Downtown Ocala

The film on this site’s homepage opens on the downtown square, and that is not an accident — the square is the center of gravity for the whole county. Ocala is Marion County’s seat, and its downtown is the rare Florida downtown that stayed alive: a genuine town square ringed with restaurants and bars, live oaks over the sidewalks, and events most weekends of the year. The First Friday Art Walk fills the blocks around the square every month, and the square itself hosts everything from farmers markets to the holiday lighting.

A few blocks out, the Ocala Historic District carries some of the oldest housing stock in this part of Florida — Victorian and early-1900s homes on brick streets, a completely different product from the concrete-block ranch homes most of Marion County builds. Tuscawilla Park and the Reilly Arts Center (home of the Ocala Symphony Orchestra) anchor the north edge, and the Marion Theatre, a restored 1941 cinema, still runs films a block off the square.

Living downtown means walking to dinner — and it also means the smallest inventory in the county. Homes inside the historic district come up rarely and draw attention when they do. Shane’s team office is at 40 SW 1st Ave, on the square itself; if downtown is the goal, this is the area where knowing about a listing early matters most.