History of the City of The Villages, Florida

The city of The Villages, Florida is a master-planned age-restricted retirement community located mainly in Sumter County, and includes portions of Lake and Marion counties.   The history of the city originated when Harold Schwartz, a businessman from Michigan, began selling tracts of land tracts through mail order in the 1960s.  Schwartz and his business partner Al Tarrson soon suffered financial setback from this business plan when a Federal law passed in 1968 banned all mail order sales of real estate by this method.  The result was that the pair were burdened with considerable portions of Florida land in the area that is now The Villages.

In the early 1970s, Schwartz and Tarrson took a new direction, beginning development on a mobile home park that they named “Orange Blossom Gardens.”  The part occupied the northwestern corner of Lake County in Florida.  However, a decade later, the pair had only sold only 400 units within the community.  In an attempt to improve the business and turn a profit, Schwartz decided to buy out his partner’s interest and bring his son, H. Gary Morse, on as partner in 1983.

Morse’s participation brought new ideas for developing the property.  He was aware that the overwhelmingly successful retirement communities throughout the state of Florida were thriving because they offered considerable numbers of well-maintained amenities.  These community’s residents also found themselves surrounded by diverse amounts of nearby commercial development and cultural attractions.  Morse began to significantly upgrade the development, and by the mid-1980s there was a considerable improvement in sales.  His father Schwartz reacted by purchasing large tracts of land in nearby Sumter and Marion counties to plan for future expansion.

The development was named The Villages in 1992, and is controlled in all major aspects by heirs of Schwartz and Morse.  The ruling organizations are several Community Development Districts, most of which are controlled by Morse.   The Villages earned the No. 1 ranking as the fastest growing micropolitan area in the United States according to a 2008 Census Bureau report.