Page 141 - John Anderson

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Chapter 7
The Hotel Ormond is Born

At the end of the first three years of pioneering work in the New
Britain colony, Anderson and Price were the only representatives left
of the original three companions in each of their camps. The colony
was abuzz with new construction and citrus grove expansion. They
continued to take an active interest in county affairs and especially in
the development of the New Britain colony. By this time Anderson and
Price had formed a partnership and were planning activities in New
Hampshire during the summer season and in Florida during the
winter months. The Portland and Ogdensburg Railroad (chartered in
1867 in Crawford’s Notch, N.H.) was nearing completion in 1875
through the Crawford notch. Consequently, several hotels in the area
were being designed, built, or expanded to accommodate rapidly
increasing tourism in the White Mountains. This tourist activity in the
White Mountains continued and by the mid 1880’s certainly inspired
Anderson and Price to look into the possibility of a North-South
railroad through Volusia County, Florida, and consideration for a hotel
to accommodate guests during Florida’s mild winter months. The
caveat was that Anderson and Price would be almost guaranteed
year-round patronage by owning and managing hotels in both the
north and south. During this same period John Anderson continued to
expand his Santa Lucia Plantation nestled along the East bank of the
Halifax River, adjacent to the Bostrom brothers’ properties.
In 1886, Utley J. White, with financial support of "The Deacon”
(Stephen Van Cullen White) behind him, pushed the St. John's and
Halifax Railway across from Rawleston, three miles above Palatka, to
Ormond. Anderson and Price decided that Ormond ought to have a
respectable hotel in order to further the development of the Halifax
Country, and with the financial help of Stephen Van Cullen White they
built the first section of "The Ormond" in the summer of 1887. It was
not an easy undertaking, nor was it easy for the other hotel men of
the state to see how a hotel in that unknown wilderness called Halifax
Country could possibly succeed. A small house (house was the
common name for a hotel in these days), with a capacity for a
hundred and twenty-five guests (75-rooms), was built under the

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