Biohazard Cleanup Near West Interlachen Interlachen, FL

Interlachen is a small town in western Putnam County that was settled in the late 1870s, when the Florida Southern Railway opened the area to settlers, and was first known as Blue Pond.

A resident named Mr. Berkelmann renamed the town after Interlaken, Switzerland, because of its setting between lakes — the town's name literally reflects its position among Lake Lagonda, Lake Chipco and dozens of other lakes.

The Town of Interlachen was officially incorporated on January 24, 1888.

A post office opened in Interlachen in 1881, and the Hastings Seed House was organized there in 1889 before moving to Atlanta a decade later.

Interlachen boomed as a citrus-growing and winter-resort town, but the Great Freeze of 1895 sharply set back both its citrus groves and its tourism.

The first Interlachen Town Hall burned down in 1891; its 1892 replacement, now known as Interlachen Hall, still stands and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.

Interlachen Academy, built in 1895, is the oldest wooden schoolhouse in continuous use in Florida and today serves the Interlachen High School JROTC program.

The town first gained electricity in 1926, the same era when the highway now known as State Road 20 was built through it.

Interlachen covers about 6.4 square miles, roughly a tenth of it water, and is part of the Palatka micropolitan area.

Interlachen had 1,441 residents at the 2020 census, up slightly from 1,403 in 2010 — a remarkably stable population for a Florida town.