Cottage Hill, Florida
Information contributed by Carolyn Hadwin

It is said that the name came from a white house that sat on what we now call Hinton Hill.  "A cottage on a hill."  It had a deep-water well in back of the house.  There were many cottages dotting the hill in the area.  In the 1930's, they were known for rose gardens around the houses.  There also were satsuma orchards and pear orchards.  I've also heard of Kumquat and blueberry fields.

We find in the deed books of Escambia County where Mr. C. N. Levy and Mrs. Martha Levy (his wife) sold to Escambia County School Board one acre for the propose of building a school.  This was the 9th day of July, 1891.  The grade level was one though eight.  Later that would change to one though six.  In 1950 the school was updated to three classrooms and a cafeteria.  It was closed in 1956 when Jim Allen Elementary School opened on Hwy. 95A (per plaque in hall of Jim Allen).  On August 27, 1958 it was sold to Frank and Rosa Smyers.  At this time there were two and one half acres.  It went from the Smyers to Cottage Hill Baptist Church, which it is at present.  The additional classrooms added to the school in 1950  are now part of the Baptist church and still being used today.  Both Mr. & Mrs. Levy are buried in Cottage Hill Community Cemetery.  He died in 1914 and she died in 1919.  While searching some Escambia County records, I found that Mr. C. N. Levy was a Justice of the Peace for Cottage Hill, Florida from January 1901 until December 1907.  Also found where Mr. Guy W. Reeve was justice of the Peace from December 1913 to November 1914.

We found in the records that Mr. Samuel Adams was granted 159.42 acres in June 1894 by President Grover Cleveland.  Mr. & Mrs. Adams sold several small partials of land to various people for both private use and community use.  This property was in the area where the Methodist church and community cemetery and I am sure several more places we now recall by different names.  Mr. Samuel and Mrs. Eliza Adams are buried in the cemetery.  He died in 1902 and Mrs. Adams died in 1903.  According to records they owned a saw mill in Cottage Hill.  The property containing two acres was sold several times before it became a cemetery.  There are several graves dated in the early 1900's.  The cemetery is still being used today.

The property for the Cottage Hill Methodist Church was acquired in April 1897 from Mr. Samuel Adams and his wife Eliza Adams.  Mr. C. S. Adams and Mr. W. G. Baker witnessed this transaction.  Cottage Hill Methodist Church opened about 1898 from what we can learn.

The Post Office and store was located on Cottage Hill Road, on the east side of the railroad.  There is a picture of this store and post office that was taken about 1905.  Cottage Hill had several post masters.  Mr. Stephen D. Bennett from March 1895 to Feb. 1896.  Mr. Willett G. Baker served at one time but I don't know the dates.  I didn't find the information for the years in between, but in Feb. 1930 Ms. Florence Pope was post master and in Oct. 1930 Ms. Ruth C. Tipton assumed this position.  The post office was then across the highway on the west side.  Ms. Tipton was post master until the post office was closed on Dec. 31, 1954.

                                                               Article written by Carolyn McCrory Hadwin