Belair, located between Crystal Lake and what later became known as Belair Station, a signal stop on the South Florida Railroad, was a 400 acre portion of the original 12,000 acre grant acquired by General Henry S. Sanford in 1870. When Sanford found the land at his 100 acre St. Gertrude grove northeast of here unsuitable for oranges because of an impenetrable layer of soil called hardpan, he moved the grove to Belair in 1874. He urged agencies in Washington, D.C. to establish an agricultural experiment station in Florida and in 1881 offered to donate 100 acres for that purpose, repeating the offer in 1884. When those efforts were unsuccessful, he established the first experimental station in Florida to test citrus and tropical plants for their suitability to Florida climate and soils. This 145 acre station devoted ninety-five acres to testing 140 varieties of citrus imported from around the world, fifty acres to lemons, ten acres to nursery stock, less than an acre to 60 varieties of pineapple, and one acre to olive trees. It also included 200 varieties of grapes, three fig trees, and many young pecan trees. A five acre tract with a southern exposure sloping to Crystal Lake contained 60 rare exotics and other flowers and plants, ranging from alligator pear, or avocado, to varieties obtained from worldwide sources. Sanford built a temporary two story frame lodge there for himself in what is now the middle of the present Chase Groves subdivision, and it was destroyed by fire about 1915. In 1902, Belair was purchased by S.O. and J.C. Chase of Philadelphia, and the Chase family continued citrus production at the site until the 1980s.