Emergency Biohazard Cleanup Near Chicago Avon Park, FL

Avon Park is the oldest city in Highlands County, Florida - Connecticut native Oliver Martin Crosby settled the area in 1884, and the community was founded in 1886 as the Town of Lake Forest.

English settlers recruited from Stratford-upon-Avon renamed the town for Shakespeare's hometown, and it was incorporated as the City of Avon Park on January 1, 1926.

The population of Avon Park was 9,658 at the 2020 census, and the city is part of the Sebring metropolitan area in Florida's citrus-growing heartland.

Avon Park hosted Major League Baseball spring training in the 1920s - the St. Louis Cardinals trained at Cardinal Field (now Head Field) from 1927 to 1929.

World War II brought major change to the area when the Avon Park Army Air Field was established nearby in 1941; after the war the airfield evolved into the Avon Park Air Force Range.

Avon Park is home to South Florida State College, founded by the Florida Legislature on July 7, 1965; its 228-acre Highlands Campus sits on an isthmus between Lake Lelia and Lake Glenada just south of the city.

The college - which began classes in 1966 in borrowed buildings including an empty supermarket and a former hotel - also runs the Museum of Florida Art and Culture.

Local students attend Avon Park High School, home of the Red Devils.

The restored 1926 railroad depot in downtown now houses the Avon Park Depot Museum, telling the story of the railroads and citrus groves that built the town.