Crystal River Old Town
— the low brick storefronts the bay built.
Not only on a wall.
Crystal River Old Town, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
“The few blocks of brick storefronts that grew up around the springhead in the early 1900s. Crystal River was incorporated in 1903; the old town sits between Kings Bay and US 19, a short walk from the water. Live oak shades the sidewalks. The pace is small-Gulf-town, with the bay light at the end of every west-running street.
The place, in three passes.
Crystal River sits in Citrus County on Florida's Gulf coast, about seventy miles north of Tampa. The town was incorporated in 1903 and grew up around Kings Bay and the spring system that became the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge in 1983. The historic core runs a few blocks along Citrus Avenue and NW 1st Avenue, just east of the bay. The 2020 census put the population at about 3,400. The downtown ends at the water at Hunter Springs Park.
The historic district is walkable in an afternoon. Citrus Avenue runs east from the bay through the older commercial blocks and meets US 19 at the south edge of town. Most shops keep daytime hours from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and close on Sundays. The Coastal Heritage Museum, in the old city hall on NE 1st Avenue, holds the town's archive. Parking is free along the side streets. The Three Sisters Springs Center sits at the north end of the district.
The salt-air-and-spring-water mix is specific to Citrus County. The Gulf is six miles west by river, and the springs run cool through Kings Bay every day of the year, so the downtown air sits about ten degrees lower than the inland heat of Inverness in midsummer. Live oaks draped with Spanish moss line the older blocks. The cypress at the edge of Hunter Springs Park keeps mosquitoes down at dusk. A working shrimp boat still ties up at the city dock.
