Engines of Growth: the Railroads in DeLand, Florida
By W. E. Roddenberry
DeLand is perched atop a section of high ground known as the DeLand Ridge. The ridge is bordered on the west by the St. Johns River and on the east by a Pamlico Terrace. It is bordered on the north and south respectively by DeLeon Springs and Orange City. It was originally called Orange Ridge because of all of the oranges grown there in the late 1800’s. Prior to the introduction of railroads into the interior of central Florida, in the last three decades of the 19th Century, access for goods and people was gained by steamboats which traveled the St. Johns River between Jacksonville and Sanford.
In 1876, after travelling by steamboat to Enterprise, Henry DeLand visited a small community known as Persimmon Hollow. He recognized its potential for settlement, started promoting development and purchased some landholdings there. He advanced the costs of streets, a school, churches and a public wharf. The residents agreed that the community should be called DeLand. Originally, passengers and freight destined for the DeLand area disembarked on the wharf at Beresford Landing. By 1880, a wharf had been built at Cabbage Bluff which became known as DeLand Landing. In that year, J. Y. Parce, the brother in law of Henry DeLand, obtained the contract to carry the mail from the steamboat landing at DeLand Landing into DeLand. The population of Volusia County in 1880 was 3,294.
During 1881, The Orange Ridge, DeLand and Atlantic Railroad was incorporated. This narrow-gauge line ran from DeLand Landing to a depot located on the south side of New York Avenue between Clara and Delaware Avenues. The line started at DeLand Landing and followed Old New York Avenue to its intersection with what is now State Road 44 and then proceeded easterly to DeLand’s first depot. On March 11, 1882 the town of DeLand was incorporated. G. A. Dreka, who became a very prominent citizen and land owner, established his new mercantile store, which became the largest in north central Florida, on the southeast corner of New York Avenue and Woodland Boulevard. On July 28, 1884, the operation of the railroad commenced. The rolling stock consisted of an engine, two flat cars, three boxcars, and one passenger coach.
On January 9, 1886, the big freeze of 1886 occurred and many citrus growers were ruined. Sometime that year D. B. Parce, the father of J. Y. Parce, fell through the railroad dock at DeLand Landing and sued the railroad for his injuries, whereupon he became the new owner of the railroad. The name of the railroad was then changed to the DeLand and St. Johns Railroad. Later in 1886 the decision was apparently made to reroute the railroad. This decision was probably made because 1886 was the year the Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West Railway line crossed the tracks of the DeLand and St. Johns Railroad at what came to be called DeLand Junction. On September 27, the Big Fire occurred, which burned down the business structures located in the 100 block of. Woodland Boulevard north of New York Avenue. During 1887, DeLand Academy, the outgrowth of the first school funded by Mr. DeLand became DeLand University.
By 1888 the Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West Railroad appeared to have been leasing the DeLand and St Johns Railroad. The tracks between DeLand Landing and DeLand Junction were removed and a new line was constructed between DeLand Junction and DeLand. DeLand was now connected to the rest of the outside world through a steady and reliable form of transportation. A portion of the lands, through which the new line was routed, were owned by John Stetson. The new route followed the now existing. line from DeLand Junction to a point near the corner of Adele and Michigan Avenues then turned southeasterly past the water tower and crossed, diagonally, the St. Barnabas Church property, then turned easterly at Clara Avenue and followed the westerly extension of Ohio Avenue between Clara and Florida Avenues. It followed Ohio Avenue and curved south from Ohio Avenue to the intersection of Church and Amelia Avenues where the line split into four separate tracks.
The most easterly track served various lumber mills, fertilizer manufacturers and finally some warehouses owned by Mr. Dreka. The second track served the freight depot and the third track served the adjacent, second, passenger depot built in 1888. The depot stood in what is now part of Amelia Avenue at the northeast corner of Amelia and New York Avenues. The depot was opposite and east of the Parceland Hotel, built by J. Y. Parce about 1884. The most westerly track continued south to Voorhis Avenue where it serviced a large lumber and planning mill. The only good depiction of the depot and track layout that can be found is on the H. S. Wyllie Panoramic map of 1894 (see foldout in A Pictorial History of Volusia County 1870-1940). On April 3, 1888, DeLand became the county seat. In 1889, DeLand University became Stetson University, which Mr. Stetson had heavily endowed. During 1890 the DeLand and St. Johns Railroad was acquired by the Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West Railroad. The population of Volusia County was 8,467.
By 1892 an Icehouse had been constructed on the lands of Mr. Stetson near the northwest corner of the intersection of Spring Garden Avenue and the railroad line. It was located on a short spur of track running to the north. Just to the south of that spur was the West DeLand Station. Sometime during 1893, the Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West Railroad went bankrupt, probably due to the Financial Panic of 1893, and was reincorporated as the Jacksonville and St. Johns River Railroad and sold to the Savannah, Florida and Western Railway which was part of the Henry B. Plant system.
In the winter of 1894-1895 the Great Freeze occurred. This freeze was so devastating that fruit production fell, in Volusia County, from over
700,000 boxes per year to less than 200. Farmers, fertilizer companies, packing houses and banks were all bankrupted. The railroads suffered a substantial decline in freight revenue.
1896, John Stetson purchased and greatly enlarged the Parceland Hotel, which was renamed The College Arms Hotel, from J. Y. Parce. It was located on the northwest corner of the intersection of Amelia and New York Avenues across from the railroad depot, where the Volusia County Courthouse now stands. By 1897 the DeLand Power plant had been built on the lands of Mr. Stetson on the southwest corner of the intersection of Spring Garden Avenue and the railroad tracks. The West DeLand Station, which was located nearby, had disappeared and been replaced by Stetson Station located on the Southeast corner of that same intersection. Just to the east of that station Mr. Stetson constructed a fruit packing house, a fertilizer warehouse and a feed warehouse, all of which appear to have been connected to the water tower, also located on Mr. Stetson’s property.
Sometime during 1893, the Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West Railroad went bankrupt, probably due to the Financial Panic of 1893, and was reincorporated as the Jacksonville and St. Johns River Railroad and sold to the Savannah, Florida and Western Railway which was part of the Henry B. Plant system.
In the winter of 1894-1895 the Great Freeze occurred. This freeze was so devastating that fruit production fell, in Volusia County, from over
700,000 boxes per year to less than 200. Farmers, fertilizer companies, packing houses and banks were all bankrupted. The railroads suffered a substantial decline in freight revenue.
1896, John Stetson purchased and greatly enlarged the Parceland Hotel, which was renamed The College Arms Hotel, from J. Y. Parce. It was located on the northwest corner of the intersection of Amelia and New York Avenues across from the railroad depot, where the Volusia County Courthouse now stands. By 1897 the DeLand Power plant had been built on the lands of Mr. Stetson on the southwest corner of the intersection of Spring Garden Avenue and the railroad tracks. The West DeLand Station, which was located nearby, had disappeared and been replaced by Stetson Station located on the Southeast corner of that same intersection. Just to the east of that station Mr. Stetson constructed a fruit packing house, a fertilizer warehouse and a feed warehouse, all of which appear to have been connected to the water tower, also located on Mr. Stetson’s property.
1902, the Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West Railroad was acquired by the Atlantic Coastline Railroad. During 1909 G. A. Dreka constructed his new, very large, four-story mercantile establishment, which still stands, at his original site on the southeast corner of New York Avenue and Woodland Boulevard. On December 17, 1909, the depot at the corner of New York and Amelia Avenues burned down. A large number of the citizens of DeLand, accompanied by members of the faculty at the University, petitioned The Florida Railroad Commission to relocate the depot to somewhere west of town because they deemed the town too populous to endure a steady stream of train traffic. The Commission ordered the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad to build a new passenger and freight depot, on lands owned by the Railroad, between Michigan and Minnesota Avenues, to the north and south, and between Clara and Adele Avenues, to the east and west. The Estate of John B. Stetson, Mr. Dreka and a few others objected and sued the Commission to force the rebuilding of the depot at the old site, presumably to protect the value of their nearby properties. The case went to the Florida Supreme Court where, in 1911, the Commission prevailed. The new, third depot, which was served by a still existing three track spur that joined the main line at Amelia and Michigan Avenues, appears to have been built in 1911 or 1912. That depot is long gone.
During 1918, the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad built the “new”, fourth, passenger depot, which is still in use, on the main line just off Old New York Avenue. This was probably constructed to avoid regular passenger runs on the DeLand Junction to DeLand spur.
The tracks that ran down Amelia Avenue, but perhaps not the one to Voorhis Avenue, appear to have remained in place through the middle 1950s. They were partially or wholly removed after that date. The removal of those tracks probably has something to do with the fact that the Bert Fish Memorial Hospital was built on the grounds of the old College Arms Hotel in 1952. It is doubtful that the city fathers thought a rail yard to be a good setting for a hospital. The site of the Bert Fish Memorial Hospital is where the Volusia County Courthouse now stands.
During 1967, the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad was acquired by the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad. The tracks, east of St. Barnabas Church, appear to have been largely if not entirely removed by 1971. It is unknown when the Michigan Avenue depot was removed but it was probably in the 1960’s.
In 1983, the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad was acquired by the Seaboard System Railroad. Finally, in1986, the Seaboard System Railroad was acquired by CSX Transportation.
SOURCES: Florida Geological Survey Bulletins Nos. 29, 51; Florida Geological Society Geologic Maps; Story of DeLand and Lake Helen, Helen Parce DeLand, 1928; Historical Highlights of Volusia County, T.E. Fitzgerald, 1939; Volusia the West Side, Francke et al; Annual Report of Railroad Commissioners of Florida, 1889 and 1911; Sanborn Insurance Company Maps of 1897 and 1915; A Pictorial History of West Volusia 1870-1940, W.G. Dreggors Jr. and Stephen Hess, 1989; List of Florida Railroads, Wikipedia; Volusia County Property Appraiser aerial photographs 1958 and 1971.
Population of DeLand
1890 - 1,113
1900 - 1,449
1910 - 2,812
1920 - 3,324
1930 - 5,246
1950 - 8,652
1960 - 10,775
Wood Burning Locomotive 1880s
Cabbage Bluff - 1884.
Text on this vintage postcard: The trip from Jacksonville to DeLand over the J.T. and K.W. R'y affords one vast panorama of Tropical Scenery, beauty and grandeur, of which it is utterly impossible for a picture to portray.
The DeLand Train
Stetson Depot - 1915
College Arms Buggy - 1900
DeLand Station - 1920s
