What Makes Brown’s Landing, ‘Brown’s Landing’
For us at ICI Homes, one of the fun parts of being Florida’s Custom Builder is the uniqueness of our communities. We’ve helped folks find or build their dream homes all over the Sunshine State for more than three decades, and we’re privileged to work with some spectacular natural canvases.
One of our newest communities — Brown’s Landing in Port Orange — is a perfect example.
Located two miles west of Interstate 95 and only four miles south of Daytona Beach, the 131-acre tract has a rich history and beauty. It’s close enough to shopping and services for a quick grocery run, yet secluded enough to be lulled asleep by chirping cicadas or rainfall on the roof.
In Part …show more content…
Many native peoples also hunted and fished local lands in the hundreds of years before Europeans arrived.
Brown’s Landing’s hometown of Port Orange dates back to 1804, when a British farmer named Patrick Dean accepted a 995-acre Spanish land grant (Florida was still under Spanish rule) and built a sugar mill near the northeast boundaries of today’s Port Orange.
“Wow!” you say.
Many historical events happened in this area between 1804 and the mid-20th century — see Part 3 of our special series on Brown’s Landing — but for now, fast-forward to 1949, when a Port Orange-based German doctor named Dr. Vanvalzeh, sold a tract of rural acreage to the Brown family from eastern North Carolina.
Per longtime local businessman Hyatt Brown, who spent considerable time on the property as a boy, his family used it for different farming operations and as a hunting preserve from 1949-1961. Hyatt Brown’s father retired in 1961 and passed away in 1980. The younger Brown remained the property’s caretaker until its sale to ICI …show more content…
The Browns planted citrus groves and rented out tracts for hay production. One grove was located on what is now Lots 12-41. Fresh-water springs were discovered on what is now Lots 27-28 — the Browns even considered bottling that water!
Whoever buys Lots 32-33 won’t build the first houses on those two lots. An old home occupied that ground during the Brown family era.
On the east side of the property, the family kept horses and a barn that dated to 1951. A water tower for the citrus groves also inhabited this area. The elder Mr. Brown dug a large pound near a cypress grove, and Hyatt remembers canoeing on adjacent creeks, hunting the property and working citrus and hay fields.
Brown’s Landing is a Beautiful Place
Old oaks, towering pines and native palms still thrive here. So does the largest bald cypress tree in Volusia County, which measures a whooping 24 feet in diameter! It’s part of a generous tree canopy that filters the bright Florida sunlight and also serves as nature’s buffer against