Main Street and the Mile-Long Mall
According to Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell’s historical survey in The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida [maxwell-1976], the centerpiece of Avon Park’s urban design is its distinctive Mile-Long Mall—a 100-foot-wide central thoroughfare dividing West Main Street with a 40-foot-wide landscaped parkway planted with flowering jacarandas, royal poincianas, palms, and exotic flora.
Early Main Street before the creation of the Mall, showing deep sand ruts covered with pine needles.[maxwell-1976]
From Pine Needles to the 1920 Mall Plan
In the 1890s, Main Street was a wilderness track of deep sugar sand. To make travel passable for wagons, residents organized communal “sidewalk bees” to rake pine needles from the woods and blanket the roadway [maxwell-1976]. In the winter of 1893–1894, the town built miles of elevated wooden plank sidewalks using lumber provided by Crosby and Burleigh’s sawmills [maxwell-1976].
Following the arrival of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1912 and the rapid growth of automotive traffic, civic leaders recognized the need for a grand boulevard. On July 16, 1920, town voters overwhelmingly approved (142 to 7) a $20,000 municipal bond issue to widen Main Street and acquire right-of-way [maxwell-1976].
The Town Council engaged the Reasoner Brothers landscape nursery of Oneco, Florida, for $165 to draft the initial parkway plans [maxwell-1976]. Existing wooden storefronts, garages, and residences were either relocated or razed to create two parallel one-way paved avenues separated by a 40-foot central park strip [maxwell-1976].
The Mall in the 1920s with central parkway plantings, facing the First National Bank building.[maxwell-1976]
Dr. Charles S. Donaldson: Father of the Mall
Dr. Charles S. Donaldson, a world traveler, naturalist, and citrus grower who later served as Mayor of Avon Park (1929–1931), supervised the planting and botanical development of the Mall alongside architect Linus H. Park and engineer E. Phil Lacey [maxwell-1976].
Dr. Donaldson imported rare subtropical plants from South America, Asia, and the Caribbean, planting jacarandas (famous for their purple spring blossoms), royal poincianas, hibiscus, and palms [maxwell-1976]. Dr. Donaldson also led the conservation drive that established Highlands Hammock as one of Florida’s first state parks. The Garden Club of Avon Park erected a permanent memorial marker on the Mall opposite the Jacaranda Hotel in his memory [maxwell-1976].
The historic 1897 Victorian bandstand in its permanent location on the central Mall.[maxwell-1976]
The Historic Bandstand and Civic Landmarks
- The Bandstand: Built in 1897 on Lake Verona in front of the Verona Hotel, the octagonal Victorian bandstand was moved to Main Street and Lake Avenue in 1912, relocated into the central Mall median in 1922, and restored in 1976 as Avon Park’s official U.S. Bicentennial project [maxwell-1976]. It served as the venue for weekly concerts by the Town Band under instructor C. R. Nichols, political rallies, PTA cake walks, and holiday festivities.
- The Brickel Building: Erected in 1919 by architect Charles W. Pabor at Main and Lake Avenue, housing a second-floor civic auditorium, dental and law offices, and ground-floor hardware and retail merchants [maxwell-1976].
- The Jacaranda Hotel (1926): A grand four-story Mediterranean hotel on East Main Street, built by Grand Rapids furniture manufacturers John D. Raab and Harry A. Winters [maxwell-1976]. The hotel was named for a majestic jacaranda tree that had stood on the building site.
- Commercial District: The Mall corridor housed Touchton’s Rexall Drugs, Jordon & Son Jewelers (established 1919), the Spinks Post Office, the Avalon Theatre (1923), Wells Motor Company (1930), and numerous department and grocery stores [maxwell-1976].
References
- 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
Related
- Mile Long Mall
- Avon Park Bandstand
- Finding: Founding-era surviving structures of Avon Park and the Bandstand
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
- Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell, The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida (Held at the Avon Park Historical Society Depot Museum, Avon Park, Florida) (1976) · book
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