On a cold clear day last December I needed to get out of the house and
decided to jump on the Bianchi and “find” Summerfield. As a cyclist you may know
Summerfield as the new post office near the intersection of Sunset Harbor Road
and 301.
The General Store on 301 and the RR crossing on Sunset Harbor Road
A post office has been in operation there since 1885 and the community was
named for Col. Adam G. Summer, a local cattleman and land owner. In the early
1900s about 1500 people lived in Summerfield and “downtown” was where the
railroad tracks cross Sunset Harbor Road. A hotel stood there and a local
resident told me the steps to the hotel can still be seen but disappointingly I
was unable to find them.
An older house and the stately home Mayonia
The main industry in the area was farming watermelon, tobacco, cotton,
citrus and cattle which kept the packing houses and the railroad depot busy. The
depot is now gone but it was located near the lake to the north west of the
crossing which provided water for the steam trains and the community.
The old Summerfield School and the new US Post Office
By 1925 the town had prospered to the point where a general store and a new
school had been built. The general store, still there, was also the post office.
Nathan Mayer owned the general store and in 1923 became the most prominent
resident as the Florida Commissioner for Agriculture a position he held for 36
years. The Summerfield school finally closed its doors when integration was
embraced and students transferred to new schools. The new post office is now the
most prominent building
Jim Watts a friend of mine commented on Strava: “I have childhood memories
of much of this. The stately house in your photos is in fact "Mayonia", the
family home of the Mayo family. You misspelled their name as Mayer. It served as
something like an old folks home or boarding house for the elderly in the 70's
& 80's. The brick building near the train tracks was the post office I
remember. A furniture store called White's Furniture bought the school from the
county and used it as a warehouse for many years. In the 60's or 70's the
government purchased enough right-of-way to four-lane 301 through the town, but
never completed the job. My grandparents lost about 10 orange trees with that
deal, but made a few dollars.”
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