Owensboro developed at the intersection of two competing railroads when the South Florida Railroad, part of the Plant System and later the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, and the Florida Railway & Navigation Company, later the Florida Central & Peninsular Railway and eventually the Seaboard Air Line Railway, crossed here in 1887. A school stood here, and a post office operated from 1886 to 1899 and again from 1902 to 1906. The nearby Lutz Brothers Shingle Mill existed about 1895. After clay deposits were discovered, a brickyard and kiln began operating about 1907, producing bricks that sold for six dollars per thousand. In the 1920s, Micker & McLeod quarried rock and crushed limestone. Until modern rail technology arrived, a two-story frame switching station stood at the rail intersection. An overpass was built above the switching station and rails in 1948-49 when the federal highway was realigned. The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, now CSX Transportation, removed the Atlantic Coast Line tracks in the late 1980s, leading to the overpass's demolition. In 1989, the Senate of Florida acquired the former rail right-of-way and developed the Withlacoochee State Trail as a linear recreational greenway, with Owensboro becoming its southern terminus.