A county seat, built by the railroad
Downtown Dade City has been the center of Pasco County since 1889. Here is how it got that way, with a source for every date.
Walk it yourself
The City’s guide to its historic register: a page for each historic building and site, with maps.
Open the City’s historic guide- Start at the 1909 Pasco County Courthouse, at Meridian Avenue and 7th Street.
- The register gives each historic building and site its own page, from the Edwinola to the brick on Howard Avenue.
- Kept by the City of Dade City, with an interactive map and a Church Street Historic District walking tour.
Downtown has been arranged around it ever since.
1835
A name from the frontier
Brevet Major Francis L. Dade and his column are ambushed on December 28 near present day Bushnell, at the start of the Second Seminole War. Only three men survive. The fort built near here the next year, and later the town, will carry his name.
1887
The railroad and a new county
Pasco County is carved from southern Hernando County on June 2, and Dade City becomes its temporary seat. The railroads arrived in the mid 1880s, and merchants from old Fort Dade moved east to be near the tracks.
1889
County seat, for good
Voters choose Dade City as the permanent seat of Pasco County in an April 11 special election, certified on April 16, and on June 5 the Legislature incorporates it as a city.
1909
The courthouse rises
The Pasco County Courthouse opens on Meridian Avenue: red brick, Classical Revival, designed by Edward Columbus Hosford. Downtown has been arranged around it ever since.
1912
A depot and a grand hotel
The Atlantic Coast Line builds a new depot, and Edwin and Lola Gasque open the Hotel Edwinola, its name a blend of their own. The same year Casper Nathe plants an acre of kumquats, the start of the fruit that became the town’s symbol.
1961
Keeping pioneer Florida
The Pioneer Florida Museum Association is chartered after a gift of farm implements. It grows into a village of historic buildings north of downtown.
1987
Main Street begins
Downtown Dade City Main Street is founded to revitalize and preserve the flavor of small town life. For a quarter century it runs promotions and events and administers facade grants in the redevelopment district.
1994
On the National Register
The 1912 depot becomes the first place in Pasco County listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Church Street Historic District follows in 1997 and the courthouse in 2006.
1998
The first Kumquat Festival
The chamber of commerce holds the first Kumquat Festival downtown. It becomes the town’s biggest day of the year, on the last Saturday of every January. The restored courthouse is rededicated the same year.
2013
A pause
After years of financial strain the original Main Street organization closes. Its remaining grant money goes to the new Dade City Merchants Association, which carries the Christmas Stroll forward.
2026
Main Street returns
The City Commission directs City staff, led by its Community Redevelopment Agency, to re-form Main Street Dade City. An interest meeting at City Hall on June 4 starts the work toward a new board, a paid executive director and the Main Street Approach.
Go deeper, on foot
The best way to learn downtown is to walk it. These are run by the people who know it best.
Historic downtown today: the National Register and the grants- Historic Dade CityThe City’s historic register, maps and the Church Street Historic District walking tour.
- Dade City Heritage and Cultural MuseumInside the restored 1912 Atlantic Coast Line depot.
- Pioneer Florida Museum and VillageHistoric buildings from the 1860s to the 1930s, a mile north of downtown.