- December 14, 2024
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On Saturday, Nov. 4, Port Orange will officially open the awaited Riverwalk Park on Ridgwood Avenue. The addition of the park is only one reminder of how much the city has changed in the 150 years since the city was founded.
This year, Port Orange celebrates those 150 years as a city. But it wouldn't be a celebration without looking back on the events and people who made the city what it is today. Maybe one of the best places to start is with the city's name.
Mark Pierson, president of the Port Orange Historical Trust, explained the following story: in the mid-1800s, when the U.S. postmaster general controlled the naming of cities, a delegation from Florida was sent to Washington D.C. to name the area now know as Port Orange.
However, the first choice had not been Port Orange but rather Orange Port, due to the citrus industry. Upon arriving in Washington D.C., the delegation was informed Orange Port had been taken.
"Back in day they wouldn't let towns have the same name," Pierson said.
Rather than travel back to Florida and come up with a new name, the delegation simply decided to swap the words. The name was accepted and in 1867 the name Port Orange was official. In 1913 Port Orange was incorporated as a town. Thirteen years later, in 1926, it became a city.
But Port Orange, or Orange Port, hadn't always been what the area was called. Port Orange had originally been named Dunlawton by Sarah Anderson who had bought a plantation located where the city currently is located. Anderson had bought the land in 1832, after the previous owner, Patrick Dean, died. Dean had been granted the 995 acres on the west bank of the Halifax River and used the land to build a sugar mill.
"In the early early 1800s most of Florida was all plantations. In 1836, the Seminole Indians came through and burned down plantations, including Dunlawton plantation," Carol Kubacki, Port Orange Historical Trust treasurer said. "That was what started the development of where we are now."
Kubacki, who has lived in Port Orange since 1995, said what she has seen change the most is development. She describes Port Orange in the 90s as "small and quiet."
Pierson has also seen that growth in the roughly 20 years he has been a Port Orange resident. He said the city used to have a small-town atmosphere, something he feels has started to disappear. He noted that many of the mom-and-pop stores, like Sweetwater's Restaurant and Booth's Bowery are no longer standing.
"You start to lose some of that comfy little hometown feeling," Pierson said. "It starts to disappear."
Port Orange resident Jennifer Gill also remembers when Port Orange was a smaller version of its current self. Gill, the Port Orange Historical Trust Membership representative, has lived in the city since 1973 and recalls when farm land was still a common sight on Dunlawton and Aunt Catfish's was Dave's Dock.
Gill had an apartment on the second story of Dave's Dock and used to walk across part of the roof to get in. Now, Gill is working on transcribing recordings made in the 1980s of Port Orange residents sharing their memories of growing up in the area. Gill has found stories of people wrapping their legs in newspaper to keep the mosquitos from biting and other stories of when there was no bridge and if a person didn't have a boat they would have to travel to Daytona to cross the Halifax.
"I love history and I love the history of the old town, but there were a lot of hardships. We're so lucky with the conveniences we have today," Gill said. "I think Port Orange is a great place to live. I still live on the river, I love it."
For Port Orange Vice Mayor Bob Ford, development has been a major change he has seen throughout the years. Ford, who came to Port Orange as police chief in the mid-1980s, said his memories of Port Orange are that of rapid growth, which he considers healthy and positive.
Ford said within the first several years as police chief he witnessesed the city increasing the number of traffic lights to seeing new subdivisions being built to watching Williamson Boulevard going from an old dirt road to the modern four-lane road it is today.
Ford recalls one year when he went to Russia and brought back several Russian police officers to visit Florida and learn about the U.S. It was their reaction to visiting Port Orange that stands out to Ford.
"They said, 'how clean, how neat, how well taken care of it is,'" Ford said. "And I think that's something you'll see in Port Orange."
