Apalachicola is 175 years old this year and showing its age, which makes this port town worth the trip to the Panhandle.

More than 200 historic houses and buildings are clustered near the docks, testaments to the 1850s when the waterfront was lined with brick warehouses and broad streets to handle the unloading of cotton from steamboats from Southern towns upriver.

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IF YOU GO Getting there Apalachicola is about 350 miles from downtown Atlanta, about a 6 1/2-hour drive. Take I-75 south to Exit 62 toward U.S. 82/Sylvester/U.S. 319/Moultrie, then turn right to get on U.S. 82 east and turn right again onto U.S. 319 and drive about 85 miles, then turn left on U.S. 319 south toward Capital Circle/U.S. 319 south/I-10 east and stay on U.S. 319 south, then go straight onto U.S. 98 and drive another 50 miles to Apalachicola. Where to stay • Gibson Inn. 850-653-2191, www.gibsoninn.com. Rooms start at $85. Book early for Friday and Saturday nights, when a musician drives down from Tallahassee to sing Jimmy Buffett tunes on the veranda. • Coombs House Inn. 850-653-9199, www.coombshouseinn.com. Rates start at $99. The inn is celebrating its 101th anniversary this year. • Apalachicola River Inn. 850-653-8139, www.apalachicolariverinn.com. Rooms start at $60. The inn sits on pilings next to the water and has modest rooms with sloping floors, but you can't beat the water views. Ask for a room with a balcony so you can watch the shrimp boats pass by. Information Apalachicola Chamber of Commerce: 850-653-9419, www.apalachicolabay.org. Florida Special Section Mardi Gras at Universal Orlando  South Walton getaways  Ft. Myers super spa treatments  Diamond prizes in Key Biscayne  Tennis tour in Florida  Deep exhibition on Napoleon in Tallahassee  History, sea help Apalachicola reel 'em in  King Tut's treasures cast spell in Ft. Lauderdale  Birds find haven at nonprofit center in Keys  Orlando resort just lays on the luxury  Renaissance city: Ft. Lauderdale         More southeastern destinations

Shallow draft schooners shuttled the cargo to ships moored in the Gulf of Mexico.

Apalachicola offers a glimpse of Florida when cotton was king and this town, built at the mouth of the Apalachicola River, was the third largest port on the gulf.

Timber from large cypress forests in Franklin County further enriched the town in the late 1800s. Lumber magnates built many of the Victorian homes on the hill above the river.

By the end of the 19th century, oysters and seafood reigned, and today Franklin County harvests 90 percent of Florida's oysters. More than $15 million worth of shrimp, blue crab and finfish are brought to the docks annually.

Tourism is the newest industry. Shops and cafes are springing up in the old warehouses and town buildings for visitors who are starting to discover the atmospheric old seaport.

For a historic stay, the 99-year-old Gibson Inn is a good bet. You can drink a cold glass of sweet tea on the veranda as guests have for almost a century. The Gibson is not a house turned bed-and-breakfast, but a 30-room hotel built for the cotton and lumber titans who came to town.

Sisters Annie and Mary Ella Gibson bought the inn in 1917 and ran it until 1942 when the U.S. Army used it as an officers club.

The inn underwent a $1 million restoration in 1985, with meticulous attention to period details and Victorian furnishings. The rooms have white wrought-iron or four-poster beds, mahogany armoires from England and a few pine armoires rescued from Irish bogs. Polished heart-of-pine floors and black cypress woodwork show the inn's connections to the timber industry.

But the hotel also has modern creature comforts such as central air conditioning, cable TV and private baths.

An excellent restaurant on the first floor serves breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Guests are an eclectic mix of sunburned fishermen, snowbirds on their way farther south and Floridians on weekend getaways. They come to fish from the shore or by boat; to explore the marshy waterways by kayak, canoe or sailboat; to browse through the town's galleries and antique shops; and to tour the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve Center.

Apalachicola was spared most of the recent hurricanes except for Dennis, which flooded the streets and sent a 3-foot surge of water into the town's most famous restaurant, Boss Oyster, and the first floor of the Apalachicola River Inn.

But the town is repaired and back to normal, including Boss Oyster, where waitresses like to point out the water marks on the wall.

Cheryl Blackerby is travel editor of The Palm Beach (Fla.) Post.