Spring Hill, also known as Southwest DeLand CDP (census designated place), is one of at least five local historic Black communities that settled in the vicinity of DeLand, Florida after the American Civil War. Following the end of the Jim Crow era, other distinctive historically Black neighborhoods such as Red City and Little Africa dissipated and largely faded from public memory, while Spring Hill remained active and vibrant, with its name becoming something of a catch-all term for the area’s African American community at-large, thus encompassing neighborhood landmarks outside of Spring Hill’s technical borders. Yet for a variety of reasons, Spring Hill’s population numbers continue to shrink each year, and a number of local businesses are shutting their doors.
The Malcolm Bradley and Gary Monroe Spring Hill Collection is an attempt to capture the essence of Spring Hill and other historic Black neighborhoods of DeLand as they exist today, a pivotal moment of transition. Beginning in 2024, Malcolm Bradley and Gary Monroe started working together to capture moments in time in the lives of Spring Hill’s residents, as well as to document historic buildings, sites, and happenings in the neighborhood. This collection includes photographs taken by Gary Monroe, recordings of community events, and oral histories with Spring Hill community members conducted by Malcom Bradley.
Malcolm Bradley was born and raised in DeLand, Florida. He received his AA from Daytona State College in 2017, and graduated from Bethune-Cookman University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 2021. Bradley works as a licensed real estate agent with Keller Williams Realty Winter Park, a role he’s held since 2020, specializing in helping people buy and sell homes in Volusia County and the surrounding areas. Inspired by his uncles and others who serve as pastors and community leaders in DeLand, Bradley began interviewing people who he saw making an impact on the community, such as businesspeople, politicians, pastors, and entertainers. While at Bethune-Cookman University, his focus shifted to telling positive stories surrounding HBCUs, Black history, and Black history museums. Today his passion remains telling stories about Black history in all its forms, and his dream is to one day bring those stories to life by shooting a film.
Gary Monroe, a native of Miami Beach, received a master's degree in fine arts from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1977. Upon returning home, he photographed the old-world Jewish community that characterized South Beach for a decade, until it vanished. From 1984 through 2000 he photographed throughout Haiti and later looked at tourism across Florida, especially the "rite of passage" of vacationers at Disney World. Monroe has photographed throughout Florida and "wanders aimlessly" to photograph in other countries, including Brazil, Israel, Cuba, India, Trinidad, Poland, England and Egypt. At the turn of the millennium, he photographed the transformation of the landscape due to corporate-driven development. He is currently photographing in Miami and DeLand’s Spring Hill community.
Monroe has received grants from Miami-Dade County, the State of Florida, the Florida Humanities Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Fulbright Foundation. His life's work is housed at Emory University’s Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library.
