The Largest Orange Grove in the World

Temple Terraces Florida-Tampa's Most Beautiful Suburb was planned with the Temple Terraces Golf and Country Club and a five thousand acre Temple orange grove laid out along the Hillsborough River. Planted in 1921, the grove was the largest in the world at the time. Buyers in Temple Terraces Estates could invest in the grove to help offset the cost of home ownership, with stock offered at one hundred dollars per share for those unable to buy orange grove acreage, and purchases of ten or more shares included a Country Club membership and one building lot. Ten percent of the stock purchase price was intended for a fund to build the clubhouse, streets, bungalow sites, ornamental trees, and other public improvements. D. Collins Gillett, president and founder of Temple Terraces, Inc. and president of Buckeye Nurseries, praised the newly discovered Temple orange as "undoubtedly the highest grade of citrus fruit yet evolved." Once the trees bore fruit, the Temple orange became an immediate sensation, and the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad built a spur track to Temple Terrace to bring in building materials and carry the oranges to northern markets. Within a few years, the groves were expected to produce one million boxes of Temple oranges each year. In 1927, a freeze and the neglect that followed during the Great Depression decimated the entire grove. In 2016, a mini-grove of Temple orange trees was planted at Greco Middle School, sponsored by Ken Ward and family in memory of Lester "Mac" McClung, a longtime Temple Terrace resident and a member of the inaugural University of Florida Bachelor of Science class in Agricultural Engineering in 1951.

Temple Terrace, Florida · United States