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The history of Brandon began on January 20, 1857, when John Brandon arrived at Fort Brooke (now Tampa) from Mississippi with his wife Martha and six sons. At first he moved his family to what is now the Seffner area. Then in August 1858, John Brandon purchased 40 acres of land in the New Hope area (now Brandon) south of Hopewell Road (now SR 60), between Parsons Avenue and Lithia Road. Nine years later, after his wife died, John left everything he owned to his son James Henry Brandon and moved to Bartow. In 1876 James built a home for his wife Joanna. It is still standing today and is now Stowers Funeral Home, a well-known landmark on Brandon Boulevard.
Meanwhile, John Brandon remarried a widow named Victoria and moved back to New Hope in 1874. John bought 160 acres and named his land Brandon. John and Victoria's house was located on what would become the corner of Knights and Victoria Street. Four years later, the New Hope Church was built on land donated by John. Besides being the first church in the community, it also served as Brandon's first school.
After John's passing in 1886, his wife Victoria took a leading role in the community. The community's first post office was opened in Victoria's home, when she became the postmistress. In 1890, the Florida Central and Peninsula Railroad was coming through the area causing the people of New Hope to build a depot on Moon Avenue. Victoria convinced a civil engineer for the railroad to survey the area and lay out a town site. He surveyed 40 acres, pre-pared a map and Victoria named the town Brandon, after John Brandon.
During the 1920's most local residents worked in the two orange packing houses in Valrico. The center of town remained at Moon Avenue and Victoria Street where the train depot, post office, school, and grocery store were all located. For entertainment and everything else, the train to Tampa was the way to go, as only a few paved roads existed with most being dirt or shell topped, making the drive to Tampa very difficult.
The 1950s were the beginning of the real growth period for Brandon. In 1956, Hopewell Road was connected to Adamo Drive, which made access to Tampa easier, thus turning Brandon into a bedroom community. With commuters, came subdivisions, the first of which as Hill-Dale Heights on Kingsway Avenue.
Brandon took off rapidly during the 1980s. Development of the southern area of Brandon brought thousands of new residents. On September 27, 1986, I-75 began to bring traffic through the Brandon area, dramatically changing the community and helping its population reach approximately 100,000 with over 2,500 business by 1988.
Today, the population of Brandon and the neighboring communities of Seffner, Limona, Valrico, Mango, Riverview, Bloomingdale, Durant, Lithia and Dover is about 178,808 with over 62,000 households. Brandon has become a community of young, well-to-do professionals, many of whom commute to Tampa. According to the 1990 census, 45.9% have incomes of $75,000 or more a year. The average age of the Brandon population is 34.89 years and 45% of the population over 25 years of age have had some college education or a college degree.
Brandon has grown by leaps and bounds and has become a major urban area. New public schools, malls, corporate centers and industries are opening daily. Brandon has become a central community with suburbs that stretch for miles around--Valrico to the east, Seffner to the north and the South Shore area, including Riverview, Apollo Beach, Ruskin, Gibsonton and Sun City Center to the Southeast.
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