I n 1951, Charles Oliver Wellington, a very successful accountant in New York, made a decision to purchase some investment property in South Florida. Following the recommendations of Arthur William Glisson, several tracts of land were assembled and purchased by Mr. Wellington. Shortly after the land purchases, the State of Florida passed legislation creating the Acme Drainage District. The initial purpose of the district, created in 1953, was to provide for drainage and flood control on the assembled acreage and make the property suitable for agriculture. This was a huge undertaking as the total size of the tract was over 16,000 acres.

     B ink Glisson was hired by C.O. Wellington to oversee the property that was soon to become known as the Flying Cow (Charles Oliver Wellington) Ranch. Bink also served as the Acme Drainage District's first employee and general manager. In many respect's Bink was the first rock to anchor what was soon (44 years later) to become the Village of Wellington. He served the District in many capacities for 40 years, and retired in 1993 with a big sendoff attended by hundreds of his friends and neighbors. 

     M r. Wellington was the first Chairman of the Acme Drainage District and served until his death in 1959. Oddly enough it was probably Mr. Wellington's death which led to the decision to develop portions of the property to raise capital to pay for estate taxes. 

     M ajor construction did not begin until the first large tract of land, 7400 acres was sold to the Investment Corporation of Florida (ICOF) in 1971 for a cost of about $800 per acre. In 1972, a joint venture between ICOF and Alcoa Aluminum was formed to begin the construction of a new community. Construction began in 1972 and hundreds of homes were sold during that period. In 1976 Alcoa decided to sell their interest back to ICOF. Two years later the remaining properties of ICOF were sold to Gould Florida, a division of the large electronics corporation Gould, Inc. William Yilvisaker, the Chairman of Gould was an avid polo player. It was his contribution that produced the Palm Beach Polo and Country Club.

     I n 1985 Gould decided to pull out and sold it's remaining acreage to Corepoint, Inc. Corepoint was than succeeded by Lennar Homes who purchased the assets of Corepoint from First union Bank who held $35 million in defaulted loans. Since that time Lennar has also purchased the remaining 500 lots in Bink's Forest. In another distressed real estate sale, Glenn Straub purchased the Palm Beach Polo and Country Club, for $20 million from the Resolution Trust Company in 1993.

     T he next step in the evolution of Wellington was probably it's most important for the future. After years of trying, a determined group of Wellington residents succeeded in a referendum vote taken in November 1995. The Village of Wellington was officially born on December 31, 1995 (to qualify for certain Florida State funds it was necessary that the Village be chartered in 1995 or millions of dollars in state funds would have been lost). Official operations commenced on March 28, 1996.