Valrico is not a name you will find in any Spanish dictionary. It was invented by a Tufts College philosophy professor from Massachusetts who looked at the Florida wilderness in the 1880s and decided to call it "rich valley" — in a place with no valley. That single act of creative branding set the tone for a community that has been reinventing itself for 140 years. From cotton plantations to strawberry fields to one of the most sought-after suburbs in Tampa Bay, Valrico's history is a story of booms, busts, and stubborn people who refused to let the place die.

After 23+ years of real estate experience, I walk this land every day showing homes to families who have no idea what happened here before the subdivisions arrived. This is the full story.

Where Did the Name Valrico Come From?

The name "Valrico" is an invented word combining "val" (valley) and "rico" (rich) — meant to translate roughly as "rich valley" in Spanish or Italian. The man who coined it, William G. Tousey, was a philosophy professor from Tufts College in Medford, Massachusetts. He purchased property in the area in the late 1880s and renamed the settlement from its previous identity: Long Pond.

There is a gentle irony to the name. There is no valley here. The terrain is gently rolling Florida flatland with a few modest hills. Tousey was not describing the geography — he was selling a vision. And for a philosophy professor turned frontier real estate promoter, he was remarkably effective at it.

The earlier name, Long Pond, referred to the body of water we now call Lake Valrico. Before Tousey arrived, the area was sparsely settled and had been through its own transformation — from wilderness to cotton plantation to post-war desolation and back to wilderness again.

What Was Here Before Valrico?

Before the Civil War, the area that would become Valrico was plantation land. Cotton was the crop, and enslaved people did the work. The Spencer, Clark, and McKay families owned large tracts in the Long Pond area. The land was fertile enough for cotton, and the remoteness kept these plantations isolated from the broader conflicts of antebellum Florida.

After the war, the plantations collapsed. The formerly enslaved people left or stayed as freedmen. The land reverted to scattered homesteads. For roughly 20 years after the Civil War, Long Pond was a ghost of itself — a handful of families farming for subsistence in what was essentially undeveloped Florida backcountry.

By the 1880s, the area had maybe a dozen families and no formal identity. It was a place people passed through on their way to Tampa or Plant City. Then Tousey showed up.

How Did the Railroad Change Everything?

In 1890, the Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad completed a line through the area and established a depot and post office at Valrico. This was the moment the settlement became a town. The railroad connected Valrico to Tampa, Plant City, and the broader Florida economy. Goods could move in and out. People could arrive without a multi-day overland journey.

Tousey seized the opportunity. He platted streets, opened retail stores, started a bank, built a nursery for citrus plants, and actively recruited settlers from the Northeast. He even included a golf course in his original town plans — a remarkable ambition for a frontier settlement of 100 people.

The original town grid Tousey laid out still exists today, just north of SR-60 along Valrico Road. Oak-lined streets run in a quiet grid near Lake Valrico. It is one of the oldest surviving street layouts in eastern Hillsborough County, and most people drive past it without realizing they are looking at the bones of a 130-year-old planned community.

By 1893, Valrico had about 100 residents. A man named Bryan built a steam mill near the depot for sawing stove wood. The citrus nursery was growing. For a brief window, it looked like Tousey's vision might actually work.

What Happened During the Strawberry Farming Era?

The catastrophic freezes of 1894 and 1895 wiped out citrus groves across central Florida. Valrico's growers were devastated. Tousey's nursery was destroyed. The agricultural foundation that supported the young community collapsed overnight. Tousey eventually left, and his property was sold off. By 1911, Valrico's population had dropped to about 50.

But the soil was still fertile. As the community slowly rebuilt in the 1910s and 1920s, farmers shifted away from citrus monoculture and toward diversified truck farming. Strawberries became a significant crop in the broader eastern Hillsborough County region, with Plant City — just 15 miles east — emerging as the strawberry capital of the world.

Valrico's farmers grew strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, citrus (carefully, with frost protection), and other crops suited to the sandy Florida soil. The Fugazzi Brothers, a Cincinnati-based company, and the Florida Citrus Exchange opened packing plants near the railroad depot. For the first time since the freezes, Valrico had commercial agriculture infrastructure.

The strawberry connection defined the region's identity for decades. Even today, the annual Florida Strawberry Festival in Plant City draws hundreds of thousands of visitors and traces its roots to the farming era that sustained communities like Valrico when everything else had failed.

How Did Phosphate Mining Shape the Region?

While Valrico itself was not a major phosphate mining center, the phosphate industry shaped the broader region and contributed to Valrico's development. The Bone Valley phosphate deposits — one of the largest phosphate reserves in the world — run through parts of Hillsborough, Polk, and Hardee counties.

Phosphate mining brought jobs, infrastructure, and money to eastern Hillsborough County. The railroad lines that served Valrico also hauled phosphate. The workers who mined phosphate needed places to live, and some settled in or near Valrico. The industry's economic activity supported the general stores, packing plants, and service businesses that kept small communities alive through lean times.

The environmental legacy of phosphate mining is visible throughout the region in the form of reclaimed land, altered waterways, and the distinctive "gypsum stack" landscapes. Some of the land south and east of Valrico has been reclaimed from former mining operations and converted to residential development — a transformation that would have been unthinkable to the original settlers.

Who Rebuilt Valrico After the Busts?

The community nearly died twice — after the 1894-1895 freezes and again after the 1929 stock market crash. Both times, a small group of stubborn families held on and rebuilt.

Between 1910 and 1914, the Hamner, Miller, Hunter, Van Sant, Humbird, and Phipps families relocated to Valrico and began the first serious rebuilding effort. W.F. Miller emerged as the key figure, leading improvement projects along Hopewell Road, which would later become State Road 60.

In 1912, Lovett Brandon built Valrico's first general store. The following year, Miller organized the Valrico Improvement Association, which raised $3,500 by subscription to build the Valrico Civic Center in 1915. That building still stands today at 506 Fifth Street as the James McCabe Theater, home of the Village Players community theater. It is a Hillsborough County Historic Landmark and the only surviving commercial structure from Valrico's original boom era. Locals swear it is haunted. The stray cats on the front porch are definitely real.

The Improvement Association, which at its peak had 185 members, also helped build the Van Sant Elementary School, petitioned the county to pave roads to Brandon, Plant City, and Tampa, and established a rural mail route carried by horse and buggy.

Local clay was used to make Valrico brick, which was used in the construction of both the civic center and a bank building in 1916. The brick-making operation was one of Valrico's few early manufacturing enterprises.

Then came the 1929 crash. Nearly every business closed. The citrus packing plants and one general store were the only enterprises left standing. Many residents packed up and went back north. By 1935, Valrico's population had crept back to about 100. It would stay there for nearly two decades.

When Did Suburbanization Start?

The turning point came in the mid-1950s when State Road 60 was paved and connected to Adamo Drive in Tampa. For the first time, Valrico had a direct, paved road link to a major Florida city. People who worked in Tampa could live in Valrico and commute.

This single infrastructure decision transformed Valrico from a dying agricultural hamlet into a bedroom community. Growth was slow through the 1960s and 1970s, with some of Valrico's first larger subdivisions appearing along Mulrennan Road south of SR-60 between the late 1960s and early 1980s.

What Were the Key Decades of Growth?

The 1970s: The Foundation

The 1970s saw the beginning of residential development beyond the original town grid. Small subdivisions began filling in the land along SR-60 and Bloomingdale Avenue. The population grew from a few hundred to a few thousand. Schools were built. The community was becoming recognizably suburban.

The 1980s: The Bloomingdale Boom

This was the decade that made Valrico what it is today. In 1979, construction began on the Bloomingdale development east of Bell Shoals Road. Between 1979 and 1989, nearly 4,000 homes were built in Bloomingdale alone. Today, Bloomingdale encompasses over 32 subdivisions and approximately 5,200 homes — the largest neighborhood in Hillsborough County.

River Hills Country Club opened in the late 1980s as Valrico's first guard-gated golf community. The Buckhorn corridor began developing. The commercial strip along SR-60 filled in with the Publix, gas stations, and restaurants that still serve the community today.

The 1990s: Filling In

Through the 1990s, subdivision after subdivision claimed the remaining farmland and pastures. Canterbury Oaks, Brentwood Hills, Twin Lakes, and dozens of other communities were built. Schools expanded. SR-60 became a legitimate commercial corridor.

The 2000s: The Population Explosion

The 2000 census counted 6,582 people in Valrico. By 2010, that number had skyrocketed to 35,545. In a single decade, the population grew more than fivefold. FishHawk Ranch, technically in Lithia but closely associated with Valrico, was master-planned and built primarily during this period.

The 2010s-2020s: Maturation

Growth leveled off. The 2020 census recorded 37,895 residents, and current estimates put the population above 38,000. With limited vacant land, Valrico's era of mass development is over. Growth now comes through redevelopment, infill construction, and rising property values rather than new subdivision sprawl.

What Do Old-Timers Remember?

Talk to anyone who has lived in Valrico for 30+ years and you hear the same themes:

The strawberry fields where Bloomingdale now stands. The cattle ranches that became Canterbury Oaks. The two-lane road that is now six-lane SR-60. The general store near the original town grid that sold everything from feed to fishing line.

They remember when you could see across open pasture from SR-60 to the Alafia River. When Buckhorn Road was a dirt road. When the biggest event of the year was the Plant City Strawberry Festival, because there was nothing else to do.

They remember a community where everyone knew everyone. Where the mail carrier knew your name and your dog's name. Where you left your doors unlocked because there was nobody around to walk through them.

That Valrico is gone. The one that replaced it has 38,000 people, a Whole Foods under construction, and homes that sell for half a million dollars. But traces of the old community survive. The original town grid near Lake Valrico. The James McCabe Theater. The oaks that predate every house on the street.

What Does Valrico Look Like Today?

Valrico in 2026 is unrecognizable from the Long Pond settlement of the 1880s, but the bones are there if you know where to look. The community is primarily residential. SR-60 serves as the main commercial corridor with Publix, Walmart, restaurants, and Valrico Commons. The Bloomingdale corridor along Bloomingdale Avenue has its own commercial node.

A 38,000-square-foot Whole Foods Market is under development at the Lithia Crossing plaza on Lithia Pinecrest Road — the first Whole Foods on the east side of Tampa Bay. That single development tells you how far this community has come from cotton plantations and stove-wood sawmills.

The community has never incorporated as a city. It remains an unincorporated census-designated place governed by Hillsborough County. There is no Valrico mayor, no city council, no municipal police department. Services are provided by Hillsborough County and the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. This is a feature, not a bug — it keeps taxes lower and bureaucracy thinner.

Valrico's schools are among the best in the county. Newsome High School drives a measurable price premium on every home in its zone. The school system is the single biggest factor in why families pay more to live here than in comparable homes in Brandon or Riverview.

What Is Next for Valrico?

Limited buildable land means Valrico will not see another Bloomingdale-scale development. The growth era is over. What comes next is maturation: better commercial development, infrastructure improvements, and rising property values driven by demand for a community that has everything families want.

The Lithia Pinecrest Road widening project will improve traffic flow through the Buckhorn corridor. New commercial development continues along Bloomingdale Avenue and the SR-60 corridor. The Whole Foods is the most visible signal, but smaller retail and restaurant developments are filling in the gaps.

Valrico's identity has always been defined by the people who chose to build a life here. From the cotton planters of Long Pond to the professor from Tufts to the strawberry farmers to the thousands of families who move in every year for the schools and the neighborhood feel — this community has survived everything Florida has thrown at it.

The name may be invented. But the community is real, and it is rich in ways a philosophy professor from Massachusetts never could have imagined.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the original Valrico town grid still visible?

Yes. The original street layout from the 1890s still exists just north of SR-60 along Valrico Road, near Lake Valrico. The streets are quiet, oak-lined, and largely residential. Most people drive past without realizing they are looking at the oldest planned community in eastern Hillsborough County.

What is the oldest building in Valrico?

The James McCabe Theater at 506 Fifth Street, originally built as the Valrico Civic Center in 1915. It is a Hillsborough County Historic Landmark and home to the Village Players community theater. It was constructed using locally made Valrico brick.

Why is Valrico unincorporated?

Valrico has never had enough political momentum or economic incentive to incorporate as a city. Residents have generally preferred county governance, which provides services without the overhead of a municipal government. There have been occasional discussions about incorporation, but none have gained traction. The result is no city taxes, no city council, and services provided by Hillsborough County.

How did Valrico go from 50 people to 38,000?

The paving of State Road 60 in the 1950s was the catalyst, turning Valrico from an isolated farming community into a commutable suburb of Tampa. The Bloomingdale development in the 1980s was the accelerant, adding 4,000+ homes in a single decade. From 2000 to 2010, the population grew from 6,582 to 35,545 as the remaining farmland was developed into residential neighborhoods.

---

If you're looking at homes in Valrico, explore Valrico neighborhoods or start your home search. Call me at (813) 733-7907 or visit nowtb.com.