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by Robert Aldo Grenier (Author)
The town of Sorrento in East Lake County, named for the picturesque coastal town in southwestern Italy famous for its abundance of orange and lemon groves, was first settled in 1875 by the William Butts family. They were soon followed by the Kerr, Reeve, and Miner families. That same year, five bachelors from Ohio arrived--among them being Albert Matlack and Ed Averill, who were instrumental in the development of this new community. Matlack, who opened the first mercantile business with Charles Adams, surveyed, charted, and mapped the new town, while Averill built the first tourist hotel, called the Averill House. By 1882, many motivated new settlers arrived, which prompted swift growth in this scenic village carved from the Florida wilderness. A church, schoolhouse, drugstore, post office, packinghouses, dairy farms, cattle and horse ranches, and brick, lumber, and turpentine mills, framed by peach orchards and endless rows of orange groves, established Sorrento as a flourishing destination. Mount Plymouth, distinct with its famed Storybook homes of renowned architect Sam Stoltz and the celebrity winter retreat of the Mount Plymouth Hotel, compliment the East Lake County landscape.
