Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park, Historic homestead at Cross Creek, Florida.

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park is a rambling single-story wood-frame house at Cross Creek, its central core a 19th-century dogtrot. The facade has white horizontal board siding over a dark green lattice skirt, a porch with square white posts and railing, four large windows and a central green-framed screen door. A weathered gray shingle roof carries a brick chimney left of the ridge; two small wooden benches stand before a concrete block step and path.

The property began in 1929 as a citrus grove and became the home of a celebrated American writer. It was here that Rawlings created the award-winning work that established her literary reputation.

The house preserves the rural character of the 1930s with furniture, a typewriter, and kitchen items from Rawlings' years as a writer. The rooms show how the author created her works while living in this simple setting.

Visitors should be prepared for uneven ground and muddy paths around the buildings and grounds. It is best to wear comfortable shoes and allow time to explore both the house interior and the property surroundings.

The house's central core is a 19th-century dogtrot structure that Rawlings and her husband Charles enlarged after buying the 75-acre orange grove in 1929. Visitors can pick and sample oranges from the trees on the property, and staff in period clothing recount 1930s rural Florida life.