National Register of Historic Places

Marion Hotel

Ocala, Marion County, Florida
Listed
October 15, 1980
Type
Building
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
80000955

About this property

The Marion Hotel is a historic hotel in Ocala, Florida, United States. It is located at 108 North Magnolia Avenue. On October 16, 1980, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The manager of the hotel in the 1930s was Norton Baskin, a career hotelier originally from Union Springs, Alabama, who had worked in hotels in Atlanta and Valdosta, Georgia, and Lake Worth, Florida, before coming to Ocala in 1933. It was there that he met the author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, who was living nearby in the hamlet of Cross Creek. The story of their long courtship is told in the 1983 film Cross Creek, which featured Mary Steenburgen as Rawlings and Peter Coyote as Baskin. While Baskin managed the hotel, famous guests included actor W. C. Fields, novelist Sinclair Lewis, and journalist John Hersey. With money made from her bestselling novel The Yearling, Rawlings was able to invest in a hotel, run by Baskin, in St. Augustine, where the couple moved and married in 1941. In 2022 plans were announced to restore the Marion Hotel building as a boutique hotel, after decades serving as a bank and office building.

Location

108 N. Magnolia Ave.
Ocala, Marion County, Florida
29.18805, -82.13703

Categories

ARCHITECTURESOCIAL HISTORY
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Native Heritage
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Settlement
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Nearby Historic Sites

Ocala Historic Commercial District
Listed
0.2 mi
Tuscawilla Park Historic District
Listed
0.3 mi
Ocala Union Station
Civil War
0.3 mi
Mount Zion A.M.E. Church
Industrial
0.5 mi
Smith, E. C., House
Industrial
0.5 mi

Questions about this property

When was Marion Hotel listed on the National Register?

Marion Hotel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1980.

What type of historic resource is Marion Hotel?

Marion Hotel is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Marion Hotel?

The period of significance for Marion Hotel is recorded as the industrial era.

Can I research the history near Marion Hotel?

Yes. Aubrey Research reports search National Register listings, battlefield records, land patents, and other primary historical sources within any radius of a US address. A report for an address near Marion Hotel will include this listing and all other historical records in the area.

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