Lichgate is One of Tallahassee’s Hidden Gems.
This quiet park on High Road between Tharpe and Tennessee Streets is unknown even to many long-term Tallahassee residents. The entrance can be hard to find even when you put the address in your GPS. That address, by the way, is 1401 High Road, Tallahassee, FL 32304.
The History of Lichgate Park
In medieval times, a lichgate was a roofed gateway at the entrance to the church’s cemetery. The labyrinth near the Tudor cottage is also from the medieval period. Then labyrinths combined art and design and suggested a form of meditation to find yourself and return to your path.
From their website Lichgate on High:
“Dr. Laura Jepsen was a Florida State University English professor. She was an exceptional scholar–whose areas of expertise were on Tolstoy, Greek tragedy, and Shakespeare. Laura Jepsen was honored with an exhibit at the Davenport School museum to display the history of Davenport determination and educational excellence.
But she is most remembered for her lovingly built English Tudor Cottage–Lichgate on High Road. She had the vision to build what is documented as Florida’s only example of 16th Century Tudor-style architecture. She built it on 3 acres specifically to protect the site’s unusual matriarch oak, recognized by the Smithsonian Project to celebrate each state’s significant trees. Lichgate on High Road was placed on the United States National Registry of Historic Places on March 31, 2006.”
You can find lots of cool photos on their website here: Lichgate on High Rd
