A citrus utopia
After the Florida land bubble burst in 1926, and with the onset of the Great Depression, land investors that survived bankruptcy utilized new tactics to market citrus land. Although the underlying “booster” tone remained the same, developers needed to show why their operation was different and give realistic goals. The planned community of Howey-in-the-Hills was meant to solve all the common problems of transportation, marketing and freezes that growers faced in the early years of the industry. The founder William J. Howey was also the first to implement a citrus-juicing factory in the state of Florida in 1921. Howey-in-the-Hills prospers to this day as a luxury resort community, as well as a citrus-juicing house where groves still dot the town’s outskirts.