Foxleigh is an unincorporated area in

Manatee County Manatee County is a county in the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 399,710. Manatee County is part of the North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its county seat and largest ci ...

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, in the

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. Foxleigh was a grove ranch located along Upper Manatee Road and off State Road 64 in northeastern Manatee County. It began as Eagle Fruit Farms, its more familiar name, and was operated by Eagle Fruit Company.

History

In 1923,

Sam Breadon Samuel Wilson Breadon (; ''BRAY-din'') (July 26, 1876 – May 8, 1949) was an American executive who served as the president and principal owner of the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1920 through 1947. During that tim ...

(1876-1949), owner/president of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team entered into a partnership with William H. Anderson (1855-1938), a Cardinals stockholder to establish Eagle Fruit Company. Breadon was keen on farming and had recently chosen Bradenton as the spring training headquarters of the Cardinals. The partnership ended in 1934 when Breadon sustained a loss of $7,000 and subsequent time in court. The company was dissolved in 1935. Missouri-based Gertrude Fox made the ranch her private estate when she purchased it in 1939, renaming it "Foxleigh". She ran a mink farm and was the author of books on fur making. Fox subsequently sold the property in 1945 to the Lee Company, and shortly after, a fire destroyed the farm. In 1948, the farm was put up for sale, and Eagle Fruit Farms, Inc. name was officially dissolved. A portion of the former ranch was sold off in 1952 for a planned dairy and cattle ranch. In 1968, a legal notice in the ''Bradenton Herald'' listed the property as abandoned.''The Bradenton Herald'', August 13, 1968, www.newspapers.com. The property was developed and is part of the northeastern Manatee County area. As of 2021, the site is occupied by the Gates Creek subdivision.

References

{{Manatee County, Florida Unincorporated communities in Manatee County, Florida