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fort (rang. tMartha
A PLACE FOR HEALTH AND HOME SEEKERS
ITs PAST HISTORY. PR~BENT CONDITION. FUTURE PDanPacTr
AGRICUI/TlURA RESOURCSm AND CLIMATIC CONDITIONS
j OCATION. Port Orange is located 115 miles south of Jackson-
ville and on the line of the Florida East Coast Railway. It is
five miles south of Daytona and- ten ml*s north of New
Smyrna, both noted winter resorts. To the east it faces the
6& broad sweep of the Halifax River, one mile in width, doted
with numerous islands.. Opposite is located te Halifax Pen-
insula, less than half a mile wide, beyond that the Atlantic Ocean with a beach
unrivalled in all the world for breadth, cleanliness and hardness of surface. To
the west stretch the higher pine lands, capable of producing anything from an
onion to an orange.
RUIN OF OLD SPANISH SUAR MLL
F. -L
\1 IT 4
13 C SC -P
Am a Wlt4 IAtrt Port Orange has exceptional advantages. It is abso-
lutely free from all malarial conditions. The water, obtained from artesian
wells, is pure and wholesome. With the rest of the Florida East Coast,
Port Orange enjoys the sunshine every day in the year, with just sufficient clouds
intervening to subdue the fervor of the sunlight. The thermometer seldom
reaches above go degrees in the shade during the summer. Cooling breezes
sweep daily across the river from the boundless stretches of the ocean and permeate
the atmosphere with their salty tonic and life sustaining ozone. One can live here
constantly an outdoor life without fear of contracting cold or bronchial afflic-
tions. With perhaps a few days now and then,, when 't. hm pnometer falls
a degree or two below the frost line, we have-' ere the ba .of spring-
time temperature during the winter months with and i oom. re
is just the place for those who seek health and e ration, j tid res om
the strain of metropolitan activity.
A Pha fuor Onu ftms. ,The population of Port Orange i comp to
a great extent, of northern people, some of them quite wealthy and others who
have acquired a competency sufficient to live a quiet and retired life. Among
ENTRANCE TO FORT ORANGE FROM NEW RIVER BRDGE
the inhabitants are many who constitute the descendants of the earliest
settlers who bore the brunt of Indian battles and other frontier discomforts, and
laid the foundation of the State of Florida with its present population. The
inhabitants constitute a high class of citizenship, orderly, industrious and with
a devoutly religious undercurrent, making for temperance and sturdy character
building. There is not a saloon in the place. With these social elements in its
favor, Port Orange has about it an unlimited area of fine productive land which
can easily be brought under cultivation, bringing quick results aqd good returns.
The price of land ranging from Sio.oo to $25.oo per acre, a cding to location,
with a steady rise in value. .
fpat Wtattl. The past history of the.t is mainliv iadition4. It
seems that the town site and surrounding count the exti a res
were acquired by one Patrick Deane, an officer in the Bri ,arTmy, der
the title of a Spanish land grant. There are everywhere ev1ences of f rrmer
extensive sugar cultivation. Whether this was carried on under Spanish or
English occupancy is not now known. About one mile west of the town is
the ruin of an old sugar mill with parts of heavy machinery still in place and
SCENES ABOUT PORT ORANGE
solid coquina walls and tall chimneys still standing. Thirty years ago the build-
ing covering the site was yet intact. Who built the mill and placed the machinery
is not known. It stood there when the oldest settlers arrived. When the Sem-
inoles in 1834 swept the district clean of the white settlers, after one of the most
stubborn battles fought during that war, they burned every building and de-
stroyed every plantation, but strangely enough they never disturbed the old mill.
The settlers retreating with their families and wounded by way of the river and
peninsula, found refuge in St. Augustine.
With the lapse of the Spanish land grant titles Americans entered and
settled upon the land. One Dunlawton, from Savannah, .gia, carried for-
ward the work of sugar cane planting and was succeeded by TZ J. J. Marshall,
of Shreveport, Louisiana, who developed the ii iiness on Z ore extensive
scale until Louisiana competition killed the sugaiindustry in: 'da.
art Ormn&e Sobag contains about 500 inhabitants. Th are three stores,
two hotels, several boarding houses, express, postoffice, telephone and telegraphic
service, a boatyard, several small oyster fishing establishments, a railroad station,
two churches, a public school, and nearby a tannic acid factory of considerable
SOUTH VIEW OF PORT ORANGE HOUSE
dimensions. The streets as well as the roads leading to the town are made of
oyster shells of which the Halifax River and old Indian shell mounds furnish an
inexhaustible supply; they constitute a very superior road making material,
hard and smooth in all sorts of weather conditions.
During the summer months four trains daily, two south and two north, keep
touch with the greater world. During the winter months the train service is
doubled, owing to the influx of tourist travel, of which Port Orange gets a-well
proportioned and steadily increasing share, and quite a number of well-to-do
northern people have here their winter homes..
The hotels and boarding houses afford ample accommod s at reasonable
prices. The Port Orange House, with Mr.. S Fred. CutL;l gs as proprie-
tor and manager, is of forty rooms capacity wit a fortable (ng room fine
verandas, broad river frontage and nice parkage front and r : Priceqi ge
from $2.oo per day up. The Illinois House, with Mr. D. W. Wlinn as #prie-
tor, is of twenty rooms capacity. The house is under experienced management
and well kept, with prices from S6.oo per week and up. Mrs. F. A. Harleman
and Mrs. Caroline MacDonald, keep each a boarding house where good rooms
P~m CG. F. Lmuvy RP~dd. Qm. F. V. Ran aie 06
VOW OF THE
Com. Him. emu" FL Ud Pan
ANGE. FLOPA
GLMPSE OF THE RIVER AND NEW BRDCE FROM VERANDA OF PORT ORANGE HOUE
and board can be had at moderate prices.
JMarmwtg can be carried on with' profit and for a growing market. There is
a steady home demand for fresh vegetables during the winter, with farming on a
more extensive scale or by combination of small growers, to ship in quantities, a w
ready sale can be found in northern markets for Florida grown winter vegeta-
bles. Potatoes of a superior quality, peas, lettuce, cabbage, beets, cucumbers,
celery, tomatoes, strawberries, cassava, peanuts and other garden truck grow
and mature rapidly. The ground, with proper care and fertilizing will produce'.
five and six crops, and more, a year. In fact vegetables can be raised ten
months in the year; August and September being the exception',
Jrutt ral inmg. Experience, extending over a period If' thirty years,
has demonstrated that the finest quality of orange' and grape fruitrcan be g~wn
on the lands about Port Orange. '"
The "Freeze" of 1895 gave orange culture in Florida a t'ibus set ,tck.
Since then means have been devised to protect the groves -against recugring
frosts. Orange culture is undoubtedly the most profitable of all fruit growizig-
requiring the least care with the best results. New groves are springing up
5SORE OF MARTIN AND BEIAMY
everywhere, and old ones are being replanted, with shipments increasing year by
year. There are fine stretches of land where the finest quality of peaches can be
grown, and peach culture is receiving more and more attention. Pears, figs,
pommegranates, mulberries, blackberries, grapes and other fruit, such as
guavas, which cannot be grown north, thrive here. Good fruit land can now be
bought at $25.00 an acre; it will be more before long, and the time to buy is now.
lauttlr asu onltrg. Back of Port Orange, about a mile westward,
Mr. W. L. MacDonald owns a cattle and dairy ranch. From him the writer ob-
tained the information bearing on the subject herewith presented.
The cattle raised here are for meat and dairy prodm.. Hotels and
boarding houses of' nearby cities, as well as :-rivate famnls,4 absorb the
supply readily. Fresh beef is much preferrd to stora, meat. ,lThe
stock on this farm is a cross between high class D and .tive
cattle, with first-class results in dairy and beef product. 'Sgar cane gown
here, especially the Japanese variety, requires neither cultivation nor irri-
gation, and produces fine crops. Syrup and sugar extracted from same
finds a ready local market. There is not a particle of waste, because cat-.
CEND ABOUT PO~R ORANGE
tie, hogs and sheep feed readily on stalk and blade which is very fattening; and
it can be fed green or dry. Velvet beans make excellent stock feed and grow
abundantly without cultivation. They enrich the soil surprisingly, drawing
from the atmosphere-chemical elements much superior to many commercial fer-
tilizers. When plowed under one acre of velvet beans is equal to two tons of
blood and bone fertilizer, and far preferable.
Poultry raising can be profitably conducted on local farms. The demand
for chickens, turkeys and eggs, is practically unlimited, especially during the
winter season, and good prices prevail. Thousands of dollars of poultry pro-
duct is brought into the state now which could as well be supply by local farms.
A M1utbt Liart. An enterprise, recently coa.pleted, is ;- great i nort-
ance to Port Orange. A year ago the Port Oran ,Bridge Coipipy was f ed
with Mr. Geo. F. Lufberrv, B. A. Armstrong, Ls,'. Smith, Gove, L.
Armstrong and Chas. Fozzard as Board of Directors. In tRcmbpr lao the.
bridge across the Halifax River, connecting Port Orange with the Halifax penin-
sula opposite, was completed at an approximate cost of $22,ooo. It is 5,050 feet
in length, of substantial build, and stands a solid testimonial to the enterprise of
THE RIUNOU HOUSE
its builders and the confidence they possess in the future of Port Orange.
This bridge brings the people in direct touch with the Atlantic Ocean and
Sits magnificent beach. It opens a new district and splendid possibilities to
Port Orange as a seaside resort. It may be a surprise to northern people, but
it is nevertheless a fact that the temperature is cooler and the climate more
pleasant along the upper Florida sea coast during hot summer months than in
the northern states. It is certainly more steady and less variable, and already
people from the states immediately to the north of Florida, leave their sweltering
homes to enjoy the cooling breezes and pleasant days prevalent along the East
Florida Sea Coast. It presents no stretch of-the 'imaginaptr i predict that
within ten years there will be a continuous stretch .f seaside .~Amei and ttle-
ments from Ormond, twelve miles to the north t the beaclihtrough t sea-
breeze, Daytona Beach, to and beyond Port O(range southwji .to the' nlet.
There were but a dozen cottages on all this stretch of magnifiiet ocan b ch of
twenty miles in 1894; now there.is a permanent. population of between 706 and
I,ooo in the settlements of Seabreeze and Daytona Beach, which is greatly aug-
mented during the winter season -by tourists who tax the magnificent hotels and
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fine boarding houses to their utmost capacity.
The peninsula opposite Port Orange is in the direct path of this develop-
ment. The beach, here is a part of that world famous automobile speed course,
which draws the wealth and fashion of the country annually to this beach, to wit-
ness the unparalleled speed obtained only here, by the best product of auto manu-
facturers. There is room and opportunity here for a fine seaside hotel, and the
builders of seaside cottages and homes. Mr. Geo. F. Lufberry, who owns 240
acres of peninsula property, has deeded one half of this amount, 12o acres, to
the Port Orange Bridge Company. This land is surveyed, platted and laid out
into streets and lots, and is ready for sale upon the market The writer of this
has been informed that every alternate lot of this property will be sold to desira-
ble bome builders in the tract at reasonable prices and upon easy terms.
Altogether, whether you look seaward or landward, Port Orange has a splen-
did future and presents fine opportunities for home seekers. -The river with its
fine Ashing grounds and extensive oyster beds; the peninsula with its splendid
oceas beach, fanned by the breath of cooling breezes; with scenery that is a
pleasure to the beholder and a joy to the artist, and a climate unequaled any-
where, Port Orange presents itself for consideration.
January, 1907 CHAs. F. BURGOAN.
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