The Historical Society of Avon ParkAVON PARK, FL · EST. 1886
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The Lake Byrd Conference Center Occupied the 1920 Pittsburgh-Florida Fruit Growers Association Headquarters

Documentary records confirm that the Lake Byrd Conference Center, which hosted statewide religious encampments and the February 1965 regional conference of the National Committee on the Education of Migrant Children, occupied the exact physical site, grounds, and main lodge building established in 1919–1920 by the Pittsburgh-Florida Fruit Growers Association and the Lake Byrd Packing Company.[maxwell-1976][wingmann-history][eric-ed013673]

The property maintained continuous eighty-two-year institutional and architectural continuity on the northeastern shore of Lake Byrd along the Old Lakeland Highway (Old SR 8) north of downtown Avon Park.

Corporate Agricultural Inception (1915–1930)

In 1915, Pennsylvania citrus entrepreneurs A. V., C. P., and C. Parke Anderson organized the Pittsburgh-Florida Fruit Growers Association and its subsidiary, the Lake Byrd Packing Company, assembling more than 4,000 contiguous acres of citrus groves and agricultural flatwoods stretching eastward from Lake Byrd.[maxwell-1976][nrhp-90000486]

In 1919, the Andersons commissioned architect William J. Heim to design Lake Byrd Lodge, an imposing three-story rustic log structure built of whole pine logs, split cypress shakes, and native fieldstone fireplaces.[maxwell-1976][wingmann-history] Completed in 1920, the lodge served as the corporate headquarters for the citrus syndicate and a private hospitality guest house where prospective northern grove investors stayed while inspecting plantings across the Lake Wales Ridge.[maxwell-1976]

Institutional Transition: Youth Camps and Military Aviation (1933–1945)

Following the contraction of speculative citrus syndicates during the Great Depression, the Lake Byrd estate transitioned into institutional use:

  1. Episcopal Diocese Youth Encampments (1933–1936): The Episcopal Diocese of South Florida leased Lake Byrd Lodge as the summer home for Camp Wingmann, Camp Perry, and Camp St. Mary, accommodating hundreds of youths annually until senior warden John Sears Francis donated land on Trout Lake in 1939 for a permanent diocesan campground.[wingmann-history][wpa-1939]
  2. Lodwick Aviation Military Academy (1941–1945): During World War II, civilian contractor Albert I. Lodwick and the United States Army Air Forces leased the lodge as an auxiliary cadet barracks and officer quarters for the 61st Army Air Forces Flying Training Detachment based at the nearby Avon Park Municipal Airport.[maxwell-1976]

United Church of Christ Lake Byrd Conference Center (1948–2002)

In 1948, the Florida Congregational Christian Conference (subsequently the Florida Conference of the United Church of Christ) purchased the entire Lake Byrd Lodge campus.[wingmann-history] For more than five decades, the denomination operated the site as the Lake Byrd Conference Center:

  • Denominational Youth Camps: Beginning in the summer of 1948 and operating continuously through the 1950s (including the 1952 Congregational youth encampments), the center served as the primary statewide retreat and leadership training facility for Congregational youth.[wingmann-history]
  • 1965 National Migrant Education Conference: In February 1965, the National Committee on the Education of Migrant Children selected the Lake Byrd Conference Center to host its landmark regional conference on agricultural migrant child education, leveraging the center’s location within the heart of Florida’s citrus harvesting belt.[eric-ed013673]

Post-2002 Subdivision and Demolition

In 2002, the Florida Conference of the United Church of Christ closed the conference center and sold the waterfront acreage to private real estate developers for a proposed residential subdivision platted as Lake Byrd Shores.[maxwell-1976] The historic 1920 William J. Heim log lodge was subsequently demolished to clear the tract, concluding eighty-two years of continuous adaptive use of the pioneer citrus headquarters.[maxwell-1976]

References

Where this comes from

Evidence
corroborated — More than one independent source agrees.
Review
unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.
Rights
society

Sources

  1. Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell, The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida (references/the-first-hundred-years-of-avon-park_leoma-bradshaw-maxwell_1976.md) (1976)
  2. Camp Wingmann, Inc., Our History, Camp Wingmann, Avon Park, Florida (2026)
  3. Federal Writers' Project, Work Projects Administration for the State of Florida, Florida: A Guide to the Southernmost State, Federal Writers' Project, 1939, page 498 (1939)
  4. United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Avon Park Historic District, reference 90000486 (1990)
  5. Cassandra Stockburger, Report and Recommendations of the Consultation on Services to Children in the East Coast Migrant Stream (Lake Byrd Conference Center, Avon Park, Florida, February 1-3, 1965) (1965)

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