The Hills of Clermont

Clermont, the Gem of The Hills. Postcard circa 1930's

Last week we drove out to Clermont to build a paver patio.
As we headed up the turnpike from I-4, we began the climb into low hills that mark the western side of Orlando, I remember that if your driving up from Miami, this is the first real change in terrain that you would have experienced in two hundred fifty miles. It's the place that the huge savanna that holds the Kissimmee River basin, Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades ends and the sand hills of the state's spine begin.

View of Fosgate Groves, 1940's.

Clermont is the hilliest part of this area. It's home to the citrus tower, a two hundred plus foot edifice that was originally erected to let tourists marvel at the sight of endless miles of beautiful citrus groves rolling symetrically over the landscape. Much of this land once belonged to my great uncle Chester Fosgate, a pioneer in the citrus industry. Since my cousins sold 12oo acres of the grove, called Sky Top, about twenty years ago, the oranges are gone and have been replaced by equally symetrical lines of stucco and wallboard construction whose drabness is hardly ever interrupted by trees.

Citrus Tower. Postcard circa 1956.

There are some nice things. The National Triathlon Training Center is here and a golf course has used the elevation changes to create a dramatic setting for the sport. People have access, as they drive up the roads, to look down on Lake Apopka and downtown Orlando over twenty miles away, and experience views which are for Florida, astounding and beautiful.

Citrus Tower, Circa 1950's.

It is really a unique place. The scarred nature of the rude construction could certainly be significantly healed if more than a handful of people would landscape their land and turn it into garden space. Many are transplants who have no clue about plants or the beautiful spot that was once the source of tens millions of valencia oranges that gave up their juice at breakfast tables all over the world. Lucy, I think we got a lot of splaining to do.