Historic Events
St. Luke Baptist Church, Marianna This African-American church, founded along the Chipola River in August 1867, is now a main focal point in Marianna. The building is Gothic Revival Style with pointed, arch leaded stained glass windows and towers on either side of the central nave.
Gilmore Academy In 1922, Robert T. Gilmore (1879-1948), born in Monticello, founded Gilmore Academy, one of Jackson County's first African-American high schools. After graduating its first class in 1931, it was renamed Jackson County Training School, then later Marianna Middle School.
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Finch House
The Finch House, built circa 1913 by James Finch, a prominent area judge, attorney and two-term Florida Congressman, is a Craftsman-style bungalow.
The Finches, natives of Arlington, Ala., moved to Marianna from Cedar Key soon after James passed the Florida Bar exam in 1911. Finch was instrumental in establishing Jackson Hospital.
The house on Putnam Street remained in the family until 1989.
Current owner Linda Collins has been renovating the house. The house boasts 12-foot ceilings, six fireplaces and floors made of heart pine. The wainscoting, mantles and exposed beams are mission oak. Windows and doors are original, some with leaded glass. There is a second-story “sleeping porch” and a balcony off the upstairs hall. Inlaid woods of different natural colors and textures over the fireplace depict the Cedar Key lighthouse, the newlywed Finches’ first Florida home.
