Gerald Ensley: Midtown captures the imagination, regardless of borders

(This column was first published in the Tallahassee Democrat on May 1, 2015.)

Whither Midtown? 'Tis the question.

In a Tallahassee busily bolstering neighborhood identity on all points of the compass, no district has turned the trick quite like Midtown. The oasis of bars and restaurants and cafes and shops has captured the local imagination. Every business wants to be in Midtown, every resident wants to socialize in Midtown.

It's a success story in "placemaking" — to use the popular planning term — made even more remarkable for its newness. Fifteen years ago, no one in Tallahassee had ever heard of Midtown. The term did not exist.

Yet where the heck is Midtown? Its borders once seemed clear enough: Midtown was a six-block wedge between Monroe Street and Thomasville Road, stretching from where the two roads merge below Brevard Street on the south to Seventh Avenue on the north.

Yet because of its popularity, Midtown borders seem to have become a matter of personal choice.

An acquaintance recently put up his home for sale on North Ride — almost a mile north of Seventh Avenue — advertising it as a "Midtown location." A few years ago, an apartment complex opened on Old Bainbridge Road near Tharpe Street — about a mile west of Monroe Street — and dubbed itself the "Park At Midtown" (before later changing the name).

But the flexibility has remained. Commercial businesses north to Betton Road, such as Capital Plaza and the Whole Foods plaza, advertise themselves as Midtown. Residents of Lafayette Park to the east identify themselves as living in Midtown, with the designation stretching to the businesses farther east around Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare. Some of the newer residents of Levy Park, west of Monroe Street, proclaim their Midtown location.

Surely, it shows the appeal of Midtown. And there's nothing wrong with that.

"There's no official definition (of Midtown)," said Brian Wiebler, a principal planner with the city. "We have identified the commercial core, but we've stayed away from what neighborhoods are included and what are not. This is an example where the community self-identifies and evolves over time."

The Midtown name started with Haute Headz hair salon in 1999. The salon opened its second location on Thomasville Road, just north of Seventh Avenue (since moved), and dubbed it "Haute Headz at Midtown" to differentiate it from its salon near FSU.

"I used to go to Atlanta a lot, which has a Midtown; we were trying to sound hip," said Nikki Clark, salon co-owner. "We answered the phone, 'Midtown.' We put it on our advertising. I totally think we started the name."

A big boost came in 2003, when the Midtown Merchants Association formed. Karen Cooley and Eric Favier were owners of Chez Pierre Restaurant at Sixth and Thomasville (now Table 23 restaurant). The area was making a transition from banks, insurance offices, the sheriff's office and gas stations to restaurants and retail shops, and the business owners wanted to market the change.

"We felt we had a good destination, but we needed an identity," said Cooley, who now works for a small business association. "We said it needed to be called something. We had north Tallahassee and we had downtown. Why not Midtown (between the two)? As soon as we started using it, people said, 'We know that area.' And it just stuck."

The name spread thanks to the area's new tenants. With downtown commandeered by government and private association offices, and Gaines Street still a half-dozen years from being renovated, Midtown began attracting start-up bars, cafes and boutiques. Surrounded by residential areas and generally ample parking, it became a social mecca.

City Commissioner Gil Ziffer, who considers his Lafayette Park home as Midtown, suggests the popularity was partly fueled by its geographic name and location: Thousands of northside Tallahassee residents drove through the area on their daily commute. The name was further boosted by the area's popularity with nearby residents.

"We moved here a year ago because of the walkability. There are places we walk for dinner. It's a 10-minute walk to Whole Foods. Someone told me there are 160 beer taps within a half-mile of my home," Ziffer said. "People are moving back (to city neighborhoods) because they want to be on the inside of the doughnut."

Wiebler agreed the pedestrian nature of Midtown is much of its appeal.

"I turn 40 this year and I have a lot of friends living in Midtown and Lafayette Park," Wiebler said. "For my cohort and older, this idea that you can walk to it, bike to it, not have to think about parking, gives it a neighborhood bar feel. It's creating a sense of place."

Indeed, Midtown is one of the several districts the city plans to add "placemaking amenities." Three years ago, that effort began with construction of the Fifth Avenue Plaza, which added a brick plaza, sitting walls and gaslights to a one-block stretch, providing a site for concerts and community events.

Dozens of future improvements are being batted around, ranging from crosswalks to wider sidewalks to rows of trees. In two weeks, merchants plan their first festival (see box).

Ziffer muses Midtown's appeal may also owe something to its familiarity. Downtown has added high-rise condos and Cascades Park. Gaines Street was remodeled from an industrial corridor into a district of shiny new apartment buildings and pocket parks, as well as cafes and bars.

But Midtown still looks much like it did before it had a name.

"Whataburger is still there. Rhodes Furniture has changed (remodeled into the Midtown Manor complex of shops) but is still there. The Midtown Caboose is not (legendary drive-in) Mutt and Jeff's, but it's still there," Ziffer said. "While everything else has changed, Midtown's (look) is still the same. It's a bit of nostalgia. People like that."

Gerald Ensley was a reporter and columnist for the Tallahassee Democrat from 1980 until his retirement in 2015. He died in 2018 following a stroke. The Tallahassee Democrat is publishing columns capturing Tallahassee’s history from Ensley’s vast archives each Sunday through 2024 in the Opinion section as part of theTLH 200: Gerald Ensley Memorial Bicentennial Project.

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Gerald Ensley: Midtown captures the imagination, regardless of borders