The Historical Society of Avon ParkAVON PARK, FL · EST. 1886
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Philip J. Leigh

Philip J. Leigh was a prominent winter resident of Avon Park during the first two decades of the twentieth century. A resident of Atlantic City, New Jersey, where he served as a director of the Atlantic City Horse Show Association, Leigh established a substantial winter estate in Avon Park that became a notable local residence during the pre-World War I era.[nhu-1913-05-04][achs-1900]

Avon Park Residence and Grounds

Leigh developed a multi-acre residential property in Avon Park planted with ornamental cabbage palms, camphor trees, and tropical plantings.[nhu-1913-05-04] The two-story frame residence featured wide verandas, dormered gables, and landscaped perimeter walks, exemplifying the winter-cottage architecture of wealthy Northern seasonal residents who frequented the Lake Wales Ridge before the 1920s Florida land boom.

His brother, Harry Leigh of New Haven, Connecticut, frequently spent winters at the estate, purchasing and leasing commercial property in downtown Avon Park (including a Main Street pharmacy building) and participating in local hunting and lake-fishing excursions across DeSoto County.[nhu-1913-05-04][nhu-1906-01-24] Harry Leigh was an active Connecticut Freemason who took keen interest in establishing Avon Park’s Masonic lodge, reporting in 1913 that town builders were completing a commercial block for the lodge and that members’ wives had made ten aprons.[nhu-1913-05-04] In recognition of the Leigh family’s patron status, the town’s Order of the Eastern Star body, active by January 1915, was designated Leigh Chapter No. 85.

Photographic Legacy of Early Avon Park

In May 1913, Harry Leigh published a six-photograph pictorial spread in The New Haven Union documenting his stay at Philip Leigh’s estate.[nhu-1913-05-04] This collection preserves the earliest known visual documentation of:

  1. The Atlantic Coast Line Depot: The original 1912 wooden passenger and freight depot at Church Street and Michigan Avenue.
  2. Citrus Packing Logistics: Ox-drawn wagons hauling citrus into Avon Park’s two packing houses from remote groves 20 to 80 miles across the ridge flatwoods.
  3. Pioneer Landscaping: Philip Leigh’s residence and manicured grounds showcasing the introduction of ornamental camphor trees to south-central Florida.

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 New Haven Union (New Haven, Conn.), Winter Scenes Down at Avon Park, Florida / Misses Japan But Lands in Florida — Harry Leigh's Fine Outing in the South, The New Haven Union (New Haven, Conn.), 4 May 1913, page 23 (1913)
  2. The Daily Morning Journal and Courier (New Haven, Conn.), The Daily Morning Journal and Courier (New Haven, Conn.), 24 January 1906 — Harry Leigh wintering at Avon Park (1906)
  3. Atlantic City Horse Show Association, Annual Report of the Atlantic City Horse Show Association, 1899-1905 (1905)

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