Look out across Clermont, and you can still read the land: hills, lakes, and a town that has kept finding new ways to make a living.
Founded in eighteen eighty-four and incorporated in nineteen sixteen, Clermont grew with citrus. The railroad arrived in eighteen eighty-seven, helping growers move fruit to markets beyond the lakes. Picking, packing, shipping, and local shops were all part of the same working community.
James and Sallie Townsend arrived in eighteen eighty-seven. The Historical Society remembers them as Clermont's first Black residents. They helped establish a school and Saint Mark African Methodist Episcopal Church. Sallie's work as a midwife and nurse served families across the community. Their home is preserved at Historic Village today.
The Citrus Tower opened in nineteen fifty-six. From two hundred twenty-six feet up, visitors looked across an agricultural landscape. Photographs of downtown and the tower in the nineteen seventies capture a town approaching a period of enormous change.
The freezes of nineteen eighty-three, eighty-five, and eighty-nine damaged Lake County's citrus industry. Some growers replanted, only to face another devastating winter. The losses affected jobs, packing houses, and businesses as well as the trees. Over time, residential development and the wider Orlando economy changed the use of land around Clermont.
At the same time, the hills and lakes were drawing a different kind of visitor. Fred Sommer brought the Great Clermont Triathlon to town in nineteen eighty-four. Swimming, cycling, and running made the landscape part of the event. More races followed, helping establish the area's endurance-sports community.
Downtown's next chapter needed investment, too. In nineteen ninety-seven, the city created its Community Redevelopment Agency. The first redevelopment plan followed in nineteen ninety-eight. Streetscape work and business improvements became part of a continuing effort to keep the older downtown active as Clermont expanded.
The National Training Center opened in two thousand one, bringing fitness facilities, an aquatic center, athletic fields, and sports-science services to the South Lake Hospital campus. A track and cross-country course followed in two thousand two.
Growth brought a reason to preserve the past. The Townsend House moved to Historic Village in two thousand two and opened to visitors in two thousand five. Downtown streetscape improvements were completed in two thousand three, with another major phase largely finished in twenty twelve.
Clermont's population grew from about ninety-three hundred in two thousand to more than twenty-eight thousand in twenty ten, then forty-three thousand in the twenty-twenty Census. Those figures describe the city itself, not every address carrying a Clermont mailing label.
In twenty fourteen, Clermont adopted the Choice of Champions identity. A Downtown-Waterfront Master Plan followed in twenty fifteen. Victory Pointe opened in twenty eighteen, combining a public park with wetlands that help treat stormwater. The new Kehlor Recreation Center followed in twenty nineteen. In twenty twenty, the city opened its new boat ramp and completed the Art Walk. Streetscape improvements continued in twenty twenty-one.
By twenty twenty-four, photographs show a familiar tower in a changed setting, and a downtown shaped by decades of reinvestment. The story between the groves and today's neighborhoods is also a story of recreation, preservation, and public spaces.
One small family connection belongs to Bob Russell's Fifth Street Grocer, remembered for feeding citrus workers and local farmers. His grandson, Brantley Wheeler, continues that connection to Clermont through his local businesses and service on Fifth Street.
As of November twenty twenty-six, this town is still writing its next chapter. Take a walk by the lake, visit Historic Village, and look a little closer at the streets around you. There is a lot of Clermont behind the view.
City history is based on the sources above. The Fifth Street remembrance was contributed by Brantley Wheeler. Sponsored by DW&Co. Real Estate.
