The farm's link to the history of agriculture in southeast Florida has been cited as one of the reasons it is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. For almost a century, this land was a working farm. How this land was used changed over time in a progression that matches the larger story of farming in western Broward County: from winter vegetables to sod and citrus, followed by pasture land for livestock, landscape nurseries, and finally houses.
Vegetables for northern markets
Those who first farmed the reclaimed Everglades were drawn here to grow vegetables. Land companies promised black muck soil and a climate where farmers could raise three or four harvests a year, growing "produce for the northern markets when most other parts of the country are snow and ice bound." Tomatoes and other "truck" crops were shipped north by canal boat and later by road.
Ralph Horton, who owned this farm in the 1920s, was one of the leading promoters of Everglades farming. In 1929 his company advertised a "water-controlled farm for rent: pumping system... 10 acres, near Davie; a moneymaker," which may have been this property. The next owner, C. R. Yeager, was described in a 1930 newspaper as a "grove and truck farmer," growing both citrus and vegetables.
Sod
John H. Minton, who owned the farm from 1936 to 1942, is remembered for starting the first sod business in town. Sod fields, along with cattle pasture and produce, were one of the main uses of farmland in the area in those years.
Citrus
Local farmers soon turned to citrus, which offered a more reliable and profitable market. On cold winter nights, growers lit "smudge pots" in the groves to protect the fruit from frost.
When Floyd and Jane Wray planted their groves in 1927, other growers in the area also planted citrus, and western Davie came to abound with groves. Floyd Wray's Flamingo Groves alone covered nearly 2,000 acres (over 3 square miles). Over the following decades, the groves of western Broward gave way to development, while central Florida remained the heart of the state's citrus industry.
Today only a few citrus businesses remain in Davie, and 60 acres of the Wray groves are now the site of the popular Flamingo Gardens, a nonprofit botanical garden and wildlife sanctuary.
On this farm, Yeager appears to have been the one who first planted a citrus grove. We know there was a grove when the Mintons owned the property. And when the Rakestraws owned the farm, they advertised in 1943 for a "man to assist in garden and orange grove," with a cottage, vegetables in season, and "share in garden profits."
When John and Arline Hanson bought the farm in April 1947, an orange grove filled the land south of the house, laid out in wide rows of large trees on either side of a central stand of smaller ones. That grove didn't last the year. The September 1947 hurricane and October rainstorm that followed left the land under water for weeks, and the grove was ruined.
Pasture for Cattle and Horses
It was common in the area for landowners who were not farmers themselves to lease their land to those who were, some to raise crops and others for pasture.
The Hansons did this too. A renter of the tenant house boarded horses for many years and ran a small riding academy on the property. Part of the farm was later used as pasture for cattle.
Landscape Nurseries
After John Hanson retired in 1974, he and Arline started a second career: a landscape tree nursery on the farm. The two of them ran the nursery by themselves for over 40 years.
Their nursery was part of a wider change. As South Florida boomed, many old groves were replaced by landscape nurseries that supplied trees for the new neighborhoods, shopping centers and roads.
From farm to neighborhood
In 2024 the family sold most of the farm for a new residential neighborhood (now the Hanson Preserve), keeping only the small lot where the farmhouse stands.
The farm's story ends the way the story of western Broward's farmland has ended almost everywhere: in residential communities for new families. This farmhouse is one of the last reminders of the farms that came before.