Orange Park

Orange Park is a city in the First Coast of Florida. It is a suburb of Jacksonville, and home to 9,000 people in 2020.

History
Orange Park was founded, after formerly being known as Laurel Grove, in 1877 for a housing development. It was incorporated two years later and was visited by former president and Union general Ulysses S. Grant in 1880.

The settlement's early days were, as its name implies, in the orange-growing industry with which Florida is traditionally associated. The cold winter ("Great Freeze") of 1894-1895 brought an end to this form of agriculture in the region. The town continued to grow, however, in the 1920s and again from the 1940s to the 1970s. Robert Yerkes' research station received the support of notable universities and foundations, including Yale University and the Rockefeller and Carnegie Foundations, and operated in Winter Park from 1930 to 1965 before being relocated to Georgia. Many families stationed at the nearby NAS Jacksonville live in Orange Park.

Get in
The nearest airport is Jacksonville International Airport. US-17 passes through the town from north to south and I-295, a part of the East Coast's I-95 highway system, crosses the town from east to west to cross the St. John's River, providing an exit to US-17.

Go next

 * Jacksonville, to the north, is the main city in the region and one of Florida's largest cities by population.
 * Palatka is to the south along the St. John's River.