HISTORY OF PASCO COUNTYLake Pasadena Area
Diverse Groups Called Lake Pasadena HomeThis article appeared in the Tampa Tribune on May 6, 2003. By CAROL JEFFARES HEDMAN The community of Pasadena existed only for a brief time in the late 1880s and 1890s. But plenty of history remains in the area surrounding what’s now called Lake Pasadena, southwest of Dade City. The first known residents date to the 1780s when the village of Toadchudka was settled by Eufala Seminoles. They arrived in Florida from Eufala, Ala., in 1767 and later settled what was also called Etowahchutka. It was abandoned about 1836, presumably because of the start of the Second Seminole War. Artifacts also have been found in the area to indicate nomadic people came here more than 10,000 years before to make tools from the outcroppings of agate coral that were prevalent then. This manufacturing site covered several square miles at the south and southwest part of what is now Lake Pasadena. The Toadchudka Seminole Village was located just east of Williams Cemetery on Williams Cemetery Road, west of today’s Prospect Road. Williams Cemetery is the resting ground of many of the early settlers in the Pasadena area, as well as the nearby community of Prospect. The cemetery was started by the Williams family, who deeded two acres. An additional 4 acres was bought from the Hawes family. The story has it that the Williams family allowed a group of travelers to camp on the hillside and, upon returning home from a trip, the Williamses found the visitors had been killed, possibly by American Indians. The visitors were buried in a mass grave that never has been located. Each time a new grave is dug in the cemetery, evidence of that early mass grave is sought. The Williams Cemetery Association was organized in the early 1900s and owns the property west of Prospect Road. Tombstones in the oldest part of the cemetery have been weathered to the point the writing is obliterated. The cemetery includes four and five generations of families including Cripe, Dew, Gaskins, Osburn, Williamson and Wells. The Birth Of Prospect Jacob Wells, one of those buried there, came from Madison County in 1842 and set up a home near Riggs Hammock on what originally was Handcart Road, now Prospect Road. A community developed there called Prospect, about two miles south of State Road 52 where today’s Prospect Road curves west. A log church was built in 1855 and also served as a school. The first Prospect church closed in 1868 but a second was built in 1887 by Jack Osburn and Jack Gaskins on 20 acres deeded by David Osburn Jr. and his wife, Sally Kersey Osburn. The congregation joined the Florida Methodist Conference, and in 1940 the building, then known as Sand Pond School, was purchased for $100 by Med and Mae Stanley Gaskin. They used it for a residence on Fort King Road. The second Prospect church had been located a few hundred yards north of the original church, about a mile southwest of the south end of the lake that took the name of a pet bull in the 1830s. According to legend, a covered wagon traveling along Fort King Road with a herd of cattle stopped for water. Most of the cattle drank from shore, but Buddy the bull waded in and wouldn't budge when it was time to move on. Some say Buddy waded out so far he drowned, while others say the stubborn bull left the water when he was ready and caught up with the herd. The lake became known as Buddy’s Lake, then Buddy Lake and finally Lake Buddy. The community of Prospect was also known as Buddy Lake Settlement. Citrus Money Brings Prosperity Lake Buddy became Lake Pasadena in the 1880s when the wealthy community of Pasadena sprang up with profits from the citrus industry.  The Lakeview Highlands Hotel, located not far from Pasadena and Chesterfield roads, off Clinton Avenue, was built about 1888. It was a luxury hotel where wealthy visitors from the north vacationed. But the freezes of 1894 and 1895 ended the prosperity of the community and the hotel, which burned in 1899. The historic Pasadena Church, at 36134 Clinton Ave., is the only remaining structure from the grand old days. The church, built in 1880s, also served as a community social center and, from 1888-1988, as a polling place. The church was purchased in 1932 from the Methodist Conference and preserved by the Fort King Home Demonstration Club, forerunner of the Pasco County Extension Homemakers Clubs, now called Family and Community Education Clubs. The structure was returned to a place of worship in recent years when it was bought by the Living in Faith Fellowship. A house at 11635 Pasadena Road, at the northwest corner of Pasadena Road and Fordyce Lane, also was built in the 1890s. It is called the Fordyce House, although the family was not the original builder. The house features a square turret upstairs which let in outside light to illuminate the inside staircase. Barbara Berger is the current owner. Also considered a historic site in the Pasadena area is the Solberg House, 11211 Fort King Road, between Waterfall Drive and Lake Pasadena Road. The Georgian-style house was built about 1915. Sverre Solberg, a Norwegian ship captain, bought the house in the early 1930s from Toombs and Lyman Dairy. Solberg served as an officer of the Lykes Brothers Steamship Lines, headquartered in New Orleans. While he was at sea, his wife, Belle Mead “Billie” Solberg, had 10 acres cleared for a citrus grove. Sometime after she was widowed, Billie Solberg moved to a smaller house nearby. Her original house is now owned by Kimberly L. Michaels. Just south, at 10550 Fort King Road, is the Dew Home. The rural Florida-style house was built in 1913 by William Dew, Charlie Knapp and Howard McKillips. The single chimney that supported three fireplaces was one of the first in the area. And the two bedrooms and a portico upstairs afforded a grand view of the countryside. Except for an open north porch upstairs that has been removed, the house has retained its original characteristics, complete with the tin roof. Grace Cripe married Dew in 1929, and they moved into the house in 1943. After William died, Grace lived there until she died in July 2000 at 96. The house remains in her estate. Across Fort King Road, on the west side, is a house ordered from a Sears catalogue by Fred T. and Lizzie Himmelwright in 1926. The next year, the Himmelwrights built the Linda Vista (Spanish for “pretty view”) Store next to their home. The country store sat atop LeHeup Hill, overlooking the communities of Pasadena, Prospect, Dade City, Saint Leo, San Antonio, Sand Pond and Zephyrhills. Linda Vista had a lunch counter and a large sitting room for community events. Outside were gas pumps. Travelers proceeding south on Fort King Road from LeHeup Hill will pass the historic sites of the Freedtown and Earnestville communities. On the south side of Lake Pasadena, near Bozeman Road, is the site of Earnestville. It was settled about 1875 when Elijah Embree Earnest and wife Virginia opened a store on Lake Buddy. The freezes of 1894 and 1895 hit the community hard, and its post office closed in 1899. The freezes also caused residents to abandon Freedtown. It was established about 1869 by recently freed slaves near the end of what is now Bozeman Road, off Fort King Road. The settlement lasted for a generation, with log cabins, a cemetery and an African Methodist Episcopal Church. The buildings were torn down and the cemetery covered over. Church members moved to Dade City and founded Mount Zion AME Church.
Pasco’s High Hills Didn't Measure UpThis article appeared in the Tampa Tribune on Apr. 10, 2004. By CAROL JEFFARES HEDMAN LeHeup Hill gets all the glory. It’s thought by most to be the highest point in Pasco County, and at one time it was a contender for the highest point in Florida. The summit, south of Dade City along Fort King Road, doesn't top the list. But it’s the state’s 23rd highest point above sea level, according to America’s Roof, americasroof.com, an organization that records such things. But for a brief time in 1936, another Pasco County “mountain” vied for the title along with LeHeup Hill.
From his home on the “brow of a hill” accessible via a little traveled road “can be seen a remarkable panorama of the eastern half of the county showing Dade City, the mills of Lacoochee, hills, lakes, groves and homes for miles around,” the article stated. The view from there was unobstructed to the north and south. “But the longest distance can be seen to the east across the low river swamps between Dade City and Orlando,” the Banner said. Rowland had reported seeing smoke from trains between Lakeland and Orlando and, at night, airport lights in Orlando, Lakeland and Plant City. And a “glow in the sky” came from Tampa and Brooksville. But Rowland was most amazed on clear days to see smoke moving in the far distance. From its comparatively slow progress, Rowland believed it came from coastal steamships. Rowland wished he could have measurements taken to measure his property against LeHeup Hill. Many years earlier, Dade City, Clermont and other Florida towns were claiming the highest land in Florida, the Banner said. Dade City’s claim was the property of Gertie M. Dew on Fort King Road. The site, now called LeHeup Hill, overlooks Lake Pasadena and was measured at 330.2 feet above sea level, slightly more than the height given the Rowland property, the article said. But “which ever point is finally proved to be the highest, it is certain that no other section of the state can surpass Pasco County in the height of its hills and beauty of its views,” the Banner said. LeHeup Hill is now designated at 242 feet above sea level, records show. Not making Florida’s Highest Named Summits list is Clay Hill, six miles northwest of Dade City, recorded at 301 feet. That would make it the highest point in both Pasco and Hernando counties. Frazee Hill, at 251 feet above sea level and perhaps where the Rowland property was located, even tops LeHeup Hill. But still the hill named for the family that moved there in 1911 gets the glory as Pasco’s highest point. Its adjoining Nursery Hill, also 242 feet above sea level, and nearby Greer Hill, at 229 feet above sea level, both made the Florida Highest Named Summits list. The highest summit on the list is Britton Hill, at 345 feet above sea level, in Walton County. |
“Pasco Claims Highest Points in Florida,” the Jan. 10, 1936 edition of the