Mango is located 12 miles east of Tampa in Hillsborough 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 the town enjoy the serenity of small-town living, it is close enough to St. Petersburg, Tampa, and Orlando to enjoy the advantages and excitement of larger metropolitan area.
Here are a list of subdivisions and communities in Mango. 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.
Lakeview VillageMango had a large enough population to warrant establishment of a post office in 1880, possibly as it became known that the new railroad to Tampa would pass through here.
The railroad was built from Kissimmee westward, and from Tampa eastward, and Mango probably had rail service to Tampa by 1883 although the complete line wasn't finished until 1884. Its proximity to Tampa, only eleven miles to the west, may have precluded Mango's development as a major community. By 1925, however, it had three churches with the residents engaged primarily in poultry, truck and dairy farming and groves.
W.M. Groves, the town's first postmaster, filed the first townsite plat of streets in 1884, north of the railroad tracks. M.L. Hewitt filed a plat for south-of-the-railroad tracks, the western portion being today's Lakewood Drive. The railroad depot was located south of the tracks, at Lakewood.
It is believed that a Methodist Church existed in Mango in the early 1880s, as did the first school.
It is unknown how Mango first got its name. There are many legends, one that it was once known as Oak Sink. Some say Mango got its name from a grove of mango trees that were killed in the "big freeze" of 1895. One version claims it was named after an Indian who took his first ride on the railroad train, but found "the clatter and clang" too much for him and headed for an exit. The conductor asked him what he was doing. "Man go," said the brave. Still another version has it that one of the local men was watching when the first car came through the area. It back-fired and the man thought he was shot as so he began to run. Someone yelled, "Look at the "man go". Regardless of how Mango got its name, it is a pleasant, growing town to live in and to work in.
Mango shares the Fire Department with Seffner called the Seffner-Mango Volunteer Fire Department, as well as State Highways 574 & 92. Mango has had in the past besides the post office, several hotels, a depot, packing house, drug store, grocery store, Little League Field, Civic Club, many churches, several schools including private ones, restaurants, gas stations, health club, garden club, and a lovely park called Limona Park.
Mango has shared boundaries with Seffner since the beginning. Because there is no hand delivery of mail in the Mango area, all residents pick their mail up at the post office, which now has 1425 rented boxes. Today, when asked what are the boundaries of Mango, people will tell you that as soon as you walk out of the Mango Post Office you are in Seffner. Although the Post Office was established in 1880, it was later discontinued in 1902 and reestablished in 1905.
Source: Seffner Dover Mango Chamber of Commerce
