The Historical Society of Avon ParkAVON PARK, FL · EST. 1886
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The Original Avon Park Town Plat and County Record Lineage

The original recorded town plat of Avon Park, encompassing Sections 15, 22, and 23 of Township 33 South, Range 28 East, represents the foundational cartographic survey of the municipality. Unlike modern municipal subdivisions, its legal lineage spans three successive county jurisdictions and the historical transcription of parent-county deed books.

Municipal Parcel Records and Transcript Books

In the official records of the Highlands County Property Appraiser, the historic townsite is designated as the subdivision “TOWN OF AVON PARK” across Sections 15, 22, and 23.[hc-property-appraiser] While subsequent twentieth-century additions and replats cite standard county plat books (spanning Plat Book 1, Page 9 through Plat Book 8, Page 35), parcels within the original town plat omit standard plat book and page citations.[hc-property-appraiser]

Instead, early parcel conveyances cite entries within historical Transcript Books (specifically referencing pages 17, 29, and 30).[hc-property-appraiser] Transcript books served as the statutory instrument for transcribing and transferring real property records and plats from a parent county whenever a new county was created. When Highlands County was partitioned from DeSoto County in 1921, pre-existing deed, mortgage, and plat records were transcribed into these standalone registers.

Historical Filing Dates and County Succession (1887–1892)

The archival documentation of the original townsite plat reflects the rapid administrative reorganizations of south-central Florida during the late nineteenth century:

  • County Succession: When Oliver Marvin Crosby and the Florida Development Company established Avon Park in 1886–1887, the area was part of Manatee County. In May 1887, the Florida Legislature established DeSoto County from the eastern portion of Manatee, placing Avon Park within the new county seat at Arcadia. In 1921, Highlands County was formed from northeastern DeSoto County, establishing Sebring as the new county seat.
  • Filing Records: The National Register of Historic Places registration inventory notes three historical filing dates associated with the townsite: Manatee County on 23 December 1887; DeSoto County on 23 September 1887; and DeSoto County on 1 January 1892.[nrhp-avon-park-district] Crosby’s promotional work Common Sense About Florida, published in 1888, already described a formally surveyed and platted town, consistent with the autumn 1887 filings.
  • A second and conflicting account: In 1936 or 1937 a Federal Writers’ Project writer copied the plat entries out of the Highlands County clerk’s transcript books, and recorded a Manatee County filing of 11 May 1886 recorded on 16 June 1886 at plat book page 4, and a DeSoto County filing of 23 September 1889 — with map numbers, clerks’ names and Crosby’s own filing addresses. The two accounts of the filings cannot both be right; see The recorded plats of Avon Park, copied out of the clerk’s books in 1937.[darsey-1937]

Archival Custody and Courthouse Record Series

Because the original plat was created and re-recorded across multiple jurisdictional transitions, primary physical records reside within three distinct county recording systems:

  • Highlands County (Sebring): Real property records dating from the 1921 county division are maintained by the Highlands County Clerk of the Circuit Court.[highlands-clerk] The earliest townsite records and transcription maps are housed in the county’s historic Transcript Books and early Plat Books under the legal description “Town of Avon Park” in Section 22, Township 33 South, Range 28 East.[hc-property-appraiser][highlands-clerk]
  • DeSoto County (Arcadia): As the recording jurisdiction governing Avon Park from May 1887 until April 1921, the DeSoto County Clerk of the Circuit Court retains the primary deed books, chancery records, and recorded townsite filings registered during the town’s initial settlement and 1892 incorporation period.[desoto-clerk]
  • Manatee County (Bradenton): As the parent jurisdiction prior to May 1887, early land patents, regional surveys, and initial promotional transfers from late 1886 through late 1887 were registered with the Manatee County Clerk of the Circuit Court.[manatee-clerk]

A chancery order for publication, signed by A. L. Durrance, Clerk of the Circuit Court of DeSoto County, on 3 February 1915 and run weekly in The De Soto County News for twelve weeks, describes the property in suit:

… to the following property … to-wit: Lot 2 [of] Block 7 of the town of [Avon Park], Florida, being a part of the [south]east quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 22, Township 33 south, [range] 28 east, and Lot 4 of block 8 of the town of Avon Park, being a part of the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter of section 22, township 33 south, range 28 east, lying and being in DeSoto County, Florida …[dcn-1915-05-20]

The order was returnable on the rule day of 3 May 1915; the solicitors for the complainant were Jones & Jones, and the deputy clerk who signed the true copy was Mary A. Moye. The head of the notice is torn away in the May scan, but the first printing, on 18 February 1915, is whole. The case was John T. Hendricks vs. William H. Garrecht, et al., Bill to Quiet Title, in the Circuit Court of the Tenth Judicial Circuit, DeSoto County, in chancery, and the order for constructive service ran against “all heirs, grantees, devisees or claimants otherwise, known and unknown, of Sophia P. Lowndes, deceased, and Mark Wood, deceased, and all other persons, natural and artificial, known and unknown,” claiming any interest in the lots.[dcn-1915-02-18] The complainant was the town’s pioneer abstractor, notary, and 1897 councilman, John T. Hendricks, clearing title to lots whose record owners had died. The February printing also reads the description more fully than the torn May copy: “Lot 2 and Lot 5 of Block 7 of the town of Avon Park, Florida, being a part of the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 22, Township 33 south, range 28 east, and Lot 4 of block 35 of the town of Avon Park, being a part of the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter of section 22,” so that the second lot lies in Block 35, not Block 8, and Block 7 in the northwest rather than the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter.[dcn-1915-02-18]

The legal description establishes that Blocks 7 and 35 of the platted town of Avon Park lay in Section 22, Township 33 South, Range 28 East—Block 7 in the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter, Block 35 in the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter. It demonstrates that the block-and-lot plat was in active conveyancing use in 1915 and securely anchors two early blocks to the public land survey grid.

Historical significance of the recorded plat

The plat would settle the founding date question, name the streets as originally laid out, show the block and lot pattern, and document the original townsite layout designed by Oliver Marvin Crosby and the Florida Development Company.

References

Where this comes from

Evidence
single-source — One source. Treat as reported, not established.
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. Highlands County Property Appraiser, Parcel records for the TOWN OF AVON PARK subdivision, Sections 15, 22 and 23, Township 33 South, Range 28 East (2026)
  3. Florida Bureau of Historic Preservation / National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, Avon Park Historic District (ref. 90000486) (1990)
  4. Highlands County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller, Official records ordering and fee information (2026)
  5. DeSoto County Clerk of the Circuit Court, Public records request page (2026)
  6. A. L. Durrance, Clerk of the Circuit Court, DeSoto County, in The De Soto County News, Notice, In Circuit Court, Tenth Judicial Circuit, DeSoto County, In Chancery: John T. Hendricks vs. William H. Garrecht, et al., Bill to Quiet Title, Order for Constructive Service, The De Soto County News, 18 February 1915, page 11 (1915) · newspaper
  7. A. L. Durrance, Clerk of the Circuit Court, DeSoto County, in The De Soto County News, Chancery order for publication describing Lot 2 of Block 7 and Lot 4 of Block 8 of the town of Avon Park, The De Soto County News, 20 May 1915, page 10 (1915)
  8. Manatee County Clerk of the Circuit Court, Public records page (2026)

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