The office is a house built in 1853, located in the historic city of Bagdad, Florida (established 1842), close to Pensacola (established 1550) in Northwest Florida. The nearest cities are Milton and Pace, both bedroom towns for Pensacola.  But Bagdad is only 20 minutes from downtown Pensacola (interstate all the way), making it a quaint, yet accessible, hideaway from the hustle and bustle of the city.

Directions to the office from Pensacola & I-10:  Go East on I-10 from Pensacola and exit 26, Bagdad.  Turn left (north) and go 2 miles to downtown Bagdad.  The office is on the left (4621 Forsythe Street) directly across the street from the Thompson house, a two story white plantation house built in 1843.  Need a map?

Bagdad, named after the Middle East commerce town of the Renaissance now Baghdad, Iraq, was named by John Forsyth in 1842.   By the end of the century,  the city became an international commerce for lumber and the largest exporter of lumber in the state of Florida.  Most lumber was shipped around the world to ports in Europe, Cuba, South America and all ports on the Gulf and East Coast.  There were 63 businesses in Bagdad at the time and many thought the city was larger than the much older city of Pensacola 10 miles down the Blackwater River on Pensacola Bay.

An article appeared in the Press Gazette in 1929 stating, "Bagdad had lumber for another 100 years".  Ten years later the last piece of lumber was cut in the last mill and another year later WWII started.  Since no other industry had been started and most of the men went off to war, most people moved looking for work in Pensacola, Milton, South Alabama and North Florida and the city of Bagdad fell asleep. 

Today, thanks to many hard working people with vision, Bagdad is again opening its arms to those who understand the value of a grand past.  The Bagdad Village Preservation Association has been very instrumental in advancing the glory and honor of the once sleepy, and to some degree still sleepy, little village.  A museum has been established in an old Black church on Church St.  There you will find the history of Bagdad quaintly preserved in documents, photographs, artifacts and the last piece of wood cut at the last remaining mill in 1939 just before the doors closed on a magnificent era of American history.

Our office is built of heart pine lumber from virgin timber harvested and milled in the 19th century by one of the 3 major lumber mills in Bagdad.  The windows and sash are made of virgin Cypress from the swamps of the Blackwater Basin.  The floors and ceilings are of heart pine t&g planks.  The house was built for the foreman of the mill. 

Thereafter there has been only 3 other owners of the house: Hanses, Ingram, Nesbit, and now Johnson. It is nailed together with homemade nails and the brick for the piers and the fireplace were handmade on the Blackwater River a few hundred yards to the East. 

Restoration has finished on the Creole Cottage style house and with all the structures in downtown Bagdad, it is listed on the Florida Historical Directory.       

Office hours: 9 am - 5 pm Monday - Friday

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