Spring Hill

Spring Hill as a place-name appears on Hernando County maps as early as 1856, but the modern community bears almost no resemblance to that 19th-century geography. What exists today was built almost entirely from scratch beginning in 1967, when the Deltona Corporation and the Mackle Brothers — the same developers behind Marco Island and Port St. Lucie — mass-planned Spring Hill as an affordable Florida community. They platted tens of thousands of lots in what had been Longleaf Pine and Sand Pine Scrub ecosystem, sold lots aggressively via mail and promotional trips, and planted the template for what grew into one of Florida's largest unincorporated communities.

The 1970s and 1980s saw large-scale deforestation and construction as lot buyers built homes — many without the community infrastructure the original marketing had implied. Strip development along U.S. 19 and SR 50 created the commercial spine, while thousands of individual subdivision lots filled in around it. Water/sewer infrastructure lagged housing for decades, leaving a significant portion of homes on individual wells and septic systems.

The Suncoast Parkway (SR 589), opening in phases through the early 2000s, was the turning point. It cut the Tampa commute to 40–50 minutes, triggering a wave of younger families and professionals. The population, which stood at roughly 69,000 in 2000, surpassed 113,000 by 2017. Master-planned communities, newer schools, and Advent Health's hospital campus brought amenities that had long been lacking. Spring Hill is still unincorporated — a point of ongoing debate — but it has matured considerably from its mid-century mail-order origins.