In the early 1900s, Swedish immigrant and horticulturist Axel Hallstrom sought Florida’s warm climate for his wife’s health and moved to this area to farm tropical trees and fruits. He first planted pineapples on his new farmstead in the area known as the Golden Ridge, but gradually converted the plantation into a citrus grove. By 1918, Hallstrom had completed his brick home. In the 1930s, he became director of the St. Lucie County Bank and kept it open during the Great Depression. Because of his dedication and support of Swedish-American relations during the 1930s and through World War II, the King of Sweden awarded Hallstrom the Royal Order of Vasa in 1958. Hallstrom’s only child, Ruth, continued her father’s legacy of involvement in the community. She traveled by boat from Oslo, Florida, up the Indian River to teach in a one-room schoolhouse in Orchid. Upon her death in 1999, Ruth bequeathed the house to the Indian River Historical Society, and in 2002, the Hallstrom House was listed on the National Register of Historical Places. In 2015, pineapple slips from some of Hallstrom’s original plants returned to the Golden Ridge and were replanted on the Hallstrom Farmstead.