Dover is located 17 miles east of Tampa in Hillsborough County and just 16 miles west of Lakeland in Polk County. Ideally situated off of Interstate 4, our town offers ready access to all of Florida, including West Coast beaches and major tourist attractions. While we enjoy the serenity of small-town living, Dover is close enough to St. Petersburg, Tampa, and Orlando to enjoy the advantages and excitement of larger metropolitan area. It has rural areas, but has recently had several master planned communities developed. The two largest are Abbey Trace and Diamond Hills which is adjacent to Dover Hills Golf Club.
Here are a list of subdivisions and communities in Dover. This is not an all inclusive list, as there can be hundreds of subdivisions in a city. Click a link below to learn more about a specific subdivision/community.
Abbey Trace | Diamond Hill | Stoney CreekDover has been several different towns in several different locations, reflecting the population shifts with the coming of the railroad. First named Sydney in 1882, then Cork in 1884 (This Cork, however, was not the first town by that name in the county). Cork and the surrounding area grew and prospered, especially after the Civil War.
In 1884, the old Cork post office was closed signaling the dispersal of its population to the new railroad towns like Plant City and the new Cork. It is believed to have received its third name of Dover in 1890 from settlers who came from Dover, Delaware. The town plat was filed in 1891. In 1925, Dover's population was 250 as compared to today's population of a little over 10,000.
On the eve of the completion of H. B. Plant's South Florida Railroad (later named the Plant System and Florida Central and Peninsular) in 1884, towns like Seffner, Mango, Dover and Plant City sprang up almost overnight, eclipsing old established communities that were bypassed by the railroad.
A few of the early pioneers were the DeShongs, Jaudons, Motts, Waldens, Simpsons, Mileys, Hookers, Weeks, Simmons, Gallaghers and the Mansells.
The town of Dover boasted a doctor, sawmill and grinding mills, a cotton gin, churches and general stores. Cotton, cattle, groves and truck farming were all profitable and popular endeavors. However, when the railroad right-of-way was finalized, people relocated quickly to be close to the new machine that rambled through the gardens.
According to history records, the first family to migrate to Dover was J.S. Deshong, his wife and two daughters, Catherine and Georgia. They came to Dover from Gwinnett County, Georgia in 1854. They built a log cabin near the corner of Gallagher Road and Highway Number 23 where they lived for many years.
The first school in Dover was erected about 1867, back of the old Sapp place. Later, for some reason, it was moved to what was called Lavilla School near the site of the present Baptist Church. Teachers received the magnificent sum of $18 a month. Schools used to be known as strawberry schools because they only went to school during the summer months when the berries were not in season. Students went to school six months out of the year and helped to pick strawberries from their families fields the other six months. Nearly everyone in the area had a strawberry patch of their own. In olden days if a man had five acres of strawberries, he had a big patch. Today, if you had 50 acres, you still ain't got nothin'.
The town flourished as a shipping and trading center for the surrounding groves and farms and ranked only behind Ichepucksassa (now known as Plant City) for shipment of strawberries. Florida's first carload of strawberries to be shipped out of the state, rolled from Dover in 1897. This load of strawberries was shipped to the firm of J.H. Schneider and Co. in New York. Older residents of Dover today remember life in old Dover primarily for its strawberries and its churches. Baptisms, as well as holiday picnics, were held at Moore's Lake.
Much of Dover's history and culture is intertwined with its churches, principally the Methodist Church and the Dover Baptist Church, which was established in 1904 on land donated by the DeShong family.
Source: Seffner Dover Mango Chamber of Commerce
