The Historical Society of Avon ParkAVON PARK, FL · EST. 1886
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The recorded plats of Avon Park, copied out of the clerk’s books in 1937

Summary

No copy of the plat on which Avon Park was laid out is known to survive. But somebody went and read the county’s books while the trail was still warm. Barbara Berry Darsey, compiling the Avon Park Guide for the Federal Writers’ Project, footnoted her chronology of the town, and for the entries on the county divisions she went to the Highlands County clerk’s office at Sebring and copied out what the plat records said. Her note gives two maps, two counties, two clerks, filing and recording dates, and a plat book page.[darsey-1937]

What she copied

Under the heading “Bibliography of Chronology,” against the entries for 1887 and 1921 — the years Avon Park changed counties — Darsey wrote:

Re: division of Counties: Highlands County Clerk’s office, as follows: “TRANSCRIPT OF PLATS FROM DE SOTO COUNTY”, Map 13, Map of Avon Park, Manatee County. T-33, R-28. “The most beautiful township in south Florida. Filed for record May 11, 1886 (O. M. Crosby, Gen. Mgr. Jacksonville, Florida). Recorded June 16, 1886, Plat book page 4, Manatee County Records, Robert S. Griffith, Clerk”.

“TRANSCRIPT OF PLATS FROM DE SOTO COUNTY”. Map 14, Avon Park, De Soto County, Florida, T-33, R-28, O. M. Crosby, Gen. Mgr., 99 Franklin St., N. Y. Filed for record Sept. 23, 1889, B. G. Granger, Clerk ct. ct.

“PLAT BOOK 1, HIGHLANDS COUNTY” various maps of Avon Park filed under C. F. Saunders, Clerk Circuit Court, Highlands County, Florida.[darsey-1937]

Four things in that note are new. The maps are numbered — 13 and 14 in the transcript volume the Highlands County clerk made when the county was carved out of DeSoto in 1921. The first map carries a recording reference, plat book page 4 of the Manatee County records. Both maps are filed in Crosby’s name as general manager, from Jacksonville in 1886 and from 99 Franklin Street, New York, in 1889 — the New York address is the one printed on the title page of his 1888 pamphlet Common Sense About Florida.[darsey-1937][crosby-1888] And the first map carries a legend, the promoter’s own phrase for what he was selling: “the most beautiful township in south Florida.”[darsey-1937]

Robert S. Griffith, the clerk named on the Manatee filing, was the Manatee County clerk of the circuit court from 14 March 1877.[fm-manatee-officials]

Where this disagrees with the National Register

The 1990 National Register nomination for the Avon Park Historic District lists three plat filings in its bibliography: Manatee County on 23 December 1887, DeSoto County on 23 September 1887, and DeSoto County on 1 January 1892, and its narrative calls the town “originally platted in 1892.” Modern internet searches often cite the 1892 date via circular reporting from the NRHP document itself.[nrhp-avon-park-district] The nomination gives no map number, no plat book, no page and no clerk for any of the three.

The two accounts agree on very little. Both have a Manatee County filing and a DeSoto County filing on 23 September, but Darsey dates the DeSoto filing 1889 where the nomination dates it 1887, and she dates the Manatee filing to May and June 1886 where the nomination dates it to December 1887. Darsey knows nothing of an 1892 filing; the nomination knows nothing of a plat book page or of the Highlands County transcript volume.[darsey-1937][nrhp-avon-park-district]

One fact settles the disagreement in Darsey’s favor. Avon Park was in Manatee County only until the legislature cut DeSoto County out of Manatee’s eastern half by an act approved 9 May 1887; after that the town’s records belonged at Arcadia.[laws-fl-1887-ch3770] A Manatee County filing in May and June 1886 falls inside that window and is legally sound. A Manatee County filing in December 1887, as claimed by the National Register nomination, falls outside it and is a legal impossibility, because the land was already in DeSoto County. The clerk in Bradenton would have rejected it.

Furthermore, Darsey’s transcription provides exact map numbers, book and page numbers, clerk names, and a verbatim legend, all copied directly from the Highlands County transcript books. Her “23 September 1889” DeSoto filing aligns perfectly in day and month with the nomination’s “23 September 1887”, exposing the nomination’s 1887 date as a typographical error for 1889.

Sanborn fire insurance map from Avon Park, 1920

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Avon Park, Highlands County, Florida, November 1920. Sanborn Map Company, Library of Congress Geography and Map Division. [loc-sanborn-1920]

As for the 1892 claim: The nomination’s assertion that the town was “originally platted in 1892” (with a “January 1, 1892” filing date) is another error, likely confusing an early town map with the actual legal plat. January 1 is a legal holiday (New Year’s Day) when the courthouse would be closed. The town was not originally platted in 1892, nor replatted; it was legally platted in 1886 in Manatee County (Map 13) and again in 1889 in DeSoto County (Map 14). The NRHP’s 1887 and 1892 dates must be rejected.

References

Where this comes from

Evidence
contested — Sources disagree. Both accounts are given.
Review
unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.
Rights
society

Sources

  1. Barbara Berry Darsey, Avon Park Guide, typescript for the Federal Writers' Project, pages 190 and 192: Bibliography of Chronology (references/avon-park-guide-federal-writers-project-1937.md) (1938) · archival
  2. Florida Bureau of Historic Preservation / National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, Avon Park Historic District (ref. 90000486), bibliography (1990) · official
  3. Florida State Legislature, Chapter 3770, Laws of Florida (1887): An Act to Create and Establish the County of De Soto (1887) · official
  4. Oliver M. Crosby, Common Sense About Florida: Lake Forest and Avon Park, title page, giving O. M. Crosby as General Manager at 99 Franklin Street, New York (references/common-sense-about-florida_o-m-crosby_1888.md) (1888) · book
  5. State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, Directory of Elected and Appointed Officials in Manatee County, 1870–1969, State Archives of Florida series S1284 (2026) · official
  6. Sanborn Map Company, Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Avon Park, Highlands County, Florida, November 1920 (1920) · archival

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