admission plus tour fee.

Call 352-466-3672 for more details.

Frequently Asked Questions about Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park

Question: Who is Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings?
Answer: Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings wrote books about life in Florida at the turn of the century through the 1930’s. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1939 for her novel The Yearling. Her works show the importance and the difficulties of people living in harmony with their communities and with nature.

Question: When was she born and when did she die?
Answer: Marjorie Kinnan was born August 8, 1896 in Washington, D.C. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings died December 13, 1953 in St. Augustine.

Question: Did she go to school? Where?
Answer: She graduated with honors from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Question: Did she marry or have children?
Answer: Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings married twice. First she married her college sweetheart, Charles Rawlings. They divorced in 1933. She married Norton Baskin in late 1941; they were married until her death in 1953. He died in 1997 and is buried next to her at nearby Antioch Cemetery. She had no children.

Question: How long did she live at this Cross Creek farm (the MKR Historic State Park)?
Answer: She lived there for the greater part of 25 years, from 1928-1953.

Question: Why is this place significant?
Answer: Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings did her writing on the porch of the old farmhouse. Far more than a place where she composed, it was a place that refreshed her every day. The restored homestead provides the visitor with a glimpse of how she lived and wrote on the edge of her orange grove.

Question: What can we see there?
Answer: The original farmhouse and pump house are surrounded by a landscape reflecting the 1930’s Florida farm and life as Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings knew it. There is a reconstructed barn, tenant house (currently being restored), chickens and ducks, a garden (herbs, flowers, and vegetables), ornamental plants, and a citrus grove. Employees dress in period clothing as they do the work on the farm. A self-guided tour of the grounds is available.

Question: Can I get a guided walk?
Answer: Yes, ranger-guided walks inside the historic home are offered for a small fee, October through July on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (except Christmas and Thanksgiving). Larger groups or school groups can reserve a guided tour on Tuesday or Wednesday with an advance reservation.

Question: What can I do there?
Answer: People come to the park for many reasons: To experience a famous writer. To explore a place they have read about. To drop back in time and see the old way of life. To see the citrus grove or other plant life. To see the architecture or experience the history of the time. To walk about an old farm and trails and experience nature, cultivated and wild. Almost everyone who comes has the opportunity, even if just for a few moments, to experience the peace, serenity, and perhaps the inspiration that Marjorie Rawlings found here.

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park History

So Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings began the story of her life in this rural Florida community. Coming to Cross Creek in 1928 with her husband Charles Rawlings, she settled into her new life in this "half-wide, backwoods country," growing oranges, cooking on a wood-burning stove, writing down her impressions of the land and her Cracker neighbors. Immediately, she felt an affinity for the place and made a lifelong commitment to it: "When I came to the Creek, I knew the old grove and the farmhouse at once as home."

She sat most often on the wide veranda at her typewriter, writing the books that would endear her to the world and capture forever the beauty of Florida and the spirit of its people. The Yearling, an American classic and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, is the story of young Jody Baxter’s coming of age in the big scrub country which is now the Ocala National Forest. Cross Creek is a chronicle of her life at the Creek, a "love story," she called it, where she reveals her favorite haunts, marvels at the passing of the seasons, introduces the reader to her friends and neighbors and shares with the whole world her love of Florida. Here, the land and its people roused her, and her writings blossomed into works that have placed her among the best known names in American literature.

Her farmhouse "sat snugly then as now under the tall old orange trees, and had a simple grace of line, low rambling, and one-storied." Three separate structures connected by a bathroom, screen porches, open verandas, comprise the eight-room house built of cypress and heart pine. The house has withstood the "wind and rain and harsh sun and encroaching jungle" for nearly 100 years. The Cracker-style architecture is well-suited for the hot Florida climate and includes open porches, tall ceilings and plenty of windows and screened doors to take advantage of the cool breezes. In the winter, four fireplaces and the wood-burning stove took the chill off the rooms.

Outside, the citrus grove of orange, grapefruit and tangerine trees surrounded the house. In the magic of the grove, she found her greatest pleasure: "Enchantment lies in different things for each of us. For me, it is in this: to step out of the bright sunlight into the shade of oranges trees; to walk under the arched canopy of their jadelike leaves; to see the long aisles of lichened trunks stretch ahead in a geometric rhythm; to feel the mystery of a seclusion that yet has shafts of light striking through it. This is the essence of an ancient and secret magic." In her groves, Marjorie Rawlings found peace and inspiration.

Her book Cross Creek ends with these words: "It seems to me that the earth may be borrowed but not bought. It may be used but not owned. It gives itself in response to love and tending, offers its seasonal flowering and fruiting. But we are tenants and not possessors, lovers and not masters. Cross Creek belongs to the wind and the rain, to the sun and the seasons, to the cosmic secrecy of seed, and beyond all, to time."

Divorced from Charles Rawlings in 1933, Marjorie Rawlings stayed on at the Creek alone through the Great Depression and into more prosperous times. In 1941, she married Norton Baskin and divided her time between their St. Augustine home and her Cross Creek retreat where she continued to write up until her death in 1953 at the age of 57.

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park Volunteer Information

Volunteers assist in many ways at the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park. Some greet visitors and provide guided tours through the historic farm house. Other volunteers help to maintain the grounds, gardens, buildings, and artifacts. Some volunteers work with our citizen support group, the Friends of the M.K. Rawlings Farm, Inc., to create special events, conduct fund raising activities, manage special projects like creating oral histories or researching tenant farm life, coordinate grant requests and management, and helping us to maintain good contacts within our community. Volunteers have been a critical factor in the operation and maintenance of the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park.