Trail Stops

600-758 SE 1st St, Gainesville, FL 32601

https://maps.app.goo.gl/wxWx7mSGgU2WBX6N9

     Site of the Tom Petty Alley sign, which is attached to a telephone pole at the intersection of SE 6th Ave. and SE 1st St. Down this dirt alleyway, which essentially is the terminus of SE 1st St., is the Tom Petty mural adjacent to Heartwood Soundstage. 

Photo by Rachel King

619 S Main St, Gainesville, FL 32601

https://maps.app.goo.gl/QSbbHQKdd5qwNzZ8A

     Site of mural of Tom Petty by artist Andrew Spear. To learn more about the artist, check out his Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/andrewjspear/

     The mural, is adjacent to Heartwood Soundstage, a concert venue that hosts the annual Tom Petty Weekend concerts.

     Note that this mural is on the west side of the end of a building that faces Heartwood Soundstage. If you are facing the stage, the mural is to your left as you look east. 

Photo by Shawn Murphy

34th Street, Gainesville, FL 32607

https://maps.app.goo.gl/g7uUDWpPRC9FQms37

     Constructed in 1979 as a functional wall to separate the University of Florida golf course from the widened road, it has become a Gainesville-centric concrete and paint canvas for graffiti artists. While murals on this 1,120-foot wall have come and gone for decades, you will now find two permanent memorial murals. One is to the five University of Florida students who were murdered by a serial killer in 1990 (note that Sadie Darnell, Tom Petty's cousin who served as a long-time Alachua County sheriff until her 2021 retirement, was the city police department's spokesperson at the time). Next to that, you will find the Tom Petty mural, which reads: “Love you always, Gainesville No. 1 Son, Thanks, Tommy.” 

     Read more about the wall at this Visit Gainesville site:

https://www.visitgainesville.com/arts-culture/meet-the-gainesville-graffiti-wall/#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20great%20offbeat,painting%20away%20on%20since%201979.

     The Tom Petty mural was created in October 2017 right after Tom Petty's death, but was defaced a few months later. It was then resurrected and maintained by local artist -- and fellow Tom Petty fan -- Blake Harrison from nearby Micanopy. 

    Harrison died of cancer in July 2024, as covered in this ABC affiliate WCJB's report:

https://www.wcjb.com/2024/07/22/tom-petty-muralist-dies-after-battle-with-cancer/

     Note that 34th Street is a busy four-lane road with no public parking near the mural, so plan accordingly. Your best bet is to find a place to park on the outskirts of the wall and walk down a sidewalk on either side of the street.

Photo by Shawn Murphy

1701 S Main St, Gainesville, FL 32601

https://maps.app.goo.gl/EQdW6Ntw4wTihgfw5

     Site of a Tom Petty mural that was created by local artist -- and fellow Tom Petty fan -- Blake Harrison from nearby Micanopy. This article, from the May/June 2018 issue of Our Town Magazine, profiles Harrison and his tribute mural: https://issuu.com/towerpublications/docs/otgv_2018-03-may-june/52 

     Blake Harrison died of cancer in July 2024, as covered in this ABC affiliate WCJB's report:

https://www.wcjb.com/2024/07/22/tom-petty-muralist-dies-after-battle-with-cancer/

     Note that this mural is on the south side of the building on the east side of South Main Street where it intersects with SW 16th Avenue. There is no parking near the mural at this busy intersection. Your best bet is to find a place to park on opposite sides of the intersection at the various retail businesses there. Use the crosswalks for safety.

Photo by Shawn Murphy

 224 NW 8th Ave, Gainesville, FL 32601

https://maps.app.goo.gl/rkyNXxLKLtDtVGbB7

     Site of a Tom Petty mural on the west side of a building behind a fence for a now defunct business (B Side Vintage, a music store). You can see it from the sidewalk, though -- unless the stars align and the gate just happens to be wide open, as it was for me in December 2024.

Photo by Shawn Murphy

513 E University Ave, Gainesville, FL 32601

https://maps.app.goo.gl/UqSfR4xt7wZJeQeS9

     While today this is the Matheson History Museum, this building was once the American Legion Hall. It is where there were once held dances and concerts for the youth of Gainesville.  As a teenager, Tom Petty attended numerous concerts by local bands here. And it is where he performed while he was a  student in his early bands, the Sundowners and the Epics. 

     If buildings could tell stories, this one would tell you that one night while Tom and neighborhood friend Keith Harben, both 15 at the time, were at an event here, they left in a friend's car to go to a nearby convenience store where Tom and Keith each acquired -- and downed -- a quart of Miller beer. 

     "We shared our first beers together," Keith told me, and "we got pretty wasted."

     And if buildings could talk, you might hear the story about the night that 15-year-old Tom Petty lost his virginity. Keith, who was with Tom that night, told me that Tom left on foot with a date with whom he later reported to have lost his virginity. While I was shown the building in which Tom reportedly went with this girl, and shown a school class picture of her, that information shall stay in my mind and notes.

     Today this is a regional history museum with an adjacent library that houses some artifacts related to Tom Petty. This includes a copy of The Hurricane, Petty's high school yearbook in which you will find his class picture and feature photos of Gainesville bands, including the Epics.  

     The museum has also curated exhibitions about Petty, as it did in in fall 2019 and winter 2020 with an exhibit titled "Tom Petty’s Gainesville: Where Dreams Began," as noted in this Gainesville Downtown webpage:

https://gainesvilledowntown.com/2019/11/matheson-museum-honors-tom-petty-with-first-music-related-exhibit/

     In spring 2024, the museum unveiled its Great Southern Music Hill exhibit that included artifacts about Tom Petty and Mudcrutch, Stan Lynch and Road Turkey, and Archer resident Bo Diddley. 

Photo by Shawn Murphy

811 S. Main St., Gainesville, FL 32601

https://maps.app.goo.gl/AJ8SqkZhF8MDc8Gr9

     Since its opening in 2018, the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention has periodically hosted Tom Petty exhibits, including one from June through October 2024, titled "Tom Petty: Among the Wildflowers," where artifacts on loan from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, were displayed. For further information about current exhibits and getting timed-entry tickets, go here: https://cademuseum.org/visit/whatson/ 

     While the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame should generally be on your bucket travel list, you can explore what's there at their website:

https://rockhall.com/

     To learn more about Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' 2002 induction into the HOF, go here:

https://rockhall.com/inductees/tom-petty-and-heartbreakers/

     At the above link, you can watch Jakob Dylan deliver the induction speech, watch the Heartbreakers individually comment on their induction,  and watch the band perform "American Girl" and "Mary Jane's Last Dance." In addition, you can read the Hall of Fame essay by rock journalist Bill Flanagan, today a host of "Flanagan's Wake" on Sirius XM's Tom Petty Radio.

Graphic courtesy of Cade Museum

1220 SE Veitch St, Gainesville, FL 32601

https://maps.app.goo.gl/kL3e65Wo3CtTDJo99

     This brewery periodically brews "Learning to Rye," a rye IPA "that is as unique as Gainesville's native son" -- of course Tom Petty! On the wall inside the brewery you can find a poster for this beer. The description of the beer at the brewer's website can be found here: https://fmbrewing.com/beers/learning-to-rye/ 

     Also a good place to have a conversation about Petty with some nice folks, as I found out.

Photo by Shawn Murphy

3650 SW 42nd Ave, Gainesville, FL 32608

https://maps.app.goo.gl/i9mvVeEWR5xgcYbr7

     This brewery has canned "Among the Wildflowers," an American kolsch made in honor of Gainesville's Tom Petty. You can read about this special beer in this Gainesville Sun article:

https://www.gainesville.com/story/news/local/2018/09/26/swamp-head-to-release-tom-petty-beer/9969916007/#:~:text=The%20can's%20design%20says%20%E2%80%9CAmong,Petty's%201994%20hit%20%E2%80%9CWildflowers.%E2%80%9D

Photo courtesy of Swamp Head Brewery

30 N Main St, Gainesville, FL 32601

https://maps.app.goo.gl/pvTiK343L9wBArrw5

     This downtown restaurant has a standing menu item in its burgers section. Named in honor of Gainesville's Tom Petty, the "Tom Patty Melt" is served with bacon, sauteed onions, Swiss cheese and a "top secret sauce." 

Photo of The Top menu from website

9 W University Ave, Gainesville, FL 32601

https://maps.app.goo.gl/mWq89SLBXwMqfYPt8

     Kin Cocktail Bar in downtown Gainesville has offered a Tom Petty tribute cocktail, the mezcal-based Full Moon Fever, which also serves to pay homage to Dub’s, the music venue that was once located at 4562 NW 13th St. (now a Social Security building) where Mudcrutch – the precursor to the Heartbreakers – once had a standing nightly gig. Dub’s was, by all accounts, also where patrons in the early 1970s were much more likely to drink cheap beer than fancy cocktails!

    "Full Moon Fever is a tribute to Dub’s, the hallowed ground in Gainesville where Tom Petty made his start," the bar noted in a social media post about this special cocktail, which is described like this: "Made with mezcal, Amaro Averna, grapefruit, lime, salted sage honey and turmeric bitters, this legendary cocktail is served with an Ice Doctor collins cube and tastes like rock’n’roll."

     To see a photograph of the deep orange-colored cocktail with its oversized ice cube, which is adorned with a silver-colored g clef music symbol and a black tassel, see Kin Cocktail Bar's Instagram post here:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DACODDhupXs/?hl=en 

Photo of Kin Cocktail Bar menu from website

124 SW 62nd St, Gainesville, FL 32607

https://maps.app.goo.gl/LWNTzHD4QQ1WS12G7

     On the west side of Gainesville, near Interstate 75, is an apartment complex called The Earl, where the owners have embraced their native son, Tom Petty, by including on its website a Tom Petty tourism page. They also feature apartment floorplans that they claim to be inspired by Tom Petty.

     To see The Earl’s Tom Petty tribute page, go here:

https://www.theearl.apartments/tom-pettys-gainesville-roots

     And to see the “Tom Petty inspired floorplans,” go here:

https://www.theearl.apartments/floorplans

     While it is unknown to me why the apartment complex was named The Earl, that name was ever-present in the life of Tom Petty -- or Thomas Earl Petty -- as he explained to Paul Zollo for the book Conversations With Tom Petty: "My dad's middle name was Earl. My grandmother of my mother's side's ex-husband's name was Earl. My mother's sister married two guys named Earl. First husband named Earl, no good; then she married another guy named Earl And my middle name is Earl. My grandmother (maternal grandmother Troas H. Avery) would not say the name 'Earl.' She thought it was some kind of jinx. She called my dad 'Petty.' And my uncle, they called him Jernigan, 'cause his name was Earl Jernigan. And she referred to him as Jernigan and my dad as Petty, because her ex had been named Earl. She didn't like my father at all, because he was a wild, gambling drinker guy. And her other daughter had two husbands named Earl. It was a trip" (pg. 8).

Photo courtesy of The Earl