Philippe Park is a

Pinellas County Pinellas County (, ) is a county located on the west central coast of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 959,107. The county is part of the Tampa–St. Petersburg– Clearwater, Florida Metropolitan Statistical ...

park located in

Safety Harbor, Florida Safety Harbor is a city on the west shore of Tampa Bay in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. It was settled in 1823 and incorporated in 1917. The population was 16,884 at the 2010 census. History The area has been inhabited since the Stone ...

. The park is named after

Odet Philippe Odet Philippe was the first permanent, non-native settler on the Pinellas peninsula in what is now the state of Florida, acquiring of land in what is today Safety Harbor in 1842. He was a successful businessman who introduced cigar making and ci ...

, who is credited with introducing

grapefruit The grapefruit (''Citrus'' × ''paradisi'') is a subtropical citrus tree known for its relatively large, sour to semi-sweet, somewhat bitter fruit. The interior flesh is segmented and varies in color from pale yellow to dark pink. Grapefruit is ...

to Florida. It is situated on that was once part of Philippe's plantation. Philippe was the county's first non-native settler, arriving in 1842. Philippe is buried in the park but the exact location is undetermined. Half a century later the plantation was still growing citrus, as a nursery for the area extending north to

Tarpon Springs Tarpon Springs is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. The population was 23,484 at the 2010 census. Tarpon Springs has the highest percentage of Greek Americans of any city in the US. Downtown Tarpon Springs has long been a focal poi ...

. Then, here in 1907 citrus leprosis was first discovered by Fawcett.

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...

CL went on to almost eliminate

citrus growing in Florida The Florida Department of Citrus (FDOC) is an executive state agency for agriculture in Florida in charge of regulating, researching and marketing the state's citrus industry and citrus research. Its headquarters are in the Bob Crawford Agricultu ...

by 1925. A

Tocobaga Tocobaga (occasionally Tocopaca) was the name of a chiefdom, its chief, and its principal town during the 16th century. The chiefdom was centered around the northern end of Old Tampa Bay, the arm of Tampa Bay that extends between the present-day ...

Indian mound that is situated in the park is a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

known as the

Safety Harbor Site The Safety Harbor site is an archaeological site in Philippe Park at 2525 Philippe Parkway in Safety Harbor, Florida, United States. It is the type site for the Safety Harbor culture, and includes the largest remaining mound in the Tampa Bay a ...

. The temple mound is one of the last remnants of the Tocobaga on the Pinellas Peninsula. Records indicate that

Pedro Menéndez de Avilés Pedro Menéndez de Avilés (; ast, Pedro (Menéndez) d'Avilés; 15 February 1519 – 17 September 1574) was a Spanish admiral, explorer and conquistador from Avilés, in Asturias, Spain. He is notable for planning the first regular trans-oceani ...

, the founder of

St. Augustine, Florida St. Augustine ( ; es, San Agustín ) is a city in the Southeastern United States and the county seat of St. Johns County on the Atlantic coast of northeastern Florida. Founded in 1565 by Spanish explorers, it is the oldest continuously inhabit ...

, visited the site in 1566 to help broker a truce between the

and the

Calusa The Calusa ( ) were a Native American people of Florida's southwest coast. Calusa society developed from that of archaic peoples of the Everglades region. Previous indigenous cultures had lived in the area for thousands of years. At the time of ...

to the south. During the visit Pedro Menéndez founded a Spanish outpost nearby, but by 1567 it was reported to have been wiped out by the Tocobaga. Eventually the temple mound was deserted. The Tocobaga succumbed to European diseases, and many were forced into slavery working in the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

Gallery

Image:Philippe Park Info Plaque.jpg Image:Odet Philippe Grave.jpg Image:Odet Philippe Epitaph.jpg Image:Odet Philippe Grave Earthworks.jpg Image:Safety Harbor Site top-down 01.jpg Image:Philippe Park Panorama.jpg Image:Philippe Park Waves.jpg Image:Philippe Park Mangroves.jpg Image:Phillippe Park view from the bottom of the Tocobaga Temple Mound.jpg Image:Phillippe_Park_Dedication.jpg Image:Phillippe_Park_Dedication_Detail.jpg Image:Phillippe_Park_Tocobaga_Mound.jpg

References

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External links

Official SitePicnic in Quiet at Philippe ParkGoogle Maps Philippe Park
Parks in Pinellas County, Florida 1948 establishments in Florida Protected areas established in 1948