LAKE HELEN, 1884

Judge Prevatt died in 1883 and in the spring my father, Henry A. DeLand, bought the estate, consisting of three hundred and forty acres, with the plan of "building one of the prettiest and pleasantest towns in Florida." Associated with him in this enterprise was Berlin H. Wright. He surveyed and made a map of the town in 1884, the limits included about a square mile. Streets were laid out. Lakeview Avenue, the principal business street extends north and south near the west shore of the lake; parallel to this is Euclid Avenue. The intersecting streets beginning at the north are: Connecticut, Baker, Main, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Washington and Ohio. East of the lake, the north and south streets are Orange and Prevatt Avenues; east and west, Tangerine and Lemon Avenues. Early in 1884 a saw mill was started by Boardman and David and kept busily running. The first buildings were the homes of Berlin H. Wright and Dr. John C. Mills and the store of J. G. Sheldon and Company on the corner of Lakeview and Harlan Avenues.

Excerpt from, The Story of DeLand and Lake Helen, Florida

Written by, Helen Parce DeLand