The Town of Orange Park was founded in 1877 by the Florida Winter Home and Improvement Company. Following the Civil War, the company purchased several thousand acres of the McIntosh plantation at Laurel Grove, for the purpose of creating a southern retreat and small farming community. The property was subdivided into building lots and small farm tracts where the present street system was laid out including Kingsley Avenue and Plainfield Avenue. The town was incorporated in 1879 by a special act of the Florida Legislature. In January 1880 Ulysses S. Grant and Philip Sheridan visited Orange Park. A large hotel was constructed at Kingsley Avenue along with a 1,200-foot pier. In 1895 the fruit-growing industry was destroyed in the Great Freeze of 1895.