Sanford Real Estate

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An older agricultural and resort area, Sanford is home to the Delta Connection Academy, Seminole Community College and the Central Florida Zoological Park. The city is situated beside Lake Monroe and the St. Johns River.

Florida was acquired by the United States from Spain in 1821, but the Seminole Wars would delay settlement.  In 1845, Florida became a state. Orange groves were planted, with the first fruit packing plant built in 1869. In 1870, General Henry Shelton Sanford bought 12,548 acres to the west of Mellonville and laid out the community of Sanford. Believing it would become a transportation hub, he called it "The Gateway City to South Florida." A colony of Swedes was recruited, arriving by steamboat in 1871 to settle the town and work its groves.

Incorporated in 1877 with a population of 100, Sanford absorbed Mellonville in 1883. The South Florida Railroad ran a line from Tampa to Sanford, where the Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West Railroad ran a line to Jacksonville, and the area became the largest shipper of oranges in the world. Arriving by steamer in April of 1883, President Chester A. Arthur vacationed a week at the Sanford House, a lakeside hotel built in 1875 and expanded in 1882.

But in 1887, the city suffered a devastating fire, followed the next year by a statewide epidemic of yellow fever. When the freezes of 1894 and 1895 ruined the citrus industry, farmers diversified by growing vegetables as well. Celery was first planted in 1896, and until 1974 the community would be nicknamed Celery City. In 1913, Sanford became county seat of Seminole County, created from Orange County. Agriculture continued to dominate the economy until 1940.

The opening of Walt Disney World in October 1971 shifted the economy of Central Florida further toward tourism and residential development, the epicenter of which is Orlando. But because of Sanford's former preeminence as a trade center, the city retains a significant collection of older commercial and residential architecture, on streets shaded by live oaks hung with Spanish moss. Its charm has made Sanford a setting for movies, including My Girl, 1991, Passenger 57, 1992, Rosewood, 1997, and Monster, 2003.

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