Reddick, FL

Reddick is a Marion County town 15 miles north of Ocala, with 449 people at the 2020 census, down from 506 in 2010. It was platted on June 8, 1882, around the Florida Southern Railway's Gainesville-Ocala line. John Reddick gave the town his surname, served as its first postmaster, and deeded a 120-foot right-of-way and timber for railroad ties for one dollar. That bargain put produce and citrus on a faster route to northern markets, and Reddick grew around its stop, stores, schools, and churches.

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Then climate remade the business. A 1894-95 freeze destroyed the citrus trees, though farmers replanted vegetables. Reddick's official history recalls rail service, the Orange Belt Route, and the community's rise to about 300 people before the 1894-95 freeze. The Annunciation of the Theotokos Greek Orthodox Monastery, formed in 1998, adds a newer religious landmark on the town's northern edge; restoration work after recent storms keeps the site in the present tense. Reddick Community Center is where the town council meets, and Marion County's horse-country landscape surrounds the old rail settlement. The local scoop is a Florida town whose original economy ran on a one-dollar rail right-of-way and whose story still reads through citrus, produce, and a monastery.