Baldwin, FL

Baldwin is a Duval County town at a crossroads that once carried the Old Spanish Trail and a stagecoach line. Thigpen's tavern, opened by 1846, supplied horses, food, and shelter; then railroads crossed the settlement in 1857 and 1859, followed by a telegraph to Jacksonville in 1859. The place took the name Baldwin in 1860 for Dr. A.S. Baldwin, who helped bring the first tracks. After being burned during the Civil War, it rebuilt and incorporated in 1913. Baldwin is a Florida railroad junction with a past that still shows up in its name.