DeLand City

Volusia County, Florida

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DeLand City Hall is located at 120 South Florida Avenue, DeLand, FL 32720.
Phone: 386‑626‑7000.

Neighborhoods

DeLand as described in 1939

DeLand, seat of Volusia County and center of a fertile citrus area, is also a college town. Many of its activities revolve about the campus of Stetson University.

DeLand was founded in 1876 by Henry A. DeLand, baking powder manufacturer, who planted water oaks 50 feet apart along prospective streets. So determined were early settlers to make their community notable for shade trees that in 1886 the city council ruled that property owners would be allowed a 50¢ tax rebate for each tree two inches or more in diameter, planted by them along the streets. The response threatened to bankrupt the town and the ordinance was repealed less than two years later.

Stetson University was established by DeLand in 1886 as DeLand University, with the financial assistance of John B. Stetson, hat manufacturer. Co-educational and non-sectarian, it was incorporated as a university under its present name in 1889. The school is sponsored by a conference of Baptist churches. Many of its 1,000 students are from northern states.

  1. Federal Works Agency, Works Progress Administration, Federal Writers' Program, Florida: A Guide to the Southernmost State, American Guide Series, Florida Department of Public Instruction, 1939.

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