DR. PHILLIPS
Dr. Phillips is Central Florida's first masterplanned community.
WELCOME TO DR. PHILLIPS Dr. Phillips contains high-quality residential neighborhoods, retail shopping, health care services, schools and a world-class YMCA — many named after its founder. Today, the Dr. Phillips community enjoys access to worldclass dining and hospitality, theme parks, Bay Hill (home of the Arnold Palmer Invitational) and outdoor recreation. Through the struggles of a pandemic, international conflict and local challenges, the Dr. Phillips community has been resilient and giving in the face of adversity, as well as flexible and supportive in times of community changes. — Orange County Commissioner Nicole Wilson
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One Man’s Lasting Legacy T
he Dr. Phillips area was named for Dr. Philip Phillips, who visited Central Florida in 1902 to become a cattle baron but instead invested in orange groves and ultimately moved his family here. He invented flash pasteurization, which lengthened the shelf life of many products, including orange juice. Phillips was a philanthropist who helped create the Dr. Phillips Memorial Hospital, donated millions of dollars to charities and social services and, in 1953, established the Dr. P. Phillips Foundation to help with the charitable needs of Central Florida. He came up with a plan to create a community centered around his orange groves. He hired a planner, who created a blueprint for the Dr. Phillips area. When he sold his citrus interest in 1954, he kept his undeveloped land in Southwest Orange. Today, neighborhoods make up much of that land. After Phillips’ death in 1959, his son, Howard, carried out his father’s wishes for an ideal community. Howard Phillips developed an 18-square-mile master plan, which became Central Florida’s first master-planned community. The idea was to produce a self-contained, self-sustaining, agriculturally oriented township with a small post office, fire station and grocery — and it would be called Dr. Phillips.
LOCAL MOTION 2022
