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A view of
the pond at
the front of the Secret Woods neighborhood. |
About
Secret Woods
Map of
Secret Woods
Models
& Floor Plans
Howard White started building the homes in Secret Woods in
1984. The original show home is located on lot number one or
7429 Secret Woods Trail. This is the first house on the left
from the main entrance. The sales building was located where the
pool house is located today.
The sales building was later moved and
can be seen at the corner of Hillsdale and Belfort Road. It is
the small octagonal building on the church property. Howard
donated it to the church after all the homes were built.
His first home was built at 3002 Autumn Wood Court for Jim
and Barbara Fuller. Jim moved away for a couple of years but
loved Secret Woods so much that they moved back. Jim is
currently the Clerk of the Court for the City of Jacksonville.
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The main
entrance to Secret Woods is located on Tiger Hole Road, near
Hillsdale. |
One woman owned the entire acreage of Secret Woods. It was
sold to Howard for a little over $80,000 dollars. Jim’s house
replaced her estate home that was situated on that property. The
remainder of the property was used for farming or unusable since
it was swampy. Howard used the dirt from the retention ponds to
fill in the marshy areas.
Since most of the people that lived in this area were poor
laborers people did not venture into this area at nights.
Gunshots and screams could be heard at all hours. Friday and
Saturday nights were very interesting since Belfort was shut
down for drag racing. Even the police rarely ventured into this
part of town.
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The Secret
Woods community pool is open to residents and their guests
year round. |
Even as late as the mid 70s, property could be purchased
for $1000 per acre. Secret Cove, located on Belfort was
developed in 1974. Howard used similar building methods but
improved Secret Woods by requiring Covenants and Restrictions
and forming a Home Association.
This neighborhood is still the best kept secret
in town. It offers easy
access to the malls.
It's
close to downtown and now located at ground central for
Tinseltown. Now that the Tinseltown area has become so popular,
neighbors are now mentioning that they live in the Tinseltown
area…but locals know better.
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