The Chateau sits behind a lumberyard's worth of columns and picket railings, an impressive two stories raised up off the ground surrounded by verandas, the whole of it glaring white and lacking only paddlewheels to hint at churning its way down the Mississippi. Betty Land regrets the new courthouse isn't as pretty as it recently had been, because the fellow who tended the flowers around it was transferred to the county landfill. By contrast with Mayo, downtown Live Oak in Suwannee County shows vital signs. Antique dealers are moving into vacant storefronts on Howard Street, exterior gimcrackery from the '50s is being removed to show original brick again. At the Dixie Grill, morning coffee is a daylong affair.
Locals carry home whole fresh-baked pies.
A scattering of architectural treasures provides a downtown trace of Live Oak's heritage. The yellow-brick Suwannee County Courthouse nearing a century of use combines features of Georgian and Queen Anne styles. City Hall occupies a 1908 symmetrical, mansardlike structure with Italianate details. An old brick freight station has been converted to a historical museum where displays include a moonshine still. Summers, people come from everywhere to dive Suwannee County's 30 springs and tube the Ichetucknee River.