The Mackle family created the Deltona Corporation in 1962. With a successful record of creating new communities, their largest Florida developments have grown into major cities: Port Charlotte, population 260,000; Port St. Lucie with 65,00 inhabitants; Spring Hill with 113,570 people; and the City of Deltona, the largest in Volusia County, with a population of 93,692 at last count. The name Deltona was derived from a mash-up of the neighboring towns of Deland and Daytona Beach. Marco Island, another of their developments on the lower Gulf Coast, went from swamp to beach paradise with high-rise condominiums and 15,760 inhabitants.
Frank E. Mackle, Sr. (1881-1941) came to America from England as a child. He started the Mackle Construction Company in Jacksonville in 1908. It became a major force in the construction industry in the Southeast. In 1938, he sent his eldest son to Delray Beach “to build a few houses.” Frank, Sr. saw the success of Junior in Delray and moved the entire family to South Florida prior to his death in 1941. “The Famous Mackle Brothers,” Frank, Jr., Robert, and Elliot operated under the name The Mackle Company from 1945 to 1954. They built over 10,000 homes in Dade and Broward counties. They established the General Development Company in 1954, which sold land in Florida for $10 down and $10 a month. They rode the wave of post-war construction in a now air-conditioned Florida before coming to St. Johns County in 1970.
St. Augustine Shores sign.
Developers Frank E. Mackle, Jr. (1916-1993) and Frank E. Mackle, III made no small plans for their 2,000-acre property in St. Johns County. St. Augustine Shores opened for property sales on Christmas weekend 1970. One of the nine model homes at the corner of Shores Blvd. and Palermo Rd. was wrapped like a Christmas present, which a giant pair of scissors opened. In advertisements, St. Augustine Shores was touted as “Unique in all America…Florida’s newest residential community where the latest design and the world’s most modern construction methods bring you outstanding home and property value …for vacations, retirement, year-round living in the three-season land of the Fountain of Youth.” The Mackles promised a “Florida dream home and landscaped property… preplanned waterfront community with FHA-insured financing.” They continued, “You’ll put wintry sleet and snow, smog, and air pollution far behind you forever.” Waiting for the prospective buyer was “a whole new life you never dreamed you could afford!” All this was just four and a half miles south of the Ancient City and eight miles from the Atlantic Ocean (six years prior the construction of the SR 312 Bridge).
The Deltona Corporation’s advertisement showed four models of “handcrafted manufactured” homes ranging in price from the “Balboa” for $13, 950 to the “Viscaya” for $22,350. Many of these homes are still standing in the first several blocks east of U. S. 1 on either side of Deltona Boulevard. These homes have proven the quality of their Mackle-built construction for fifty years and through several severe hurricanes. Over time, St. Augustine Shores has grown even further with custom built homes, apartments, community services, shops and restaurants. The Riverview Club, the golf course, and several parks with bike paths have since completed the Mackles’ vision of the future in Florida.
Written by: Charles A. Tingley, Research Historian
Edited by: Robert Covert, Collections Manager and Editor – in – Chief