City of Haines City Florida

Haines City History
Haines City was originally the village of Clay Cut, so named because the train tracks were built so deep
into the clay (near 1 st Street and Hinson Avenue) that trains were lost from sight as they passed through the
village. The clay mounds were later used to make the first improved roads in the city. The train tracks
through the original village of Clay Cut were completed in 1884. In exchange for adding a train stop, the
village offered to rename itself after Colonel Henry Haines, who was the engineer who built the tracks.
Clay Cut was renamed Haines City in 1888. The city did not incorporate until 1914. Without the train stop,
Haines City would never have been anything more than a small village.
The 1900 census listed 73 adults and 2 children living in Haines City. The 1910 census listed the population
of Haines City as 377. The 2010 census showed a population of 20,535. Haines City is the third most
populous city in Polk County, behind Lakeland and Winter Haven. Haines City is all about the “Henrys”—
first Henry Flagler brought the trains down the east coast of Florida, then Henry Plant brought the trains
from Orlando to Tampa (and through Haines City), and finally Henry Haines, who worked for Henry Plant.
The Oakland neighborhood took its name from oak trees that once grew in the area. Over the years, trees
were cut for housing and to sell for lumber. The Oakland neighborhood consists of two named
neighborhoods—The Hill and Oakland.
The old Polk Fertilizer Company, which closed in February 2003, on the south end of MLK Way used to
be an ice house for trains in the 1930s, before refrigerated rail cars. The old Armory Annex building is still
in use in Haines City. It is the red brick building in the middle of Lake Eva Park. Upstairs are the Leisure
Services offices and downstairs is picnic space.
“Monkey Corner” is where US 17/92 branches off from Hinson Avenue and heads north toward Davenport.
The owner of the corner lot kept a monkey in a cage. The Landmark Baptist College currently owns the old
Palm Crest Hotel on Hinson Avenue (the tallest building in Haines City). It was built in 1925–1926 by
Ralph Polk as the Polk Hotel and closed in 1930 due to economic conditions. Ralph Polk devised a method
of sectioning citrus and canning it in glass jars. Sectioning was a major industry in Haines City for many
years.
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