Will Wallace Harney built a large English-style home called Pine Castle on his homestead along the western shore of Lake Conway in 1873, using pine trees from his land. The house had two turrets flanking the front entrance, and its exterior boards were attached vertically instead of by the more common horizontal method. Harney planted a variety of crops but made his living mainly as a writer, becoming an unofficial ambassador for Florida through articles in newspapers such as the Cincinnati Commercial during the 1870s that introduced readers to orange groves, pine forests, and alligators when Florida tourism was in its infancy. In 1884 he moved to Kissimmee and established the weekly newspaper The Bittersweet. His home was then left vacant, fell into disrepair, and was destroyed by fire in 1894, after which he retired to Jacksonville, where his only son had settled. Pleasure Beach at the end of Wallace Road on Lake Conway later became a popular gathering place for Pine Castle residents, especially in the 1920s, hosting church, school, and family picnics, Union Church baptisms, canoe rides, and recreation at a long dock with benches, diving boards, and a water slide. A nearby pavilion had a bath house on the first floor and space upstairs for dancing and skating, and slot machines drew gamblers from as far away as Windermere and Apopka. Although the pavilion burned in the late 1920s, the dock and beach remained in public use until a family built a home there in the 1940s and closed the beach to the public.