This 37-acre subtropical botanical garden in the historic Redland agricultural community in Homestead, FL features more than 500 varieties of fruits, spices, herbs, and nuts from around the world. Originally settled in 1907 by homesteaders and citrus farmers, the Redland community suffered several tropical storms and floods. In 1944, Dade County purchased 20 acres— including a one-room schoolhouse and a coral rock structure built in 1913— to be developed as subtropical fruit demonstration gardens. In 1944, William Lyman Phillips completed a master plan for the park. The park’s first superintendent Mary Calkins Heinlein is credited with developing the park until she retired in 1959. In 1982, the Bauer-Neill-Mitchell House, constructed 80 years earlier and 8 miles away, was relocated to the park and sited amidst mature fruit trees and extensive garden beds.
In 1992, several structures and more than 750 mature trees were destroyed by Hurricane Andrew. Landscape architect Tammy Cook, Miami-Dade Parks planner Kevin Asher, and Fruit and Spice Park manager Chris Rollins redesigned the park to display medicinal and food plants grouped according to five distinct geographic regions. The park's master plan, completed in 1994, also included an oolitic limestone pool and cascade, a formal herb garden, and a centrally-located lake. Federal Emergency Managements Agency funds were used to reconstruct the schoolhouse and the Bauer-Neill-Mitchell House. Several land acquisitions have doubled the size of the park and a motorized tram shuttles visitors to the themed gardens that were built following the hurricane.
