âfreeâ golf courses is included in the monthly amenity fees. In effect, all Villagers are subsidizing these executive courses for the minority who actually use them. Championship eighteen-hole courses can cost upwards of fifty dollars a game.
Regardless, the little mobile home park swelled with retirees practically overnight. By 1987, the development had $40 million in annual sales. In short order, Gary built more and more amenities: eighteen more holes of golf, an unpretentious country club, more pools, and another recreation center with its own restaurant.
As the community expanded, father and son tried to attract businesses that would cater to the residentsâ needs. They knew that conveniently located retail stores and doctorsâ offices were important to the creation of a truly self-contained community. But they couldnât find any takers. The area was still in the middle of nowhere, and retirees were often assumed to be poor, thrifty, and generally bad business. So the family members themselves opened and operated several businesses, including a gas station and mini-mart, a restaurant, a liquor store, and a Laundromat.
Flushed with success, they began building more homes on the other side of what was then a small county road but today is a sixlanehighway. Within ten years, the family had built its own downtown (Spanish Springs); and soon a Winn-Dixie supermarket, a few banks, and other businesses flocked to the development.
Each phase of housing was more upmarket than the previous one, but the neighborhoods were configured similarly with adjoining recreation facilities and golf courses, just like Sun City. Faced with an increasing number of new neighborhoods, Harold hit on an idea: he would call each one a âvillage.â Orange Blossom Gardens, with its little trailer homes and modest recreation center, was renamed âThe Village of Orange Blossom Gardens.â
Golf carts quickly became a way of life. At first residents used them primarily to travel on actual golf courses, and then between golf courses, but pretty soon they used the carts to get around everywhere. Carts were inexpensive and easy to use, especially for people in failing health. And as The Villages grew, there were more and more places to take them.
Because these neighborhoods were surrounded by intense rural poverty, and in an area with limited services, father and son suspected that residents would want to keep their world of leisure as self-contained as possible, so they provided just about everything the residents might needâand all of this was accessible by golf cart. It didnât take long before golf carts were ubiquitous and residents lost interest in driving anywhere outside the compound.
Harold acknowledged the peculiar primacy of the golf cart when, with the help of a local politician, he built a golf cart bridge across the highway between the older Village of Orange Blossom Gardens and the ever-expanding newer areas. The bridge is still there, rising steeply on both sides of the busy highway, with seniors zipping across it daily.
Harold soon became a local celebrity. Unlike his son, he enjoyed socializing with residents, and some say he was a heck of a ladiesâ man. He built a modest home in the middle of Orange Blossom Gardens and took long walks around the neighborhood. In time, thefamily learned to capitalize on Haroldâs popularity, and embraced his emerging reputation as The Villagesâ kindhearted âfounding father.â
Haroldâs iconic smile was soon everywhere, even on The Villagesâ own scripâpromotional paper money given to prospective residents and redeemable at businesses owned by The Villages. When the family wanted to promote its efforts to build an emergency medical facility near Spanish Springs, an enormous photo of Harold appeared on a billboard. He was shown, dressed in a loud sports jacket and porkpie hat, pointing at an empty parcel of land:
Regardless, the little mobile home park swelled with retirees practically overnight. By 1987, the development had $40 million in annual sales. In short order, Gary built more and more amenities: eighteen more holes of golf, an unpretentious country club, more pools, and another recreation center with its own restaurant.
As the community expanded, father and son tried to attract businesses that would cater to the residentsâ needs. They knew that conveniently located retail stores and doctorsâ offices were important to the creation of a truly self-contained community. But they couldnât find any takers. The area was still in the middle of nowhere, and retirees were often assumed to be poor, thrifty, and generally bad business. So the family members themselves opened and operated several businesses, including a gas station and mini-mart, a restaurant, a liquor store, and a Laundromat.
Flushed with success, they began building more homes on the other side of what was then a small county road but today is a sixlanehighway. Within ten years, the family had built its own downtown (Spanish Springs); and soon a Winn-Dixie supermarket, a few banks, and other businesses flocked to the development.
Each phase of housing was more upmarket than the previous one, but the neighborhoods were configured similarly with adjoining recreation facilities and golf courses, just like Sun City. Faced with an increasing number of new neighborhoods, Harold hit on an idea: he would call each one a âvillage.â Orange Blossom Gardens, with its little trailer homes and modest recreation center, was renamed âThe Village of Orange Blossom Gardens.â
Golf carts quickly became a way of life. At first residents used them primarily to travel on actual golf courses, and then between golf courses, but pretty soon they used the carts to get around everywhere. Carts were inexpensive and easy to use, especially for people in failing health. And as The Villages grew, there were more and more places to take them.
Because these neighborhoods were surrounded by intense rural poverty, and in an area with limited services, father and son suspected that residents would want to keep their world of leisure as self-contained as possible, so they provided just about everything the residents might needâand all of this was accessible by golf cart. It didnât take long before golf carts were ubiquitous and residents lost interest in driving anywhere outside the compound.
Harold acknowledged the peculiar primacy of the golf cart when, with the help of a local politician, he built a golf cart bridge across the highway between the older Village of Orange Blossom Gardens and the ever-expanding newer areas. The bridge is still there, rising steeply on both sides of the busy highway, with seniors zipping across it daily.
Harold soon became a local celebrity. Unlike his son, he enjoyed socializing with residents, and some say he was a heck of a ladiesâ man. He built a modest home in the middle of Orange Blossom Gardens and took long walks around the neighborhood. In time, thefamily learned to capitalize on Haroldâs popularity, and embraced his emerging reputation as The Villagesâ kindhearted âfounding father.â
Haroldâs iconic smile was soon everywhere, even on The Villagesâ own scripâpromotional paper money given to prospective residents and redeemable at businesses owned by The Villages. When the family wanted to promote its efforts to build an emergency medical facility near Spanish Springs, an enormous photo of Harold appeared on a billboard. He was shown, dressed in a loud sports jacket and porkpie hat, pointing at an empty parcel of land:
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