Mile Long Mall
Avon Park’s best-known feature: a landscaped park strip running the length of Main Street, and the spine of the town’s historic district.
It is not from the founding
Crosby platted Main Street as, in the National Register’s words, “a narrow, one lane road in the center of Avon Park.”[nrhp-avon-park-district] The Sanborn fire insurance map of November 1920 still shows it as an ordinary street of standard width, lined directly by building fronts, with no median or greenspace at all.[sanborn-1920]
The Mall is a land-boom civic improvement laid over the founder’s street, not part of his plan.
Looking down Main Street in Avon Park, Florida, featuring automobiles, commercial buildings, and road construction, 1917. State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, RC17233. Public domain.[fm-rc17233]
The First Trust and Savings Company building facing the planted Mall, with the bandstand and flagpole to the right, from a postcard of about 1920. State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, image PR00589. Public domain.[fm-pr00589]
How it was built
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| before 1920 | Main Street is “a narrow, one lane road in the center of Avon Park,” as platted in 1892 |
| May 1920 | The City Council votes its first bond issue expressly for the creation of a mall |
| 1920-21 | Slow progress: owners on the north side of Main Street will not give up their buildings. Some are persuaded to move theirs; the Ford Motor Company refuses |
| 1921 | The first stretch cleared is between Lake and Butler Avenues. Local businessmen raise a beautification fund and press the Council to hire a landscape architect. In October a further $20,000 in bonds is issued to extend the Mall and grade and pave Main Street |
| 1922 | Extended west to the Atlantic Coast Line tracks. The William P. McDonald Construction Company paves Main Street and the intersecting avenues. Colonel and Mrs. R. P. Davidson give the flagpole, dedicated at the Armistice Day Carnival, 11 November 1922. The bandstand is moved to its present place and the first curbs and gutters laid |
| 1923 | The Ford Motor Company building is razed — the last obstacle to the first stage. W. A. Cook is hired to design the planting: exotic plants and shrubs around a series of fountains and a large pool. In June the Council contracts with the Reasoner Brothers Nursery of Oneco for the foliage |
| 1924 | The Council proposes extending the Mall west of the railroad and completes negotiations for the eastern extension. In October a $175,000 bond issue, of which $55,000 is for the Mall, to Verona Avenue on the east and Central Avenue on the west. Similar outlays follow for three years |
| 1927 | Completed to its present length — sixteen rectangular greenspaces, about a mile, from Lake Verona west to U.S. 27 — “just as Avon Park, along with the rest of Florida, was heading into a protracted economic depression” |
Source: the National Register nomination, whose account is plainly drawn from the City Council minutes.[nrhp-avon-park-district]
Why it was built. Not, in the first place, for beauty. The arguments recorded are safety — a one-lane Main Street with tourist-season motor traffic was dangerous — and fire, since widening meant moving or razing the wooden buildings on the north side, which were themselves considered hazards. The beauty came later, with the businessmen’s fund and Cook’s plan.[nrhp-avon-park-district]
Cook’s planting was supplied under contract by the Reasoner Brothers Nursery of Oneco, Florida, and included jacaranda, palm, royal poinciana and live oak — ordered, the nomination says, “at the behest of Donaldson,” which makes Mayor C. S. Donaldson the man who chose the tree the town is known for.[nrhp-avon-park-district] The Reasoner nursery was a significant Florida horticultural firm, and the choice of jacaranda connects the Mall to the Hotel Jacaranda of the same boom years.
Its place in the district
The Avon Park Historic District is a roughly one-mile linear district following Main Street and the Mall, from the greenspace just east of South Delaney Avenue west to U.S. 27, plus the Seaboard Air Line depot about a hundred yards north on Museum Avenue.[nrhp-avon-park-district] The Mall is what gives the district its shape.
The Mall looking along the planted median, with the bandstand at its center, a war memorial obelisk in the right foreground and the business block behind, 1967. State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, image PC0381. Public domain.[fm-pc0381]
The cost of the 1920 bond issue is not recorded; the 1921 and 1924 figures are known — $20,000 in October 1921 and $55,000 of a $175,000 issue in October 1924.
Sections, gardens and memorials
Today the mall is divided into twenty-six distinct sections.[hns-mall-beautification] None of the individual sections, plots, or gardens carry formal names; instead, community members and the Avon Park Founders Garden Club have proposed beautification plans, including color-coding the foliage and flowers within each of these twenty-six sections.[hns-mall-beautification][founders-garden-club-notes] The Avon Park Founders Garden Club has long been involved in projects to maintain and enhance the mall’s landscaping.[founders-garden-club-notes]
The mall serves as the location for several veterans’ memorials:
- The WWII Honor Roll Monument, located at Main Street and South Forest Avenue, was donated by American Legion Post 69 to honor those who served and those who lost their lives in World War II.[legion-post69-memorials]
- A 3-Sided Memorial, located at Main Street and Butler Avenue, was erected by American Legion Post 69 in 1984 to represent World War I, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.[legion-post69-memorials]
References
- nrhp-avon-park-district — Florida Bureau of Historic Preservation / National Park Service. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, Avon Park Historic District (ref. 90000486). 22 March 1990. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/90000486_text
- fm-pr00589 — State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory. First Trust and Savings company building, Avon Park, circa 1920. 1920. first-trust-and-savings-company-building-1920-photograph.md
- fm-pc0381 — State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory. The mall and business area - Avon Park, Florida, 1967. 1967. avon-park-mile-long-mall-1967-postcard.md
- sanborn-1920 — Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, Avon Park, November 1920. 1 November 1920. sanborn-1920-avon-park.md
- fm-rc17233 — State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory. Looking down Main Street - Avon Park, Florida. 8 May 1917. https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/25732
- legion-post69-memorials — American Legion Post 69. Veterans Memorials of Avon Park. ArcGIS / American Legion Post 69 Memorial Records
- founders-garden-club-notes — Avon Park Founders Garden Club. Avon Park Founders Garden Club Notes. Stephenson-Nelson Funeral Home / Local Obituaries & Club Records
- hns-mall-beautification — Highlands News-Sun. Discussions on the Mile Long Mall Beautification. UFDC
Related
- Report: the original town plat, the land title, and the shape of Avon Park
- Avon Park Bandstand
- Royal Page Davidson
- Reference: the 1920 Sanborn map of Avon Park
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
- Florida Bureau of Historic Preservation / National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, Avon Park Historic District (ref. 90000486) (1990)
- State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, First Trust and Savings company building, Avon Park, circa 1920 (1920)
- State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, The mall and business area - Avon Park, Florida, 1967 (1967)
- Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress, Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, Avon Park, November 1920 (1920)
- State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, Looking down Main Street - Avon Park, Florida (1917)
- American Legion Post 69, Veterans Memorials of Avon Park (ArcGIS / American Legion Post 69 Memorial Records) · secondary
- Avon Park Founders Garden Club, Avon Park Founders Garden Club Notes (Stephenson-Nelson Funeral Home / Local Obituaries & Club Records) · secondary
- Highlands News-Sun, Discussions on the Mile Long Mall Beautification (UFDC) · newspaper
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