Before citrus groves covered Clermont’s rolling hills, another crop put the little town on the map.

Today, Clermont is perhaps best known for its citrus history. The Citrus Tower, orange groves and the rolling hills that surround the city are reminders of the agricultural roots that helped shape the community.

But there was a time when Clermont was known for something entirely different.

Tomatoes.

In the late 1800s, Clermont earned a rather impressive nickname: the “Tomato Capital of Florida.”

And the story of how it happened is closely tied to one of the biggest developments in Clermont's early history—the railroad.

The railroad changes everything

Clermont was founded in 1884, when the Clermont Improvement Company began developing the community between Lakes Minneola and Minnehaha.

Within just a few years, railroads arrived in the area.

The Orange Belt Railway reached Clermont and nearby Minneola and Groveland in 1887, eventually connecting the region with St. Petersburg and other parts of Florida. For a young agricultural community, the railroad was a game changer.

Farmers could now get their crops to markets much more efficiently.

And Clermont's fertile land proved particularly well suited for growing tomatoes.

By around 1890, Clermont had become a center of Florida's tomato industry. One historical account notes that Robert Hooks, a prominent local grower and son of early settler Herring Hooks, had approximately 125 acres planted in tomatoes.

Downtown looked a little different

Imagine downtown Clermont in the 1890s.

Instead of the restaurants, shops and businesses we see today, parts of the area were bustling with farmers, workers, wagons and crates of freshly harvested tomatoes.

When harvest time arrived, temporary packing houses were set up around town.

According to a historic Clermont walking-tour account, the area around what is now 8th Street became a tomato-packing center, with tents covering the area and serving as packing houses. Tomatoes could then be prepared for shipment by rail to markets beyond the local community.

The railroad didn't just bring people into Clermont.

It gave local farmers a way to send Clermont's produce out into the world.

And that helped turn what had been a small developing settlement into an agricultural community with a growing reputation.

A young town finds its identity

Clermont itself was still incredibly young.

The community had only been established a few years earlier, and it was incorporated as a town in 1891. By then, it had churches, a school, stores, a lumber mill and a hotel. Agriculture was at the heart of the local economy.

The tomato industry was one of the reasons Clermont attracted settlers and commerce during those early years.

For a brief period, tomatoes were one of the things that put Clermont on the Florida map.

But Clermont's first agricultural boom wouldn't last.

Then came the Great Freeze

During the winter of 1894–1895, Central Florida experienced one of the most devastating freezes in its history.

The Great Freeze destroyed crops across the region and dealt a devastating blow to agricultural communities.

Clermont was no exception.

The community that had become known as the Tomato Capital of the state saw its agricultural prosperity severely disrupted. Many settlers left, and Clermont's town government eventually dissolved following the freeze.

Clermont would spend the next several decades rebuilding and evolving.

And eventually, another crop would become synonymous with the area: citrus.

Orange groves would come to dominate Clermont's landscape and economy, helping create the agricultural identity that many longtime residents remember today.

From tomatoes to oranges

It's easy to look around Clermont today and think of citrus as the city's agricultural story.

But before the orange groves became the defining feature of the landscape, tomatoes helped put Clermont on the map.

More than 130 years later, remnants of that agricultural history are easy to overlook beneath the modern city.

The roads are busier. The neighborhoods are larger. The old packing tents are long gone.

But the next time you drive through downtown Clermont, it's worth remembering that this same community was once filled with farmers preparing thousands of tomatoes for a journey by rail.

Long before Clermont became known for its oranges, it was known for its tomatoes.

And for a young town in the late 1800s, that was a pretty big deal.