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History of Avalon Groves

Timeline

• 1920: Orlando Orange Groves Company charter is taken to Tallahassee
• 1921: Copy of Charter Verified by Secretary of State of the State of Florida
• February 18, 1921: Copy of Charter notarized in Tallahassee
• October, 1924: J. P. Holbrook has a photoshoot at the entrance to Avalon Groves
• 1926-27: Manuscript Written
• 1928: F. H. Thwing named the President of the Avalon Groves Co.
• 1930: T. Picton Warlow sued
• 1932: Avalon Groves lawsuit
• 1932: Avalon Groves sold to Arthur Davenport
• 1935: Avalon Groves resold to R. D. Keene

Beginning in 2016-2017, student workers at the McKay Archives Center, led by Archivist Gerrianne Schaad, have analyzed a manuscript acquired by the Archives in order to put together an inclusive history of the people and the property mentioned in the Business Proposal. The manuscript, an investment proposal for a tract of land in Orange County, FL, was likely created around 1926; it outlines a business enterprise belonging to some of the most influential people in early Orlando’s history. Avalon Groves, as it was named, and the Orlando Orange Groves Company, its parent company, were surrounded by money, influence, and (as we discovered in the course of our study) scandal. The students employed by the Archives have put together historical data ranging from newspapers and history books to commission and business records to put together a picture of the events and influences surrounding the company, the Orlando of the late Twenties, and of Central Florida when it was still dominated by swamps and citrus.