At just past noon on June 2, 1884, the Light-House Service tender, the schooner Pharos, anchored near the channel buoy off the bar at Mosquito Inlet, today known as Ponce De Leon Inlet, just south of Daytona Beach, Florida. From the rail of the vessel, forty-nine-year-old General Orville E. Babcock gazed at the spit of land to the west, shimmering under the high, hot summer sun. As chief engineer for Districts Five and Six of the United States Light-House Service, he had been here before to survey and plan the construction of the new lighthouse which Congress had approved for this location. Babcock had fallen in love with the area, and six months earlier, when the Light-House Service purchased 10 acres for the lighthouse compound, Babcock had purchased an adjoining 100 acres to the north and had constructed a large wooden home. Here he planned to establish a winter resort under the name of "Ponce Park." The local residents were very pleased and proud. The New Smyrna Breeze would later comment with pride: "...that the General with his wide experience should have purchased" here speaks volumes.
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