The Historical Society of Avon ParkAVON PARK, FL · EST. 1886
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Avon Park Historical Society and the Depot Museum

The Historical Society of Avon Park, Inc. (commonly known as the Avon Park Historical Society) serves as the principal historical preservation and archival institution for Avon Park, managing the Avon Park Depot Museum complex at 3 North Museum Avenue (mailing address P.O. Box 726, Avon Park, FL 33825) and maintaining the city’s documentary and material collections.[sunbiz-758915][newssun-charm]

Origins: The Old Settlers Association of Avon Park (1945–1974)

Although Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell’s The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida (1976) gave two retrospective approximations for the organization’s beginning—1946 on page 16 and 1947 on page 13—contemporary reports in The Avon Park Sun establish that the Old Settlers Association of Avon Park (also styled the Old Settlers’ Club) was organized on October 9, 1945.[aps-1950-09-29][aps-1957-10-10][aps-1977-11-03][maxwell-1976] Pioneer civic leader May Walden (Mrs. Kerr Walden) served as acting chairman of the October 9, 1945 organizational meeting and drafted the bylaws and Articles of Incorporation, whose Article III declared:

“The object of this club shall be to preserve to future generations, the origin and history of Avon Park, as interesting events occur from year to year, and to provide an annual meeting, the place for ‘Old Settlers’ to gather and exchange reminiscences.”[aps-1950-09-29][aps-1977-11-03]

In November 1945, the charter was signed first by the five founding members of the original Executive Committee—May Walden, Cora Gray Wray, Byrum Shockley, Clara Davidson, and Alice Davidson—followed by sixty-three pioneers at the inaugural covered-dish picnic.[aps-1948-09-10][aps-1957-10-10] Under the 1945 rules, membership was open without dues to anyone who had resided in the Avon Park area for twenty or more years.[aps-1950-09-29][aps-1957-10-10][aps-1977-11-03]

Its principal founders and early officers included:

  • May Walden (Mrs. Kerr Walden): A 1913 settler and co-founder of the Woman’s Club of Avon Park (1919) who chaired the October 9, 1945 organizational meeting, drafted the bylaws, and later served as historian.[aps-1950-09-29][aps-1957-10-10][aps-1977-11-03][maxwell-1976]
  • Cora Gray Wray (Mrs. Fred Elmore Wray): Daughter of 1903 settler Captain Fred J. Gray and daughter-in-law of early Avon Park photographer George E. Wray, who served for more than twenty-five years as charter treasurer and historian of the Old Settlers Association.[aps-1948-09-10][aps-1957-10-10][maxwell-1976] Wray maintained an alphabetical register of pioneer families, exhibited early town photographs in Main Street merchant windows each October, and assembled the foundational archive of manuscripts, artifacts, and family photograph albums—including the papers and albums of the King, Marshall, Pabor, Putney, Nettleton, and Shockley families.[aps-1957-10-10][aps-1971-10-28][maxwell-1976] She attended her final Old Settlers Association meeting on her 87th birthday, October 23, 1971 (misdated from memory as October 9, 1971, in Maxwell’s 1976 book), carried in her chair by Cois Leroy (“Jack”) DeLaney and Milford Dilley; before her death, she persuaded Secretary Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell to become custodian of her historical collections.[aps-1971-10-28][aps-1978-10-12][maxwell-1976]
  • Byrum Shockley (1895–1964): A 1908 settler at the Bunbury House, 1920 federal census enumerator for Avon Park’s precinct, citrus authority, and first historian of the Old Settlers Association, who presented original historical papers at the annual October reunions in Donaldson Park and completed a manuscript history of Avon Park by October 1957.[aps-1950-09-29][aps-1957-10-10][maxwell-1976]
  • Early Presidents (1945–1970): Following May Walden’s initial chairmanship, presidents of the Old Settlers Association included William Hauptman (1947–1948), I. A. Cyril Baldwin (1948–1949), J. B. (“Jim”) Jordan (1949–1951, 1953–1954), Oscar E. Wolff (1951–1952), W. R. England (1952–1953), Mayor E. A. DeLaney Sr. (elected October 1957), Ted J. Ward, Olin Harris, and Rev. Herbert D. Graetz (elected 1970).[aps-1951-10-19][aps-1957-10-10][aps-1978-10-12]

In October 1951, at its 7th Annual Reunion, the association secured fireproof locker space inside the new Avon Park Public Library building on East Main Street to store its valuable papers and photographs, voting a cash donation to the library building fund.[aps-1951-10-19]

CORA WRAY, her last time to attend the Old Settlers Association meeting October 9, 1971

Cora Wray attending her final Old Settlers Association meeting on her 87th birthday, October 23, 1971 (captioned October 9, 1971 in the 1976 book), assisted by Jack DeLaney and Milford Dilley. The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida (1976), page 71. Avon Park Historical Society.[aps-1971-10-28][maxwell-1976]

In 1970–1971, the Old Settlers Association led a civic campaign urging the City of Avon Park to save the neglected Avon Park Bandstand on the Mile Long Mall.[aps-1971-10-28][maxwell-1976] W. Cliff Thomas chaired a community fundraising drive alongside Old Settlers Association Treasurer Mrs. P. C. (Grace) Boney, raising $2,585 matched by the City Council to restore the bandstand.[aps-1971-10-28][aps-1975-10-23][maxwell-1976]

Cliff Thomas, Chairman of the committee to restore the bandstand, and Mrs

W. Cliff Thomas, chairman of the bandstand restoration committee, and Mrs. P. C. (Grace) Boney, treasurer of the Old Settlers Association. The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida (1976), page 190. Avon Park Historical Society.[maxwell-1976]

Bicentennial Reorganization and the 1976 Town History (1975–1978)

In May 1975, Mayor J. Marshall Davis and the City Council designated the Historical Committee of the Old Settlers Association (chaired by Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell with George W. Haynie as assistant chairman, Grace Boney as treasurer, and W. Cliff Thomas as assistant treasurer) to coordinate Avon Park’s United States Bicentennial celebration.[aps-1975-05-22] That same year (1975), the organization adopted the name Old Settlers Historical Society (also referred to in the press as the Avon Park Historical Society) and repealed its twenty-year residency requirement so that “anyone interested in the history of Avon Park” could join.[aps-1975-10-23][aps-1977-11-03]

In the early 1970s, longtime residents and members of the society also sought to correct the historical record following Horace J. Fenton’s 1956/1958 book History of Avon Park, Florida: 1886–1956, which pioneers regarded as incomplete and unjust in its portrayal of town founder Oliver Marvin Crosby.[maxwell-1976] The society’s five-member Historical Committee—composed of Mildred Wray Waddell (Cora Wray’s daughter), Grace Boney, Eunice Haynie, Katie Davis, and Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell—expanded an initial pioneer photograph scrapbook project into a comprehensive archival mobilization:[aps-1978-10-12][maxwell-1976]

  • Preservation of the 1919 Highlands Pilot Serials: Highlands County School Superintendent Dr. Dan Davis and Avon Citrus Bank Vice-President Mary Garrett produced complete Xerox copies of Oliver M. Crosby’s (“Avon Park’s History: 1885 to 1896”) and Samuel D. Lee’s (“Avon Park’s Pioneer Days”) 1919 serialized histories from rare local issues of The Highlands Pilot for the Society’s permanent archives.[maxwell-1976]
  • Pioneer Scrapbooks and Family Albums: Supplementing Cora Wray’s collection and the writings of William A. King and Byrum Shockley, the Society received family albums and newspapers from Lillian Hood (Canfield and Coy family albums), Peggy Mandis Caraberis (materials from her mother Margaret Woodruff Mandis and first settler Mary Ann King), and David Preshur of Nichols, New York (albums of his mother Ruth D. Preshur and Verona Hotel owners Drs. Mary and J. M. McCartney).[maxwell-1976]

In 1976, operating under the corporate imprint The Historical Society of the Old Settlers Association, Inc.—with Rev. Herbert D. Graetz and Robert W. Burkhart (Avon Park Librarian) as presidents, James Fountain (of Fountain Funeral Home) as treasurer, and publishing support from Avon Park Sun publisher Edward Carter and Bill and Hettie Hetherington—the society published Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell’s The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida (second printing 1980; centennial edition 1986).[aps-1978-10-12][maxwell-1976]

The monument erected on Oliver M. Crosby’s grave in Bougainvillea Cemetery on July 4, 1976

Bicentennial Committee Chairman Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell, Historical Society President Rev. H. D. Graetz, and pioneer descendant Howard Hart at the dedication of Oliver M. Crosby’s monument in Bougainvillea Cemetery on July 4, 1976. The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida (1976), page 58. Avon Park Historical Society.[aps-1975-10-23][maxwell-1976]

Following a fundraising resolution passed at the society’s annual meeting on October 17, 1975 (after an address by Florida historian Hampton Dunn), the society and its Bicentennial Committee dedicated a granite monument (donated by Hart Memorials of Sebring) over Oliver M. Crosby’s unmarked grave in Bougainvillea Cemetery on July 4, 1976, honoring him as the “Founder of Avon Park.”[aps-1975-10-23][maxwell-1976] By October 1978, because most of the original pioneers had died, the membership voted to drop “Old Settlers” from its title and become The Historical Society of Avon Park.[aps-1978-10-12]

The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida, page 244, figure 1

Robert W. Burkhart, President of the Historical Society of the Old Settlers Association, Inc., and James Fountain, Treasurer, checking the list of sponsors for the publication of The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida. The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida (1976), page 244. Avon Park Historical Society.[maxwell-1976]

Acquisition of the Seaboard Depot and 1981 State Incorporation

When passenger rail service through Avon Park ended in the 1970s and the neighboring city of Lake Wales dedicated its railroad station as a museum in July 1976, the Avon Park society began campaigning to acquire the 1926 Mediterranean Revival Seaboard Air Line station at Main Street and Museum Avenue.[aps-1977-11-03] Fred Jahna initiated contact with Seaboard Coast Line officials, and citrus leader Ben Hill Griffin Jr. traveled to Virginia to meet personally with Seaboard Coast Line President W. Thomas Rice.[aps-1977-11-03] On November 4, 1977, following an address to the society’s 32nd annual meeting by Lake Wales Museum director Mimi Hardman, the society’s board nominated Jane Barben, Ben Hill Griffin Jr., and Fred Jahna to form the museum conversion committee.[aps-1977-11-03][aps-1977-11-10]

On January 4, 1979, Seaboard Coast Line Superintendent John W. Thomas formally presented the station deed to Avon Park Mayor J. Marshall Davis in a public ceremony accompanied by the Avon Park High School Band, and the City leased the depot to the Historical Society.[maxwell-1976][riches-depots] Following extensive renovations, the Avon Park Depot Museum was formally dedicated in May 1981.[hns-2021-frontiersman][newssun-charm] On June 25, 1981, the organization incorporated with the Florida Department of State, Division of Corporations, as a Florida Not For Profit Corporation under the legal name THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF AVON PARK, INC. (Document Number 758915, FEI/EIN 59-2302474; reinstated May 28, 1996).[sunbiz-758915]

In the 1980s, the Society expanded the complex by installing on adjacent trackage a static Seaboard System caboose and a stainless-steel railroad dining car (The Highlands Express), converted into a meeting and luncheon venue.[hns-2021-frontiersman][riches-depots] On March 22, 1990, the depot was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing property within the Avon Park Historic District (NRHP #90000486), and in April 2021 the Society broke ground on an adjacent 1,800-square-foot addition to house the Florida Frontiersman Museum and the Avon Park Baseball Museum.[nrhp-district-1990][hns-2021-frontiersman]

Archival and Museum Collections

The Depot Museum houses seven permanent research and exhibition collections:

  1. The Railroad and Transportation Collection: Featuring original dispatch telegraph instruments, switch lamps, uniform insignia, and an original 1912 photograph of the Atlantic Coast Line station and locomotive arrivals.[riches-depots]
  2. The Avon Park Baseball Museum: Dedicated to the town’s baseball history, featuring the historic 52-inch wooden exhibition bat presented to Babe Ruth on March 16, 1928, inscribed “To Babe Ruth, Fans in Avon Park,” alongside memorabilia documenting the St. Louis Cardinals spring training camps (1927–1929), Major League All-Stars Hal McRae and Tom Gordon, and Head Field.[aphs-baseball-museum]
  3. The Permanent Black History Exhibit: An archival gallery established in 2026 highlighting eight African American community pioneers, educators from Hopewell School, and civic leaders including Officer Fred Conner, Avon Park’s first Black police officer (appointed 1955).[newssun-blackhistory]
  4. Telecommunications and Industrial Technology: Displaying the historic Avon Park Sun Linotype machine and printing press donated by publisher Edward Carter in October 1978, alongside the two-position wooden manual cord switchboard operated by United Telephone of Florida in Avon Park until 1985.[aps-1978-10-12]
  5. Agricultural and Culinary Innovation: Showcasing pioneer citrus packing labels, grove machinery, and the original baking pans and documentation of the 1949 invention of Brown ’n Serve rolls by Joseph A. Gregor and Jules Jacobsen.[newssun-charm]
  6. Photograph and Newspaper Archive: Holding Cora Gray Wray’s pioneer family albums and negative/print collections dating to 1888, alongside bound and digitized runs of the Avon Park Sun, Highlands News-Sun, Avon Park Times, and Highlands Pilot.[aps-1978-10-12][newssun-charm]
  7. Pioneer Domestic Life and Civic Regalia: Preserving furniture, tools, military uniforms from World War I and World War II, and nineteenth-century domestic artifacts from Avon Park’s founding families.[newssun-charm]

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. The Avon Park Sun, Notice of Old Settlers Association Executive Committee Meeting (Avon Park Historical Society Newspaper Archive (1948-10-13 reel)) (1948) · newspaper
  2. The Avon Park Sun, Old Settlers Plan Annual Picnic Oct. 11 (Avon Park Historical Society Newspaper Archive (1950-10-11 reel)) (1950) · newspaper
  3. The Avon Park Sun, Old Settlers Enjoy 7th Annual Picnic; Vote Donation to Library Fund (Avon Park Historical Society Newspaper Archive (1953-09-28 reel)) (1951) · newspaper
  4. The Avon Park Sun, Old Settlers Plan 13th Annual Picnic Wednesday, Oct. 16 (Avon Park Historical Society Newspaper Archive (1957-10-10 reel)) (1957) · newspaper
  5. The Avon Park Sun, Old Settlers Association Holds Annual Covered Dish Dinner and Meeting (Avon Park Historical Society Newspaper Archive (1971-10-28 reel)) (1971) · newspaper
  6. The Avon Park Sun, Old Settlers Historical Committee Named To Coordinate Bicentennial Celebration (Avon Park Historical Society Newspaper Archive (1975-05-22 reel)) (1975) · newspaper
  7. The Avon Park Sun, Historical Society To Raise Funds For Crosby Grave Marker (Avon Park Historical Society Newspaper Archive (1975-11-29 reel)) (1975) · newspaper
  8. Lew Miller and Betty Amburn (The Avon Park Sun), Old Settlers Work For Museum / Your Ideas Needed (Avon Park Historical Society Newspaper Archive (1977-11-03 reel)) (1977) · newspaper
  9. The Avon Park Sun, Old Settlers Meeting (Avon Park Historical Society Newspaper Archive (1977-11-10 reel)) (1977) · newspaper
  10. Betty Amburn and Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell (The Avon Park Sun), Leoma Maxwell Helps To Organize City's History (Avon Park Historical Society Newspaper Archive (1979-10-11 reel)) (1978) · newspaper
  11. Florida Department of State, Division of Corporations, Florida Division of Corporations Filing: THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF AVON PARK, INC. (Document No. 758915) (1981) · archival
  12. Elaine Levey, Highlands News-Sun, From The Archives, History of the 'City of Charm' (2026) · newspaper
  13. Highlands News-Sun, Historic Depot building new Florida Frontiersman Museum (2021) · newspaper
  14. RICHES of Central Florida, University of Central Florida, Railroad Depots of Avon Park (2026) · secondary
  15. Avon Park Historical Society, Avon Park Baseball Museum (2026) · official
  16. Highlands News-Sun, The window to Black history in Avon Park (2026) · newspaper
  17. Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell, The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida (documents/the-first-hundred-years-of-avon-park_leoma-bradshaw-maxwell_1976.md) (1976) · book
  18. United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Avon Park Historic District (NRHP #90000486) (1990) · official

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