Early Floridians Were Green Pioneers

by Mike Miller
(Mount Dora, Florida)

In the early days just before and after the beginning of the twentieth century, most Florida towns did not have electricity.

The first electric plants in most towns were at the local ice house. The big generators that powered the ice making equipment were also used to distribute power to those nearby residents who had enough money to pay for it.

Some of those old ice houses still stand. One that comes to mind in on U.S. 1 in Melbourne. Another is in Mount Dora that has been converted to a community theater called the Icehouse Theater.

Some parts of Florida have natural artesian wells. These are wells that flow continually, bringing up water from the underlying aquifers like a miniature Old Faithful. Most of these wells have been capped in the past 50 years to conserve water.

Wells can also be drilled in these areas and the water will flow upward under pressure with no electrical or mechanical help required.

Some early pioneers installed generators on the well head and provided power for their own household needs.

One such pioneer I recall hearing about was the developer of Indialantic By The Sea. Indialantic is on the barrier island across from Melbourne.

Early developer Ernest Kouven-Hoven had a house in what is now Indialantic that got its power from an artesian well generator.

He also built the first bridge across the Indian River lagoon connecting Melbourne to his new town of Indialantic.

Other early pioneers in the days before electricity installed elevated black iron water tanks outside the house. The dark iron absorbed the sun's rays and heated the water for use in the house.