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Villa City: 20 promotional photographs

A series of twenty promotional photographs for Villa City, FL, dated to 1889. Villa City is a former community in Lake County, FL, that is now a ghost town. It was a citrus growing area in the late 19th century with dozens of homes and a post office until it got hit by a hard freeze in February 1895.

Originally called Millford Villa City, the town was founded in the early 1880's by George T. King of Massachusetts. King, looking for a place to spend the winter months, stood atop the highest hill and name most of the lakes for family members: Emma, Arthur, and Lucy. In June of 1884 he bought nine hundred acres for $297,82 and began plotting a town. His villa was the first to be built on the highest part of the hill between Lake Emma and Morgan. Another founding family was the owner of the sawmill Archibald Renfro Gano. Gano also built his house on a hill near his sawmill. (The sawmill operated into the 1920's when it burned down) Together they created the name of Villa City and the post office opened September 13th, 1886. Gano's house was the last remnant of the original Villa City to be demolished in 1968. The postmaster was Frank Sears Parlow who built the post office on his front porch. Villa City eventually had a three story hotel, a post office, a mercantile store, a church, a turpentine mill (at a later time), and 35 homes by 1889. Other family names are Hart, Hood, Loy, McGechin, Edge, and Parks. Most of the families, many quite affluent, were orange growers with large groves on the outskirts of town, growing citrus, apricots, persimmons, and custard apples.

On February 7th, 1895, the temperature dropped to 12 degrees and it began to snow (lasting only 10 minutes). When the temperature returned to 81 degrees the next day, the rapid thaw burst open tree trunks and wilted the plants. The town became a ghost town by the end of the year. Residents from nearby communities pillaged the abandoned houses. The town became a picnic and fishing area for neighboring communities and the houses were used as playhouses by the children. Today, there is nothing left of Villa City except a historical marker, and the Villa City Road.

Parlow, G.F.

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