Instructions:
1....Print this file.
2....At its end, click on "rules" to see a copy of the trail rules, print it, and then click where indicated at the end of the 3-page rules and patch order form to get back to the list of Florida trails.
3....If you want a hand-drawn map showing the locations of all of the sites, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to Steve Rajtar, 1614 Bimini Dr., Orlando, FL 32806.
4....Hike the trail and order whatever patches you like (optional).
WARNING - This trail may pass through one or more neighborhoods which, although full of history, may now be unsafe for individuals on foot, or which may make you feel unsafe there. Hikers have been approached by individuals who have asked for handouts or who have inquired (not always in a friendly manner) why the hikers are in their neighborhood. Drugs and other inappropriate items have been found by hikers in some neighborhoods. It is suggested that you drive the hike routes first to see if you will feel comfortable walking them and, if you don't think it's a good place for you walk, you might want to consider (1) traveling with a large group, (2) doing the route on bicycles, or (3) choosing another hike route. The degree of comfort will vary with the individual and with the time and season of the hike, so you need to make the determination using your best judgment. If you hike the trail, you accept all risks involved.
The Fruitland Park Library began in 1916 when books were donated by the Bosanquet and Dwight families. Twenty years later, it became a community library, supported jointly by the women of St. Paul's Catholic Church, Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, and the Community Methodist Church. Several sizable donations were made in memory of Mrs. Hugo Friedrich, a winter resident interested in the library.
The library was incorporated in 1966 and the books were organized and catalogued in 1970. It obtained its first salaried librarian in 1970.
A home here belonged to the Bickley family, winter residents from Swampscott, Massachusetts, when Mirror Lake Dr. was known as Victoria Ave. In 1924, the house was bought by Mr. and Mrs. David Hammond.
At this intersection, N.F. Butler operated a general store. Later, he sold his stock to C.N. Chesshire, who moved it to another building he erected. The property was later acquired by Dr. Alden.
Since the name "Fruitland" was already taken by another post office in Florida, the postal authorities in 1885 disallowed "Fruitland Park". However, since the railroad had already printed up materials with that name on it, the railroad station remained Fruitland Park even though the post office was called Gardenia. Therefore, freight was sent to Fruitland Park and mail was sent to Gardenia, and both arrived in the same community. In 1888, the postal authorities gave in and allowed the post office to be called Fruitland Park.
Carrie Smith served as the first postmaster. The original building used as the post office was moved in 1885 from Miller's Pond by a wagon and mule team, and placed at the edge of Berckman St. It was later moved back from the curb to its present location.
For a short time, the building was the home of the Methodist Church.
An establishment was opened here in 1916 by J. Vickers-Smith and family. It included a general store, and had a reputation for serving excellent food. Later, it became known as the Park Inn Apartments, owned by Mr. and Mrs. Jack Blake.
In 1884, Samual F. Smith and his family moved here from Marietta, Ohio, and bought this home. The homestead was later owned by their son, George R. Smith, and later their granddaughter, Minnie, and her husband, James H. Bass.
The first store in Fruitland Park was opened here in the fall of 1884 by J.H. Stallings and B.F. Boan, and was moved to another location on Berckman St. the following year. In 1887, Jonathan Clark moved the old store building back to use as a warehouse, and built a new one here for $5,000. His son, George T. Clark, managed the store.
Some years later, the Merrilees, Older & Foote firm bought the stock of A.W. Linville's company store on Spring Lake and opened their business here. It was the first store in the area to have a plate glass front. The store burned down on December 24, 1890.
The property was later bought by the Hammond family, who operated a store in it for 19 years. As Hammond & Gordon, it sold feed and fertilizer in the early 1900s. It was later known as the D.F. Hammond Co. The site was acquired by N.C. Bosworth, who sold the building to J. Vickers-Smith, who later moved the building to become a part of the Park Inn.
This home was built by Mr. and Mrs. Bosworth, who were later members of the English Colony. They left it to their daughter, Mrs. Harry Watkins, and she sold it to Maj. and Mrs. Frank Griffin.
After a year at their first location, Stallings and Boan moved to a building here owned by Mrs. Kingsley. It was sold in 1887 to A.T. Reed, who sold it to Mr. Daniels. He sold it to W.L. Challoner Mahon, who placed B.F. Boan in charge. Mahon, who later became the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, then moved the store to the first Stallings & Boan location. George T. Clark soon bought a half interest in the store.
At the time that acreage was being provided for the railroad, F.X. Miller of Gainesville donated 80 acres of it, three of which were to be set aside for a school.
The first schoolhouse was built in 1885 to handle 11 students, replacing the classes previously held in the Kingsley family store. Its one room was heated by a cast iron stove. A well was drilled to provide water at recess time.
In 1915, the growing student population necessitated the construction of a larger, two-room, school here. A brick veneer was added during the 1930s. It later served as the library and in the 1970s was remodeled into the City Hall, later replaced by this larger structure.
Fruitland Park incorporated as a town on December 14, 1925. The town government held its early meetings in the Casino and the Hammond Company Office.
This congregation organized with twelve members on December 20, 1884, with Rev. G.W. Butler as its pastor. As the first church in Fruitland Park, the congregation included many non-Methodists. A new building was rented on the corner of Cottage (now College) Ave. and Berckman St., which had been designed as a store.
The church building was erected in 1886-87. Jonathan Clark donated the bell. The first building burned in 1934, and a rebuilt one was dedicated on June 15, 1935. These were later sold to the United Pentecostal Church.
Built in 1906 on Berckman St., this was the home of F.H. Whitney, who arrived here three years before with Dr. and Mrs. Eben Alden. This became the social center of the new settlement. The Whitneys bought other properties and tore down unsightly buildings, and resold tracts with restrictions to assure proper construction.
This home was bought by Everett Smith in about 1925, and he had it moved to this location. In 1938, it was bought by Mr. and Mrs. Harold Davenport, who remodeled it.
This school opened in 1965 as Fountain Park Elementary, replacing the building later remodeled as the City Hall.
Dr. Woodruff came here from Philadelphia and became the town's first practicing physician. He built and lived in a house at this intersection. Dr. Woodruff died on November 28, 1886, and was succeeded as the town doctor by Dr. A. Mahlin.
About five acres were acquired here in 1959 for the new site of the Methodist Church. George R. Smith added a lot on the corner of College Ave. and Fountain St. for construction of a parsonage in the memory of his wife, Minnie Walton Smith, who had died in 1944. Grizzard Hall, named after C.T. Grizzard, was built in 1962 and a new sanctuary was completed in 1964. It has been superceded by a newer one.
Mr. and Mrs. S.F. Smith donated the 1 3/4 acres for this nondenominational cemetery on March 24, 1887. It had formed part of their Old Plantation Farm. The first interment was either that of Mr. Elwell or Mary V. Butler, each of whom died in 1896 before the deed to the Fruitland Park Cemetery Association was finalized.
Prior to that time, burials took place on the Holy Trinity Episcopalian grounds or at Lone Oak Cemetery in Leesburg.
A community was established here by Granville Chetwynd Stapleton, C.F. Herford and H.S. Budd, as a partnership known as Stapleton and Company. They also helped develop Fruitland Park. Stapleton bought the old Henderson Tanner property on Skillet Pond, later renamed Zephyr Lake.
On the lake shore, a large boarding house was built and named "Zephyr Hall" or "The Hall", surrounded by a grove of mandarin oranges. Stables were provided and the American, British and Colonial Racing Association was formed, with its first organized races in 1887. Residents participated in fox hunts, played golf, and enjoyed the recreation center at the beach.
Citrus groves established in the early 1880s in the area included that of Villier Chernock Smith at Spring Lake and the Bosanquet nurseries and grove.
The Bucket and Dipper Club was formed by English residents. To join, one had to be of British birth, or be born of British subjects. At the clubhouse were parties, dances, meetings, and theatrical productions. The only refreshment allowed was a dipper of water from a bucket.
This was the first black church in Fruitland Park, located in a log cabin on the northwest side of Zephyr Lake. In 1883, it was relocated to Spring Lake Rd. The present sanctuary was originally built in 1891, while Rev. Alfred Brown was the pastor.
This area was the home of the black Tanner family, including Sam, Martin, Henry and Henderson. Each homesteaded 160 acres.
Some early church services were held in The Hall near Zephyr Lake, which served as the bachelor quarters of the English Colony. A temporary church was set up near Lake Geneva.
This acre of land was bought from Sam Tanner. The first burial on these grounds took place in December of 1887, before the church was built. The Carpenter Gothic style church building was designed by J.J. Nevitt and built by E. Thompson. It cost $2,150 and opened with its first service on December 2, 1888, led by Rector Joseph Julian. His grave is located in the church cemetery.
The church furnishings were donated by Rev. and Mrs. J.C.W. Tasker. The first bishop's chair was made and donated by Mr. Luther, a cabinet maker. A second matching one was given in memory of Ida Clark.
The famous "lych gate" was the gift of Emily Tatham in 1889. It is a replica of those found in British and European churchyards, used as a resting place for a coffin prior to the clergyman meeting the procession to accompany it to the burial site. This is the oldest such gate in Florida, and there is only one other in the state. "Lich", from which the name for the gate comes, is Scottish for "corpse".
Many of the altar hangings and vestments were made by four sisters of John Vickers-Smith. In the old pine trees may be found iron hitching rings for the horses of the parishioners, some of whom would then head to the race track after the service. A stable sat on the northwest corner of the churchyard.
Although there is the typical Gothic peaked roof, it is unusual in that this church does not have staid pillars along the sides to support it. It features a gable roof, three entry porches with clustered columns, decorated pediments, and verge boards.
This church was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
On July 3, 1886, a group of young English men who came to this area to plant groves established an Episcopal church. Their early services were held in the Vickers-Smith barn near here, between Fruitland Park and the settlement of Chetwynd. The first baptisms were performed in Lake Geneva.
Near the temporary church set up in 1886, a vicarage was built in 1961 for the pastor of the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church. When Rev. Fred Paddock arrived that year, he became the church's first full-time rector. Prior to that, Holy Trinity as a mission had to share with other Episcopal churches.
A short distance north of here was a little community promoted by W.H. Morrison in 1886 on behalf of a New York syndicate. At its peak, it had seven or eight stores in the vale of Chetwynd (now Booths') Hill, the Chetwynd Arms Hotel and several residences near Lake Ella. Near the railroad, P.F. Dietz ran the post office and general store.
The settlement was named after Granville Chetwynd Stapleton, a promoter of the English Colony at Fruitland Park. It was unrelated to the settlement of the same name on Zephyr Lake actually started by Stapleton. The venture was unsuccessful and was abandoned after a short time.
In about 1884, A.W. Linville of Philadelphia opened a store near here, owned by a stock company. It was patronized by many members of the English Colony. After Linville died in November of 1889, the store was managed for a time by Mr. Routledge, and then the stock was sold to Merrilees, Older & Foote, who moved it to the Clark building in Fruitland Park in 1890. This land was later acquired by W.M. Selfe.
Near here was the home of Granville Chetwynd Stapleton before it was purchased on April 10, 1893, by R.F.E. "Frank" Cooke. Cooke, who moved here in 1886 at age 23 from Norwich, England, survived the freezes of 1894 and 1895 and established a packing house in Leesburg. He became a banker and prominent businessman.
Mr. and Mrs. W.G. Dwight of Holyoke, Massachusetts, moved here and for a time stayed with Mr. and Mrs. W.T. Dean. In 1915, they bought this property from C.W. Johnson and built their home, known as Pine Eden. It was known for its beautiful gardens and for the hospitality of the Dwights. An annual garden party was held here for the benefit of the Holy Trinity Church. The home was later acquired by Mr. and Mrs. Ray Mattiucci of Michigan. It was replaced by a recent home for the Baker family.
The Perry family owned one of the community's oldest homes here, by 1915 owned by C.W. Johnson. In earlier years, it was the residence of Dr. A. Mahlin.
Fruitland Park was named by Maj. O.P. Rooks of Cincinnati for the Fruitland Nurseries located in Augusta, Georgia. This street was named after his friend, J.P. Berckman, who owned those nurseries.
George T. Clark built a three-story hotel here in 1907, including a basement furnace room. There were 30 guest rooms and six bathrooms in the central portion, and part of the east wing was an apartment occupied by Mr. and Mrs. E.N. Hall. In the west wing were the dining room and kitchen. A building formerly owned by Mr. and Mrs. C.N. Chesshire was converted into the dining room, its front wall with its large windows facing Berckman St. This was one of the earliest places to have a telephone in Fruitland Park.
After 1913, the hotel was used exclusively by the Lake County Land Owners' Association for its prospective buyers. Salesmen met the trains and brought people back to the hotel to discuss real estate opportunieis.
During the late 1920s, the property was sold to Mr. Duggan, who removed the top two stories and eliminated the east and west wings. What remained was a six-room house which became the residence of Frances Vogel in 1941. What had been the lobby was turned into a living room and bedroom.
The casino was built in 1914 by George T. Clark, and was used for all kinds of community gatherings. It had a large stage, dressing rooms, steam heat, running water, and electric lights. Mr. and Mrs. W.G. Dwight bought the building from Clark and donated it to the city as a recreation center, renovated during the 1970s.
Mrs. Rooks sold John D. Robertson acres of virgin pine land in 1904, and he erected a turpentine still here. he built a commissary and other distillery buildings at the corner of Berckman St. and Montclair Rd., and ran the distillery until May of 1906. He then sold it to the Fussel brothers, who in 1908 sold it to Harrison and Bragdon. In 1910, it was bought by the Lake, Land and Lumber Company, a North Carolina corporation.
This home was built in 1912 by Josiah A. Lee. Additions have been made, but much of the original structure is still intact.
The Florida government in 1875 sent Capt. Kendricks, a lecturer, to travel throughout the northern part of the U.S. and give talks about the advantages of living in Florida. Two people who attended the lecture in Cincinnati were Orlando P. and Josephine Rooks. Maj. Rooks was in poor health and was already considering a move.
Kendrick's description of the area as high hammock land sloping to the shores of beautiful Lake Harris, with gigantic live oaks and native orange trees, was tempting. The Rooks family decided to visit and buy the tract, known as Eldorado.
They arrived in Jacksonville in 1876, took a boat to Silver Springs, and rode by hack to Leesburg. Maj. Rooks was impressed with the high pineland north of Leesburg and bought it instead of Eldorado.
Rooks built his home on the shore of this lake in 1877. In it, their son Frederick was born in 1882, making him the first white child born in Fruitland Park.
Rooks was a horticulturalist, with a nursery covering several acres, the first one in Fruitland Park. He was successful with olives, pineapples and citrus. In 1887, he patented a preparation for the preservation of oranges.
Mrs. Rooks kept the house until 1918, when it was sold to George Schlosser of New York.
A state agriculturalist was sent here in 1930 to find a site for a cotton gin and storage building, and they were built here that same year. The gin burned in 1936, but the shed was saved.
Jonathan Clark of Chicago visited here in 1885, meeting Maj. Rooks in Ocala and accompanying him back to here. He bought a tract here for a citrus grove. In 1887, his son, George, arrived and bought a half interest in the W.L.C. Mahon Store. Another son, J.Y., arrived in 1889.
Jonathan and J.Y. spent the winter of 1892 working on this property, which they named Palm Villa, and erecting a barn. In 1893, they built a house here, with interior woodwork that was prepared in Chicago and shipped here. Most of the interior trim was made from solid mahogany logs that came from Manila to New York as ship's ballast, and then were purchased by a Chicago mill man.
After Jonathan died in 1902, J.Y. took over the property and remained until moving to Leesburg in 1907. J.Y. was the first to have a plumbing and sewerage system on his property, later expanding his personal system to cover the Gardenia Hotel and other residents.
In 1876, Mr. and Mrs. J.W. Kennedy of Charleston, Illinois, came here and set out a 40-acre grove, at the time the largest in the area. When Mr. Kennedy died, the 20 acres north of the clay road on Crystal Lake were sold to Clate Atkinson, and the 20 acres to the south (bordering on Myrtle Lake) were sold to George Thomas. The two portions were reunited by A.T. Beman, who acquired both by mid-1894.
P.S. Bouknight, a son-in-law of Leesburg's Joseph Lee, had his homestead in 1876 on the shore of Croft Pond, now known as Mirror Lake. His small log house near this site made him the first white settler in what is now Fruitland Park.
This home was built in 1883 by W.A. Rooks. He had come here earlier in the year and bought the homestead rights from Judge Rufus H. Williams. In 1887, he sold the home for $75,000 to Charles Fox and his son-in-law, G.B. Everett, from Atlanta, Georgia.
In January of 1910, Mr. and Mrs. E.H. Friedrich bought it as a winter home. Mr. Friedrich was instrumental in bringing electricity to Fruitland Park from Leesburg, and he sponsored a golf club here. A later owner of this home was Dr. M.A. Cox, who bought it in 1966.
To entice the Florida Southern Railroad to run through the town, Maj. O.P. Rooks and others granted the railroad 160 acres. This was incentive to alter the railroad's original plans, which would have had the railroad passing on the other side of the Dead River, to the east. The surveyor for the railroad, George A. Long, surveyed the townsite and platted it in 1883.
The first depot was built on the west side of the tracks on two acres donated by Thomas Hyatt. After a land dispute between G.T. Clark and the railroad company, it was moved to the east side. It was later torn down. Mr. Hester served as the first Fruitland Park station agent.
The initial narrow gauge line came here from Ocala, reached Fruitland Park on December 15, 1883, and made it to Leesburg before the end of the year. The first passenger train passed through in January. The Florida Southern Railway was acquired by the Plant System in 1895, and by the Atlantic Coast Line in 1902. In 1896, the entire 260 miles of track were modified to standard gauge in a single day.
The 423 acres which now comprise the park were covered with virgin timber until the 1920s. After that time, most of it was under cultivation. Buggy parts and a mule skeleton have been found here. This opened as a park in 1963.
The lake was used by Indians as a stopping point on travels downstream on the Ocklawha River, Lake George and the St. John's River, on trading trips to the coast or the northern part of the state.
The lake was named after a man named Griffin, who lived between Fruitland Park and Leesburg near Miller Pond. According to one report, a cold snap in December of 1868 produced a layer of ice on it 1 1/2 inches thick.
This building was erected for use as the post office in 1961. It later became the home of the American Legion post.
This building was, for a time, used as the post office until a more modern one was constructed in 1961. For a time, it was also the Maytag Appliance Store.
A Guide to National Register Sites in Florida, (Florida Department of State 1984)
About Some Lakes and More in Lake County, by Walter Sime (1995)
Florida Historical Markers & Sites, by Floyd E. Boone (Gulf Publishing Company 1988)
Florida's History Through Its Places: Properties in the National Register of Historic Places, by Morton D. Winsberg (Florida State University 1988)
Guide to Florida's Historic Architecture, (University of Florida Press 1989)
Heritage, Faith, Challenge: Fruitland Park's Centennial, (City of Fruitland Park 1976)
The History of Fruitland Park, Florida, by Lillian D. Vickers-Smith (Fruitland Park Chamber of Commerce 1950)
History of Lake County, Florida, by William T. Kennedy (Lake County Historical Society 1988)
Lake County, Florida: A Pictorial History, by Emmett Peter, Jr. (The Donning Company 1994)