Runnymede was originally established in 1885 and called Wharton. A man name Beauchamp Watson owned a home and a store here. He eventually operated the Runnymede Hotel, which was popular among English visitors. The hotel was originally created as an agricultural school in 1890. Runnymede was on the Sugar Belt Railroad line, and the Disston Drainage Company used the hotel as headquarters at one time. The hotel was abandoned in the 1920s and eventually dismantled in the 1940s.