Brewster, Florida: The Ghost Town That Was Literally Dismantled

Historic photograph of the Brewster, Florida phosphate company town with its power plant smokestack rising above the buildings and trees.

Most ghost towns leave something behind. Empty houses. Abandoned storefronts. Crumbling churches. Streets slowly disappearing beneath weeds and trees. Brewster, Florida, is different. When this former phosphate company town in Polk County reached the end of its life, people didn’t simply pack their belongings and leave their houses behind. Some of them took the houses … Read more