Instructions:
1....Print this file.
2....At its end, click on "rules" to see a copy of the trail rules, print it, and then click where indicated at the end of the 3-page rules and patch order form to get back to the list of Florida trails.
3....If you want a hand-drawn map showing the locations of all of the sites, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to Steve Rajtar, 1614 Bimini Dr., Orlando, FL 32806.
4....Hike the trail and order whatever patches you like (optional).
WARNING - This trail may pass through one or more neighborhoods which, although full of history, may now be unsafe for individuals on foot, or which may make you feel unsafe there. Hikers have been approached by individuals who have asked for handouts or who have inquired (not always in a friendly manner) why the hikers are in their neighborhood. Drugs and other inappropriate items have been found by hikers in some neighborhoods. It is suggested that you drive the hike routes first to see if you will feel comfortable walking them and, if you don't think it's a good place for you walk, you might want to consider (1) traveling with a large group, (2) doing the route on bicycles, or (3) choosing another hike route. The degree of comfort will vary with the individual and with the time and season of the hike, so you need to make the determination using your best judgment. If you hike the trail, you accept all risks involved.
The present fire station sits on the former site of an Indian burial mound from the 1600s. A skeleton found with glass beads and silver ornaments identify it as pre-Seminole.
This club was founded on July 23, 1924. Mrs. C.B. White served as its first president.
This church erected a gospel tent in October of 1949 on E. Wall St., at the later site of the General Telephone building. Rev. J.R. Purvis of Kentucky served as its first pastor. In 1950, it bought this land on E. B St. and completed a sanctuary in January of 1951. A parsonage was built immediately to the east in 1953 and a Sunday school annex was built in 1959. The present brick sanctuary was built in 1971.
A fort was built alongside a cove of Lake Clinch on January 13, 1830. Among those men who once served there were generals A.P. Hill, George C. Meade and "Stonewall" Jackson.
Just to the northwest of the fort site was the homestead of Dosier Keen and his family. The home burned down on January 23, 1939. In the 1950s, the land was owned by Iva Langford.
This church was founded on March 20, 1905, in the home of Mr. and Mrs. C.W. Brown as the Church Among the Lakes. Its first building was erected on Scenic Hwy. near 1st St. in 1912-13 for $1,500, and the name was changed to the Union Church. It became the First Presbyterian Church of Frostproof in 1915. The present brick Colonial style building was erected in 1949.
This meeting place for the Girl Scouts was constructed in 1942 partly of logs felled by the Boy Scouts.
W.H. Overocker applied for the first post office here in 1892, with a name of Keystone City. Postal authorities disallowed it because there was already a Keystone Heights in Florida. Joseph Washington Carson suggested Frostproof as a substitute name, but Overocker instead chose Lakemont. Carson's choise of Frostproof was based on the town's relatively minor damage from the freeze in December of 1894 which ruined much of the state's citrus crop.
Carson volunteered to deliver the application to the post office in Fort Meade, and on the way changed the name from Lakemont to Frostproof, which was approved. Overocker, to his surprise, was appointed the postmaster of Frostproof. The early post office was located on the corner of Wall St. and Carson Ave.
This store was built in 1949 by R.H. Futral, who moved his business here from its previous location on Wall St.
The members of this church first met in the uncompleted Brantley Building in 1922. They next met in a tent at the later site of Citizens Bank. A frame building on Oak Ave. was bought and used by the church, and later was Carl Phillips' home. Later, they acquired this site and built the present Colonial style block building seating 200.
This congregation organized on January 13, 1907, as the Frostproof Baptist Church, meeting in the Union Church building. In 1918, they built a sanctuary on S. Scenic Hwy., replaced in 1956-57 by the present educational building and in 1964 by the new sanctuary.
This congregation was founded in 1910 by individuals who had been attending the Union church. An early preacher was Rev. J. Lawton Moon. A wooden church was erected in 1912 at the corner of Scenic Hwy. and 1st St., costing $2,000. It burned down in February of 1913 and was rebuilt of red brick a block south in 1914. The present sanctuary was built in 1957-58.
The library moved into this building in 1978.
The school erected here in 1905 was the first county-owned school building in Polk County. It consisted on one room with Nina Carson as its first teacher. On the site later was the home of D.E. Davis.
George Washington Hendry constructed the first cabin between the lakes near here. He named the area Keystone City.
Just to the south was a waterway known as "the drain", which emptied Clinch Lake into Reedy Lake, which was 27 feet lower in elevation.
In 1871, Stephen Washington Carson and his family homesteaded two miles east of Fort Meade. There, they planted corn, cotton, cassava, watermelons, beans, potatoes and peas. In 1886, they moved to a new homesite here, and planted the first citrus groves in Frostproof. His was the only citrus from Florida entered in the Atlanta Fair in 1897, as it survived the severe freezes of 1894 and 1895.
In 1933, Lee and Bertha Luella Kipp Gammon moved into the Citrus Exchange Apartments located near the railway station. In 1944, they purchased this property from the Jacques family.
This street was named after Varnum Paine Simmons and his wife, Gertrude. They lived in a home near here called Lantana Cottage, located just north of their packing house.
Behind this home was a feed house where Mrs. Brown made beds for railroad workers when the town was full in 1905-10.
This church was formed as Central Baptist Church in February of 1956. Rev. Tom Cappell served as its first pastor. They bought and occupied the former First Baptist Church building.
The library began in 1921 when a book collection housed in the Presbyterian Church was donated to the school. That year, the Frostproof Library Association was founded and this library building was built in 1922. It was designed by Leo Elliott of Tampa and built by W.C. Roberson at a cost of $3,500. The historical society took it over when the library moved out in 1978.
Built in 1923, this was originally Frostproof High School. It later became the City Hall.
This building served as the City Hall. Later, it was the home of a real estate agency and the City Hall Marketplace.
Before it was complete in 1923, this building was the meeting place of the members of the Church of Christ.
This bank organized in 1920 with John Maxcy as its president. This building was erected in 1925 on the site of the previous one-story Palms Cafe, which formerly housed a doctor's office and post office.
The building cost $100,000 plus $25,000 for furnishings. In the arcade were located a drug store and other businesses.
Joseph Milton bought this land and built a store with living space upstairs. He sold it to John Burleigh, who covered it with brick and moved his retail business here from 8th St. This was the home of the All American Store, bought in 1935 by R.H. Futral, who owned and operated it until 1949.
E.O. Flood built a two-story hotel by June of 1912 on this lot. Landford's Drug Store was located on the first floor, and Dr. McArtan also had an office in the building. Also located inside was the town's first telephone switchboard. In 1914, the hotel was moved a block to the east, then burned down.
In its place was built Frostproof's first brick building, a bank constructed in 1914 for E.E. Skipper. As the McCormick Bank, it had been established in 1912.
This was the site of a tent in which were shown silent movies. In 1925, Mr. and Mrs. Frank C. Thompson erected the $100,000 theater and named it after their youngest son, Ramon. It was also used for live shows and concerts. It closed during the 1960s and was sold to Eddie Elyaman.
This building was erected in 1916-17 by Frank Thompson, and contained businesses on the first floor and rooms to let upstairs.
The first railroad to reach Frostproof arrived in 1912 and the depot was built that year. Clarence Dempsey was the Atlantic Coast Line depot agent from 1912 until 1919.
J.E. Gantt built The Gantt Hotel here in 1914 with electricity, running water and indoor bathrooms. It was acquired in the early 1920s by Daniel W. and Bertha Lovell Stokes and renamed as the Lake Reedy Hotel. Its dining room was the town's only restaurant serving the public.
The Best Small Towns Under the Sun, by Robert J. Howard (EPM Publications, Inc. 1989)
Century In the Sun: A History of Polk County, Florida, by Ed McNeely and Al R. McFadyen (Polk County Centennial Committee 1961)
Crooked Lake - Babson Park Rediscovered, by Louise Quinn (Cody Publications 1990)
The Early History of Frostproof, Vol. I, by Doris Lewis (Frostproof Historical Society 1996)
Florida Historic Markers & Sites, by Floyd E. Boone (Gulf Publishing Company 1988)
History of Polk County, Florida, by M.F. Hetherington (The Mickler House 1971)
History of the Frostproof United Methodist Church, by Virginia w. Lyles (1993)
There's Only One Frostproof, by Mattie B. Duncan (Frostproof Historical Committee 1976)
Yesterday's Polk County, by Louise K. Frisbie (E.A. Seaman Publishing, Inc. 1976)