Orange Home was a community in Florida and is now a neighborhood 3 miles from
Wildwood, Florida
Wildwood is a city in Sumter County, Florida, United States. The population was 6,709 at the 2010 census. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2018 estimates, the city had a population of 7,024. Due to rapid growth the city had over 33,000 res ...
. It was a stop on a rail line through the area.
Orange Home dates to at least 1886 when it was listed in a Florida state directory as "Eight miles west of Leesburg, on the I. R. branch of the F. R. & N. Co's railroad".
At the time it had a store, public school, a commercial school, blacksmiths, and a saw mill.
In 1925, a new city was planned in the area.
In 1926, the plans included an educational center, an idea originally made by the previous owner of the property, state senator
David Hume Baker.
The land was acquired by C. Edgar Wood a capitalist from
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
with the aim to develop it and the area around
Lake Okahumpka and
Lake Deaton.
State senator Baker lived in Orange Home and his historic Baker House remains there. Baker served in the
Kentucky Senate
The Kentucky Senate is the upper house of the Kentucky General Assembly. The Kentucky Senate is composed of 38 members elected from single-member districts throughout the Commonwealth. There are no term limits for Kentucky Senators. The Kentu ...
before moving to Florida and served in the
Florida Senate. His family acquired 1,200 acres of what had been orange groves and converted them to cattle ranchlands after a freeze.
References
Neighborhoods in Florida
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