In 1959, the pastureland that now hosts [The Villages]https://www.talkofthevillages.com/), Florida, sold for about $150 an acre. Back then, Florida was largely thought of as coastal beaches—few looked toward the quiet, rolling land in the center of the state. But visionaries like Walt Disney and Chicago advertiser Harold Schwartz saw something others didn’t: opportunity. While Disney was acquiring land for theme parks, Schwartz was buying thousands of acres for future development. Today, a premier golf-front lot in The Villages might cost $100,000, while a commercial acre fetches $350,000. What happened in between tells the story of The Villages.
Over the following decades, more than 2,000 acres of untouched land would be transformed into homesites, roadways, lakes, recreation centers, golf courses, and town centers. The Villages now exceeds all but two incorporated cities in the counties it spans. Its residents, mostly retirees, have created a political bloc so influential that it regularly attracts attention from state and national leaders.