A View from the Past

Presented by Anne Isacoff 

LLEC Anniversary Party of March 2006

 

Believe it or not, "Leisure Living Estates" used to be called a  "Fish Camp".        A Mr. Williams of Orlando was the original developer of the Park.  It was called "Golden Beach Trailer Park".  Mr. Williams gets credit for the layout and numbering of the lots as they are today.  There were two washrooms for doing laundry.  There were no build­ings from 3rd Ave. Melbourne Beach South, except for a few bungalows scattered along the oceanfront.  The land was covered with palmettos and Australian Pine. The road was paved only a little beyond our park going south.  The rest was just a dirt road.

       I interviewed Melvin and Joyce (Fontaine) Rodebaugh a couple of months ago.  Mel Rodebaugh is the brother in law of Bill Hoffman (who used to own Leisure Living), and I received a few of the facts about the Park.

       In the years 1954-1956, there were about 6 or 7 trailers here. Bill Hoffman's father had already purchased the park, and a Mr. Brown was selected to manage it.  Ethel Fontaine, (Joyce’s mother) ran a little grocery where the front part of our clubhouse now stands.  In that store she cooked lunches --made clam chowder, homemade donuts, etc., and people working in the area and several fishermen would stop in for lunches. Her family lived in No. 7.  The 6 or 7 homes in the area were travel trailers.  Mel told me that he put a shuffle-board court where our office is now.

       When the elder Hoffman became the owner of the park, he changed the name to Leisure Living Estates.  As I was doing the background of the park, I read the Nell Rizzuto’s (a former resident) interview with Pauline Riley, who was one of the first settlers of our Park.

        Pauline and Russell Riley were from Ohio.  Their friends, Connie and Mamie Wellsland, also from Ohio, lived in the park near the river.  The Wellslands told Russell about a job opening Patrick Air Force Base.  He came down for an interview and got the job.  This was in February 1959. So, the Rileys decided to settle here, as Russell would be working in the area. 

       When the Rileys first landed here, they looked around for a restaurant.  None could be found, not on the beach, or for many miles around.  They dined with their friends.  At that time the park was populated with a few trailers, the layout remained according to Mr. Williams’ original design (in the same weird fashion). 

     The park looked neat and well kept, and they had their pick of almost any lot.  They chose lot #82 as it was closer to their friends. When the Rileys bought their trailer, it was the largest any­one in the park had ever seen.  It was 10 ft. wide, 54 ft long. All the others were 8 ft. wide and much shorter.  The kitchen and bathroom facilities were at the core of the trailer and an extension telescoped out from either side.  The extension provided a large living room across the front, dining room or den on one side, dinette on the other side and large bedrooms at the rear.  The design was unique and expensive and was not economically right for the time.  Very few were sold.

       At first the rent for the lots was $25.00 per month.  When the Hoffman family acquired the Park, they offered the residents a year's lease at $15.00 per month.  At the end of the year they offered the residents an opportunity to buy their lot.  The Rileys were the first to sign a 15-year contract to buy their lot for $1350.  The lots were nearly paid for when the Hoffman’s bought them back.

Quoting from Pauline Riley's interview, she said:  "Val Steele and Bill Hoffman were young boys in high school when they came to the park.  All the residents loved them.  They were extremely helpful to everyone.  They lived in the building known as called the "hut”, which preceded our clubhouse.  By the way, FPL’s billing still reflects the “hut”.    For two or three years in the early days, residents enjoyed a swimming pool. It was used allot, and everyone loved it and had a lot of fun. Later the walls of the pool cracked, it was condemned, and finally filled in.

Pauline remembers when Bill Hoffman met Barbara in the park and they got married.  The residents contributed to purchase a beautiful wedding gift for Bill and Barbara.  They put it in the "hut" (as it was called then) ----But someone broke into the place and stole it. So they never received the gift.  She said it was a happy organization and everybody got along.

Bill Hoffman later became the owner of the Park.   Howard McKnight was hired as the Manager (he lived in #34) and Mary Scott was the Secretary, (she lived in unit #103).

In the river area there was an abundance of oysters, crabs, clams and shrimp.  Later it became very commercial, and dirty, and the odor around that area became very pungent.  The river was finally cleaned up, the flow diverted, however, there is no longer an abundance of seafood, but we still see mussels there.

In the earlier days, each lot had a meter, with your electric bill paid at the office rather than Florida Power and Light. Instead of the taxes, we now pay as condominium owners, we paid a motor vehicle tax.  We paid for a tag, which we had to place in our front window, and it cost around 5 or 6 dollars.  Our units had to be registered every year.  Later in 1984 when we became a condominium association, we paid real estate taxes as we do now.

         In the early 70’s, those residents who bought lots from Mr. Hoffman formed an association.  It was called "COOLLE", which stood for "Corporation of Leisure Living Estates".  Only those who bought lots could belong.  The membership of the Association worked together for improvements in the Park and for fun times……

This was not always an adult park.  There used to be families living here.  A Mr. Jack White had 4 children.  He lived in  # 73.  A few of the children were under school age.  The Browns (the former manager) had three children.

There were dog rules.  If you had a pet, you could keep it, but could not get another animal if it died.  The rules were not always carried out, and you could sometimes see dogs running loose (although there was a "leash law").  Occasionally, we found dogs from other parks running through, as well.  But the rule always was that you could not get a pet if you lived here.

Pauline only remembers 2 storms since she lived here.  In September 1959, there was "Hurricane Donna", where they had to evacuate the park.  There was another hurricane, but that was mild in comparison.

           The Fire Station was added around 1972.  The golf course was built around 1976, as you are aware the course is owned by Brevard County and is known as the Spessard-Holland Golf Course.

           In 1979, when I first visited the park, there were 9 model mobile homes up front (where numbers 1 through 4 now stand) I was able to select the model I wanted and asked if it could be placed on the golf course.  Bill Hoffman found a spot for it, and that is now where I live – Unit 64…..

In 1982 there were all kind of rumors flying around that our park was to be sold to an outside entity.  Later we received word from Bill Hoffman and his attorney that with 100% partici­pation, we could become a condo association.  On March 17, 1982, Brevard County passed a resolution for a variance to permit multi-ownership of a mobile home park under the condominium concept.    It took quite some time for residents to buy into the program.  Many of the owners were away and arrangements had to made for others to participate in the conversion.  Our original condominium documents, after many hours of work by our attorneys and residents alike, were accepted.  The documents were recorded by Brevard County on August 2, 1983.   We held our first celebration as Leisure Living Estates Condominium in 1983. 

A Board of Directors and Officers was required to make the Association legal.  On March 15, 1984 we had our first Board of Director’s meeting and elected officers with John Ricciardo becoming our first president.  In looking over many notes and newsletters, allot of changes have taken place:  In 1985, a new (much larger) air conditioner was purchased to replace the old one......

So many people have participated and given of themselves.  In 1986, HELEN RONE, who used to live in unit 63and is no longer with us, formed a group and taught aerobics with classes held in our clubhouse  once a week. ....

In 1990, a wall between the room entering the clubhouse with an adjacent carpeted smaller room was physically knocked down by Paul Robinson and Charlie and Frank Smith to give us additional area and kitchen space. 

A pool table was added to serve a dual purpose (funds for which was made avail­able by the sale of chances on a quilt, made and donated by JEANNETTE SOUCY,  who also is no longer with us.  We actually netted $777. from the raffle. 

In 1991, we changed our  postal system and new mailboxes with individual locks were installed. 

In 1997 the speed bumps were removed to accommodate the three wheeler bikes and motorized carts .

In 1998 the Laundry roof was completed by the "Roof Doctor", and it was supposed to be warranted for 25 years, --------so much for roofs and hurricanes.....

      So many of us have participated in all these improvements.  Many of our newer residents may not realize how many ad­ditions and changes have taken place.  We are still continuing to improve and update (which I am sure will go down in his­tory) as our Park evolves.

      We have progressed from a small "FISH CAMP" to one of the most attractive mobile home condominium associations in the area.  So, tonight we celebrate with pride, our 23^rd year as the Leisure Living Estates Condominium Association.