Strawn Historic Citrus Packing House District, Historic citrus packing district in De Leon Springs, Florida.
Strawn Historic Citrus Packing House District is a former orange processing operation in De Leon Springs containing twelve buildings and three structures on roughly twenty acres. The main metal packing house features a distinctive sawtooth roofline and sits near U.S. Route 17, surrounded by support structures including a barn, blacksmith shop, machinery house, and steam building, all bordered by the CSX railroad line.
Theodore Strawn established this orange packing operation in 1882 as the region developed its early citrus industry. Following a fire in 1921, he constructed a new fireproof building using copper-alloy steel panels to modernize the facility.
The district is also known as the Bob White Historic Citrus Packing House District, a name carried over from the packing operation. The site sits at 5707 Lake Winona Road in DeLeon Springs, off U.S. Route 17 between Lake Winona Road and Ridgewood Avenue, with the CSX railroad line along its southwest border. John Strawn, grandson of founder Theodore Strawn, is the source for the account of the 1983 freeze.
The site is fenced and posted no trespassing, and it has been heavily vandalized and looted since closing in 1983, so it is not open for visits. The 20-acre grounds lie off U.S. Route 17 between Lake Winona Road and Ridgewood Avenue, with the CSX line along the southwest edge. The packing house and its sawtooth roof can be seen from the road.
The site has been on the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation's list of Florida's Eleven Most Endangered Historic Sites since 2007. A 2008 fire destroyed the machine shop, and in 2010 another fire destroyed a 40-by-50-foot outbuilding and damaged two others. The district was listed on the National Register in 1993 together with a sawmill and other Strawn agricultural buildings about a mile away.
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