The Mile Long Mall’s 1923 Landscape Plan by W. A. Cook and Reasoner Brothers

In 1923, following the municipal widening of Main Street and the clearance of pioneer wooden commercial buildings, the Town of Avon Park commissioned landscape architect W. A. Cook of Oneco, Florida, to draft the master landscape design for what became the Mile Long Mall.[nrhp-avon-park-district][maxwell-1976]

Background and Municipal Clearance (1920–1923)

When Oliver M. Crosby platted Avon Park in the late 1880s and early 1890s, Main Street was laid out as a single-lane dirt roadway.[nrhp-avon-park-district] By May 1920, the Town Council approved its first bond issue to create a wider central promenade to improve traffic safety, provide fire breaks, and beautify the downtown business district.[nrhp-avon-park-district]

Between 1920 and 1923, the town acquired rights-of-way along the north side of Main Street, relocating or demolishing existing wooden structures.[maxwell-1976] The final physical obstacle was cleared in early 1923 with the demolition of the Ford Motor Company garage near Lake Avenue.[nrhp-avon-park-district] The Town Council then authorized an election on issuing $20,000 in municipal improvement bonds to pave dual one-way traffic lanes and landscape the central median, passing by a vote of 142 to 7.[maxwell-1976]

Cook’s Design and the Reasoner Brothers Nursery Contract

To create a professional design, the Town Council paid $165 to engage landscape architect W. A. Cook, an ornamental horticulturist from Oneco associated with the Reasoner Brothers Nursery (Royal Palm Nurseries).[nrhp-avon-park-district][maxwell-1976][cook-fshs-1920]

Cook’s design featured:

1. Architectural Water Features: An original scheme incorporating a series of decorative fountains and a large central reflecting pool along the median strip.[nrhp-avon-park-district]
2. Subtropical Plant Palettes: Symmetrical arrangements of exotic subtropical shrubs, ornamental flowering plants, and specimen trees adapted to the sandy soil of the Lake Wales Ridge.[nrhp-avon-park-district][cook-fshs-1920]

In June 1923, the Town Council approved a formal contract with Reasoner Brothers Nursery to supply the living plant material.[nrhp-avon-park-district] Reasoner Brothers, founded in Oneco in 1881 by Pliny and Egbert Reasoner, was Florida’s premier pioneer tropical nursery, responsible for introducing numerous exotic palms, citrus varieties, and ornamental plants to the state.

Botanical Leadership of Dr. Charles S. Donaldson

The actual selection and planting of tree stock were carried out under the direct supervision of local naturalist and citrus grower Dr. Charles S. Donaldson, working alongside local architect Linus H. Park and engineer E. Phil Lacey.[nrhp-avon-park-district][maxwell-1976]

At Donaldson’s specific direction, the nursery order focused on:

• Jacaranda trees (Jacaranda mimosifolia): Selected for their dense lavender-purple spring blossoms, which subsequently inspired the naming of the Hotel Jacaranda (1926) and gave Avon Park its civic moniker as “The City of Charm.”[nrhp-avon-park-district][maxwell-1976]
• Royal Poincianas (Delonix regia): Selected for vibrant scarlet summer flowering.
• Specimen Palms and Native Live Oaks: Providing structural canopy and framing views along the commercial corridor.[nrhp-avon-park-district]

By 1927, further bond issues ($55,000 authorized in October 1924) extended Cook’s landscaped median westward to the Atlantic Coast Line tracks and ultimately to U.S. 27, establishing sixteen rectangular park medians spanning approximately one mile.[nrhp-avon-park-district]

Statewide Botanical Recognition

By the late 1940s, the mature jacaranda canopy along the Mile Long Mall had earned statewide recognition among Florida horticultural writers. In February 1949, a gardening survey in The Key West Citizen observed that outside the coastal Pinellas peninsula, the only place in south-central or southern Florida where jacarandas were planted in dense, magnificent profusion was the central park strip extending through Avon Park.[kwc-1949-02-03]

References

• nrhp-avon-park-district — United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Avon Park Historic District (reference 90000486). 22 March 1990. nrhp-avon-park-historic-district-1990.md
• maxwell-1976 — Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell. The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida. 1976. the-first-hundred-years-of-avon-park_leoma-bradshaw-maxwell_1976.md
• cook-fshs-1920 — W. A. Cook. The Home and the Grounds. 1 May 1920. https://journals.flvc.org/fshs/article/view/86364
• kwc-1949-02-03 — The Key West Citizen (Key West, Fla.). The Key West Citizen, 3 February 1949: Florida Garden Notes. 3 February 1949. https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn88074218/1949-02-03/ed-1/

Related

• W. A. Cook
• Charles S. Donaldson
• Mile Long Mall
• Hotel Jacaranda
• Avon Park Bandstand
• Report: Main Street and the Mile Long Mall

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. United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Avon Park Historic District (reference 90000486) (references/nrhp-avon-park-historic-district-1990.md) (1990)
2. 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)
3. W. A. Cook, The Home and the Grounds (1920)
4. The Key West Citizen (Key West, Fla.), The Key West Citizen, 3 February 1949: Florida Garden Notes (1949)

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