Citrus grower John Ericsson built the first known home in College Park at 19 West Princeton, in the middle of what was then an 80-acre (320,000 m2) grove.
Other settlers soon followed, especially after the arrival of the South Florida Railroad in 1880, including: Adam Given, Mr. Grover, Marshall Porter, James Wilcox, Algernon Hayden, John W. Childress, and George Russell.
New residents began arriving in large numbers during the real estate boom of the 1920s, when the City of Orlando expanded its northern boundary north to Par Street to include College Park.
Ardsley Manor is the area bound by Bryn Mawr, Maury Road, Rio Grande, and Lake Silver.
It included 140 residential units over the "SunTrust Colonnade" and a commercial strip featuring 12,500 square feet (1,160 m2) of retail space adjoining a 7,500-square-foot (700 m2) bank.