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This article appeared in the St. Petersburg Times on April 11, 1977. By WILFRED T. NEILL
One of the most interesting ghost towns of our area is Centralia, six miles north of Weeki Wachee on the west side of U. S. 19.Centralia was a logging town first settled in 1910. It was named by Edgar Roberts after his hometown of Centralia, Ill. Roberts and his brother owned the Central Cypress Lumber Co., which cut giant cypress, and sometimes other timbers, in Hernando County and vicinity. The brothers had the logging town built primarily to provide housing and services for their employees. Centralia grew to be a sizable community, with about 1,500 men, women and children. (By way of contrast, the Hernando County seat, Brooksville, had only 500 inhabitants at the time.) Centralia’s main street was of sand, covered with sheets of cypress bark, and the sidewalks were made of cypress slabs. Small white- washed dwelling houses bordered the main street on each side. Other houses were scattered about, most of them in the shade of liveoak trees.
There was also a one-room schoolhouse, with about two dozen pupils whose parents worked for the logging company. The school likewise accepted a few children from nearby families who were not involved with sawmilling. The teacher usually was a young woman at the start of her career.
And there was a boarding house, the Centralia Hotel. It was occupied mostly by bachelors who worked for the logging company, but it also took in guests who happened to be passing through that part of Florida.
There was a restaurant, the Hungry None, which served meals at almost any time of day or night. There was a drugstore, a non-denominational church, and a movie house called the Flicker Palace. But Centralia’s best-known building was George Gamble’s commissary. The Tampa Northern Railroad came into town, hauling logs in and lumber out; and Gamble could use the railway to bring in goods for sale in his store. Occasionally he'd receive as many as four freight carloads of goods at one time.
Gamble’s commissary sold flour, cornmeal, grits, sugar, salt, coffee, seasonings, medicines, garden produce, clothing, yard goods, household utensils, tools, kerosene—everything needed by the loggers, sawmillers and their families. In fact, Gamble imported not only necessities but even luxuries, including Greek delicacies such as feta cheese, olive oil, roka and black Calamata olives. Indeed, the commissary was better stocked than most stores in larger cities of the Gulf coast.
Quite a few people came to Centralia from other settlements, to buy from Gamble’s. At his own expense Edgar Roberts built a branch railway line from Centralia to Tooke Lake, about 2 1/2 miles way. At the lake there was a turpentine still operated by Lewis S. Petteway, a close friend of the Roberts brothers. There was no turnaround at the lake, so trains backed in from Centralia to load Petteway’s turpentine.
Roberts made sure that his employees' needs were taken care of. For example, he kept a doctor on the staff. The doctor, who made his calls in a Model T, had no shortage of patients; for the loggers and sawyers suffered a good many accidents. Malaria was a problem, too.
A Brooksville dentist, D. L. Heddick, was under contract with Roberts to take care of Centralia’s dental needs.
Nor did Roberts overlook the necessity for fun and recreation. There were various social events, including Saturday night square dances that drew crowds from Brooksville, Dade City, Aripeka, Port Richey and several communities that have since vanished from the map.
Obviously, Roberts had a well-run operation. He had, in fact, the most efficient sawmill town in the area. Logs were hauled in by train, dumped into a pond and floated to the mill. Here they were loaded onto a ramp, where heavy chains pulled them into the saws. Double band saws cut the rough timber into finished boards. Power for winching and sawing was provided by four large steam boilers.
One day in 1912 the Centralia sawmill received its largest log, a cypress timber that yielded 5,476 board feet of lumber. For several weeks the tree’s gigantic top was displayed on a flatcar for people to marvel at. The mill could turn out 100,000 board feet a day, and on many days it did so. But the supply of timber would not last forever. In 1917 Centralia had 160 acres of land stacked with lumber piles 15 feet high—but there were no more trees to cut.
And so "Queen" Roberts, Edgar’s young daughter, pulled and tied down the cord on the big steam whistle that had so often called the sawyers to work. The whistle roared for a while, then died away. People went home, packed some possessions, and left. Centralia was dead, abandoned.
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