Across from this site on People Street once stood the eight-room, "one story and a jump" house where the Hurston family lived. The Rev. John Hurston was the town's third mayor and the second pastor of Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church. His daughter, Zora Neale Hurston, became a widely acclaimed writer, folklorist, and cultural anthropologist, and she drew many details of her life in the house and surrounding community into Jonah’s Gourd Vine and Their Eyes Were Watching God. She remembered a large yard with chinaberry trees, Cape jasmine bushes, a big barn, Bermuda grass, and moonlight games played by village children. Just across Old Apopka Road, Joe Clarke's Store stood opposite the Hurston house from 1919 to 1929, selling groceries and general merchandise while also serving as the town's post office and town hall. Its front porch was a gathering place for stories, tall tales, riddles, and jokes, a "lying porch" that Zora called the heart and spring of the town.
