1925 Taylor Town Planning Map of Pine Crest Lakes, Avon Park, Florida

Florida Land Boom development that actually flourished.

This is a 1925 Albert Taylor planning map for Pine Crest Lakes, Avon Park, Florida. The map lays out Pine Crest Lakes, situated just 3 miles north of Sebring, Florida, between Lake Lotela, Lake Letta, and Lake Little Bonnet. Unlike many Florida Land Boom developments, Pine Crest Lakes was both successful and executed according to plan. Today, the course is one of the highlights of the Florida Historic Golf Trail.

A Closer Look

The development of Pine Crest Lakes was the brainchild of Royal Page Davidson (1870 - 1943), who envisioned a wealthy (no house could be under 5,000 USD) community built around lakeside living and a luxurious golf course. Page's father, Harlan Page Davidson, acquired the land in the 1890s while on a hunting trip. According to the promotional brochure, Harland Davidson heard about the beautiful land from hunting companions and, becoming enamored of it, acquired a large tract. He passed the land to his son, Royal, who began developing it in 1925. Royal contracted the landscape architect and civil engineer Albert Davis Taylor to lay out the lots.

The development centers around a large 18-hole golf course designed by William Herbert 'Bertie' Way (1873 -1963) and Donald James Ross (1872 - 1948). The course opened in 1926 to immediate acclaim, gaining popularity among the midwesterners from Chicago and Cleveland. It is rumored that even gangster-king Al Capone enjoyed multiple visits. In the 1950s, it hosted the first nationally televised PGA event, the World Championship of Golf.

The map is accompanied by a 28-page promotional booklet featuring photos of the development under construction, as well as pages of text that glorify the area and promote both the available lots and the golf course.

Third Florida Land Boom

In the second half of the 19th and throughout the early 20th century, Florida experienced a series of land booms and crashes. This map corresponds to the peak of the Third Florida Land Boom (1920 - 1929), a period of rapid real estate speculation and explosive population growth, catalyzed by Henry Flagler (1830 - 1913) to develop the Florida East Coast Railway and other railroads. The Third Land Boom particularly influenced the development of South Florida cities like Miami, West Palm Beach, and Fort Lauderdale. Improved transportation infrastructure, aggressive marketing, and the allure of Florida's warm climate drew investors - many from northern states - to aggressively buy up land, often sight unseen. The boom led to skyrocketing property prices, with some parcels resold multiple times in a single day. However, by the late 1920s, the frenzy slowed due to overbuilding, transportation bottlenecks, natural disasters like the 1926 Miami hurricane, and, ultimately, the 1929 Stock Market Crash.

Publication History and Census

This map was laid out by Albert Davis Taylor. No printer is named. This is the only known surviving example.

Cartographer

Albert Davis Taylor (July 8, 1883 - January 8, 1951) was an American landscape architect, civil engineer, and author known for his influential public parks, private estates, and subdivisions, primarily in Ohio and Florida. Born in Carlisle, Massachusetts, he earned degrees from Boston College and Cornell University, later teaching at Cornell and working under landscape designer Warren H. Manning (1860 - 1938), where he embraced naturalistic landscape design. Taylor opened his own Cleveland-based practice in 1914, contributing to major projects such as the Van Sweringens' Daisy Hill Estate, the Peterloon and Timken estates, and subdivisions like Avondale and Rookwood. His firm was also involved in significant public works, including Alms and Ault Parks in Cincinnati, Forest Hill Park in Cleveland Heights, and national projects like Boys Town and the Pentagon. An advocate for landscape education, Taylor helped found Ohio State University's landscape architecture program and published The Complete Garden in 1921. As a New Deal consultant to the U.S. Forest Service, he promoted design standards that balanced conservation with public use. He died in Cleveland in 1951, leaving a legacy preserved in his papers at the University of Michigan.   Further Details...

Condition

Good. Wear on original fold lines. Laid down on archival tissue.