MAIN HOUSE — BUILT IN 1930

POLO MATCH — CIRCA 1930

During the Spanish Mission period Orchard Pond was inhabited by communities of the Apalachee Indians. Certainly, for an area that was in its hey- day the most productive cotton land in North America, it was full of game for the Indians to thrive on.

Lake Jackson Mounds State Park, located on the southern shore of Lake Jackson is the home of the ceremonial meeting grounds of the “Seminole” indians and their precursor the “Apalachee.” Some say that a similar meeting ground is located on Orchard Pond, a place of worship on what we call Magnolia point, which lies just north of the 34,000 acre Lake Jackson watershed.

Soon after Statehood 1837, Orchard Pond Plantation was purchased from the State by the State land officer who later became Governor of Florida, W.Keith Call. His house in Tallahassee is called the Grove, and is presently a state museum. His descendants only recently gave the Grove to the State.

Though the boundaries have changed over the years, the Phipps family purchased the land in the mid 1930s. and continued to expand that acreage. The main house was built in 1930 and modified through the generations to its present configuration of 6,000 square feet.

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