College Park Neighborhood Association Historical Committee’s Ivanhoe Area Historic House Tour, 1995

On the shores of Lake Ivanhoe, near where Dartmouth Street meets the lake, ground was broken Feb. 26, 1925 for the first subdivision to be called College Park (north to Princeton, west to Edgewater, east to University). The developers of this former citrus grove property were David A. Copper, S. Howard Atha, and Harry W. Barr, partners in CABCO, the Copper-Atha-Barr Real Estate and Mortgage Co. The firm later created seven more College Park subdivisions, extending west to Rio Grande and as far as from Golfview to Bryn Mawr. Their success caused our much larger neighborhood to be College Park.

Another major developer, Walter W. Rose (later State Senator), had already capitalized on the appeal of college-named streets – his 1921 Rosemere subdivision included Princeton, Harvard, Yale and Cornell streets. Closer to what was to be the “cornerstone” of College Park, Rose created Rose Terrace in 1924; the north/south streets were briefly called Severn and Newborn instead of Elizabeth and Harrison.

College Park, Rosemere, Rose Terrace and other developments were part of the frantic Florida boom of the 1920’s. According to David Cooper’s son Wayne, then a young salesman, “we’d sell 100 lots in a day… Half the people down here were real estate people selling to each other…. I’d get a contract to buy a house,… sell it to (a colleague),… then we’d sell it to someone else,” always for a higher price. With speculation rampant, the boom was bound to “bust” before all the lots could be built on. As property values dived, many lots remained vacant for years. Thus in addition to 1920’s homes, there are homes from the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s, sometimes in the same block.

From Tour Headquarters at Christo’s Subs and Salads on the northeast corner of Edgewater Drive (called Apopka Rd. in the 1920’s) and Dartmouth Street, turn east on Dartmouth to enter a block with an unusual variety of traditional architectural styles. 

Introductory excerpt from:

College Park Neighborhood Association Historical Committee’s Ivanhoe Area Historic House Tour, December 3, 1995 (View Document).

Ivanhoe Area House Tour Addresses:

1. 618 Dartmouth Street

2. 611 Dartmouth Street

3. 610 Dartmouth Street

4. 600 Dartmouth Street

5. 505 Ivanhoe Boulevard

6. 1916 Elizabeth Avenue

7. 2013 Harrison Avenue

Notable names mentioned include: S. Howard Atha, H. A. Baldwin, Harry W. Barr, Cora Paul Blair, Fred Johnson Blair, Brantley and Caroline Burcham, Esther Burke, David A. Cooper, George M. and Pearl DeMent, Bernard and Mary Edenfield, Edith and Bernard C. Elliott, Mrs. Ethel T. Elliott, Rupert B. and Mildredge Griffith, Charlotte Haley, A. Halley, Mary P.A. Horne,  Ruth and W. Arthur Humphries, Manuel H. Jones, Wayne Cooper, Hilda and George Loehr, B. J. Lord, Harry and Mary D. Loucks, Mattie and William E. Martin, James G. Manuel, B. F. McElroy, Agnes Morgan Newell, Jonathan and Harriet Plunkett, William D. and Ruth Ray, Dr. Samuel F. Ricker, Walter W. Rose, Lillian and Wallace R. Roy, Leo E. Smyth, Marie and Wallace Snow, Richard C. and Helen Steck, Raymond C. Stevens, James H. and Patricia Anne Stone, Sarah and Julius C. Townsend, Jr. , George Wettstein, Jr., Hilda and J. Lucien Wolcott.

Also noted, are the first subdivision in College Park, College Park subdivisions history, 1720 Ivanhoe Boulevard, and 529 Dartmouth Street.

Document courtesy of the College Park Neighborhood Association Historical Committee.