Bob Grenier

Tavares (Images of America) Bob Grenier

In 1875, wealthy attorney and newspaperman Maj. Alexander St. Clair Abrams and his wife, Joanna, journeyed north from their home in Orlando to a bridge of land weaving through a chain of beautiful lakes. It was here, in the heart of the state, where Major St. Clair Abrams envisioned a town that would someday be the seat of a new county. In 1880, he began to lay out his town, calling it after a Spanish ancestor, a grandee named Lopez Para y Tavares. St. Clair Abrams made Tavares a railroad hub, believing railroads and waterways were the key to growth and prosperity. He built hotels, mills, factories, and parks. Despite a destructive fire in 1888 that leveled the business district and the 1894 and 1895 freezes that set back the citrus industry, settlers continued to arrive. Today, Tavares maintains its small-town charm while it prospers as "America's Seaplane City."