24/7 Biohazard and Crime Scene Cleanup in Keystone Heights, FL

Keystone Heights began in 1917 as a tiny lakeside community called Brooklyn, located on Lake Brooklyn in southwestern Clay County.

Pittsburgh property developer John J. Lawrence fell for the area's many lakes, built the first house in the new town in 1920 overlooking Lake Geneva, and began laying out its streets and lots.

In 1922 the settlers — mostly families from New York and Pennsylvania — renamed the community Keystone Heights, and when it incorporated in 1925 it took its name from Pennsylvania's nickname, the 'Keystone State'.

The city's motto, 'Progress Since 1925,' marks that incorporation year.

Keystone Heights had 1,446 residents at the 2020 census, living in 556 households within just over one square mile of land.

The city is the principal community of Florida's Lake Region, an area of southwestern Clay, Bradford, Putnam and Alachua counties known for its many lakes, and it overlooks the north shore of Lake Geneva.

The Keystone Inn opened on New Year's Day 1923 and became the social heart of the town — the University of Florida football team even stayed there before homecoming games — but it burned down in 1954 and was never rebuilt; its site is now a park in front of City Hall.

A 'Moon Tree' grows at the Keystone Heights Library — an American sycamore grown from seeds that astronaut Stuart Roosa carried around the Moon aboard Apollo 14 in 1971, planted in the city in 1984.

Mike Roess Gold Head Branch State Park, one of Florida's earliest state parks when it opened in 1939, lies just north of the city off State Road 21.

Local students attend Keystone Heights Elementary School and Keystone Heights Junior/Senior High School, while Santa Fe College's Watson Center sits just outside the city limits.