Who Gave Enchantment Park to New Port Richey?

Who gave Enchantment Park to New Port Richey? That was the question posed by the city’s first mayor on December 25, 1925 after a lengthy study of the town’s earliest maps.

Feeling the inexperienced city council had been taken advantage of, what Mayor Elroy Avery discovered is truly part of  the lesser known history of what is currently known as Sims Park .

As part of the dissolution of Aripeka Saw Mills in 1911, a large tract of prime Florida land was sold to Pete L. Weeks. Soon, Pete Weeks, his brother J.S. Weeks Jr. and W.E. Guildford formed the Port Richey Company with a purpose of colonizing and developing the land into a town site.

A plan for their future town was drawn and the streets and avenues surveyed but not named. On August 16, 1911 a map titled “Port Richey Company Plan for Town of Port Richey” was filed for record-- plat book 1, page 62-- the city’s first known layout.

In their plans, the original Port Richey Company designated a large tract of land along the Cotee River as Enchantment Park. This original park stretched from today’s Sims Lane south, to Nebraska Avenue-- encompassing today’s Main Street and Hacienda Hotel lot.

By 1914, the new town had few residents and growing tired Weeks was looking to relieve his interest in the town and the more than 10,000 acres of land his Port Richey Company owned.

In January, 1915, Weeks met George Sims and R.E. Filcher with the firm of Filcher & Sims, and succeeded in interesting them in the property and his land company.

During this huge land transaction, many improvements were already underway, including the dedicated labor of the few residents in clearing the underbrush from a portion of the already designated Enchantment Park.

With grass seed planted, the new park was beginning to take shape.

According to the Genesis of New Port Richey, Filcher & Sims were busy with other developments in Florida, and did not personally become identified with New Port Richey until the early part of 1916, after Sims acquired Filcher’s interest in the business and came here to live.

In reviewing the original plans for the town site laid out by Weeks’ Port Richey Company, on December 27, 1915, Sims’ Port Richey Company filed for record what they called the “Revised Plan for Town of New Port Richey”-- plat book 2 page 21-- the city’s second known layout, which now carried the name of the newly established post office.

Dropping out of sight, Sims’ new map made several changes to the original plans with a loss in reservations of lands for a school, rail freight yard, train depot, city hall, library, bank, and theatre.

But one change in Sims’ revised map was the reduction in the size of the town’s previously designated Enchantment Park to nearly half its original 1911 size.

The transfer of land to Sims’ Port Richey Company was met with no noisy demonstration from the town’s people, who seemed to have little knowledge of what transpired. The southern half of Enchantment Park was now reserved as “Block B, for Hotel.”

Sims also made an endearing promise to residents that upon incorporation of the town, he would graciously deed the streets, park, and lands surrounding Orange Lake for public use.

The park Sims’ promised to residents remains a mystery. Was it the original 1911 park or Sims’ Park of nearly half the size? This is the question explored by Mayor Avery.

As their little town grew, on October 27, 1924, residents formally voted 201 to 4 in favor of municipal incorporation. The same day Sims had the southern section of the park, which he designated as “Block B, for Hotel” surveyed into several smaller lots-- recorded in plat book 2 page 46.

This move was followed by Sims’ fullfilment to deed the park and other lands. On November 14, 1924, the New Port Richey Press carried a lengthy letter by Sims where he agreed to give the park to the new town council subject to a lengthy list of restrictions.

Included was a clause to cancel the still valid 1911 plat map, which included the much larger park that he already worked to divide.

On November 18, 1924 city leaders agreed to accept Sims’ gift with restrictions and obligations, and on December 2, 1924, that gift was formally received through the unanimous passing of city Ordinance No. 1-- the original 1911 plat canceled.

Cancellation of the original plats finally left Sims the legal control over the undeveloped lands previously designated as park and allowed an extension of Main Street could dissect and a where a hotel could be built.

A year later when Mayor Elroy Avery discovered the discrepancies in the series of maps, he wrote a scathing letter printed on the back of an original copy of the 1911 plat map showing the much larger park.

In his letter Mayor Avery wrote, “The Town Council, the members of which were inexperienced legislators, by its very first ordinance which as formulated by Tampa lawyers for the Port Richey Company, did agree to such cancellation, and the Mayor, in inexcusable ignorance of the real significance of the cancellation, did approve said Ordinance No. 1.

On recommendation of the Mayor, the Council also changed the name of the remnant of Enchantment Park to Sims Park. Whether this agreement of the Town officials closes the door against any legal efforts to recover ‘Block B’ for the public or not is a problem on which lawyers disagree.”

In a last minute legal move to hopefully put an end to the park land dispute, on May 7, 1926, sixty-seven property owners who all owned property within the town limits signed off on a “ratification of revised plat of New Port Richey."

Among the signers was George Sims himself.

In consideration of the deeds conveying the streets, alleys, and parks to the city, the sixty-seven property owners once and for all released and canceled the original 1911 plat map-- accepting the revised plats with the much smaller park.

Today, the and several downtown businesses sit on the former park lands once in dispute, while residents enjoy the remaining fraction of the originally designated 1911 Enchantment Park.

So, who gave Enchantment Park to New Port Richey?

Was it Pete L. Weeks through his dedication of a park on his original 1911 plat map and which the residents worked to clear in 1915?

Or, was it George Sims through his dedication of a park half the size on his plat maps, leading to a dispute between him and the city’s first mayor after it was included with a transfer of the streets and alleys?