Benson Springs

Town feelings ran high in the early 1920s when an ambitious new proprietor of the renamed Benson Springs Inn had guests sign a petition to change the town name to correspond. The name Benson Springs stuck until 1937 when townfolk used the same tactic to have school children sign a petition changing the name back to Enterprise. That same year the hotel, now dilapidated and vandalized, was razed, providing much-needed space for the Florida United Methodist Children’s Home to become a cornerstone of modern Enterprise.

Located east of the Progress Energy Power Plant, the small bubbling well was a popular gathering spot for visitors from Enterprise and DeBary. Pictured are three prominent Enterprise ladies including Anna Glass (left), wife of Dr. James Henderson Glass who built Thornby, one of the most outstanding private residences in the county at that time. The Glasses were part of the “Utica Colony” who were frequent guests at the Benson Springs Inn.