The Historical Society of Avon ParkAVON PARK, FL · EST. 1886
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Lake Verona

Lake Verona is a natural, 41-acre karst collapse sinkhole lake situated at the eastern terminus of Main Street in the heart of downtown Avon Park, Florida.[swfwmd-verona-mfl][maxwell-1976] Geologically part of the Lake Wales Ridge solution lake network, its sediments preserve late Pleistocene organic deposits that established its scientific age at greater than 33,000 years Before Present.[steventon-1986]

Limnology and Geologic Age

Lake Verona formed by the dissolution of underlying Eocene limestone within the Ocala and Avon Park formations, followed by the collapse and subsidence of overlying Pliocene-Pleistocene sands. Although covering a surface area of approximately 41 to 46 acres, the lake exhibits steep underwater slopes and a central conical depression reaching maximum depths of 60 to 80 feet (18 to 24 meters), making it one of the deepest natural sinkholes relative to its surface area in peninsular Florida.[swfwmd-verona-mfl]

In April 1985, limnologists led by Dr. Herbert E. Wright Jr. of the University of Minnesota Limnological Research Center collected sediment cores from Lake Verona (27° 36’ N, 81° 30’ W) to analyze long-term vegetation stratigraphy on the Lake Wales Ridge.[steventon-1986] Radiocarbon dating performed at the University of Wisconsin Radiocarbon Laboratory on an organic gyttja sample extracted from a core depth of 29.64 to 29.74 meters (2964–2974 cm) yielded an age of >33,000 yr BP (Laboratory Sample WIS-1744, published by Raymond L. Steventon and John E. Kutzbach in Radiocarbon).[steventon-1986]

Along with its nearby southern sister sinkhole, Lake Tulane—which preserves a continuous sediment core spanning over 60,000 years—Lake Verona sits at high elevations along the central spine of the ridge (lake stage approximately 105 to 115 feet above sea level), where its deep basin remained continuously flooded throughout late Pleistocene arid cycles and sea-level drops.[steventon-1986][aphs-lakes]

Role in Avon Park Settlement

When Oliver Marvin Crosby surveyed the township in 1885–1886, Lake Verona did not intersect section survey lines on early maps, but it quickly became the central scenic water feature around which the town plat was organized.[maxwell-1976]

  • The Verona Hotel (1889–1927): Built on the western shore of the lake by Crosby and his investors, the three-story Hotel Verona was the town’s premier winter resort and sanitarium for forty years until it was destroyed by fire on 2 February 1927; in March 1891 Danbury real-estate broker William J. Nichols reported in The Newtown Bee after visiting Crosby’s settlement that “he has built a handsome hotel, fronting a lovely lake; both lake and hotel are known as Lake Verona.”[newtown-bee-1891-03-06][maxwell-1976]
  • The Victorian Bandstand (1897): An octagonal wooden bandstand was constructed on the western shore of Lake Verona in 1897 for the 13-member Avon Park Concert Band, standing there with a U.S. Weather Bureau station until it was relocated to the Main Street Mall in 1912.[maxwell-1976]
  • Municipal Water and Lake Control (1926): On 6 October 1926, the Avon Park City Council contracted to drill a 6-inch municipal well to stabilize and regulate the water level of Lake Verona.[maxwell-1976]
  • Donaldson Park (1929–1938): Under the leadership of Mayor Charles S. Donaldson, the city acquired lakefront property on Lake Verona in 1927–1929 to establish a permanent 4-acre municipal park, enhanced during the New Deal with WPA recreation pavilions, a sandy bathing beach, tennis courts, and trailer grounds for visiting winter tourists.[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. Raymond L. Steventon and John E. Kutzbach, University of Wisconsin Radiocarbon Dates XXIII (1986)
  2. Southwest Florida Water Management District, Lake Verona Minimum Flows and Levels Information and Bathymetry (2020)
  3. Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell, The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida: 1870–1976 (bundle/references/the-first-hundred-years-of-avon-park_leoma-bradshaw-maxwell_1976.md) (1976)
  4. Avon Park Historical Society, The Lakes That Shaped Avon Park (2026)
  5. The Newtown Bee (Newtown, Conn.), The Newtown Bee (Newtown, Conn.), 6 March 1891, page 6: William J. Nichols on O. M. Crosby's Avon Park and Lake Verona (1891) · newspaper

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