Zephyrhills started as a colony for Civil War veterans. That’s not a metaphor — in 1909, Captain Howard B. Jeffries, himself a Union veteran, bought 35,000 acres and founded the Zephyrhills Colony Company with exactly that plan.
Before that it was called Abbott, dating to 1888. Jeffries renamed it Zephyrhills in 1910 — zephyr for the breeze, hills for the rolling terrain that’s unusual for this part of Florida. It incorporated as a town that same year and as a city in 1914.
The name on every bottle
The town’s water was already known as some of the best in the state before anyone thought to sell it. Don Robinson started the Zephyrhills Spring Water Company in 1957, though the water wasn’t actually bottled under the Zephyrhills name until 1964.
Perrier bought the 50-person company in 1987. Perrier itself later became part of Nestlé Waters. In 2021, Nestlé sold the brand on to a group of investment firms. Through every ownership change, the water still comes from the same part of Florida — Crystal Springs, near Zephyrhills, plus a handful of other named springs. A grocery store shelf almost anywhere in the Southeast is carrying this town’s name on it right now.
Eating in Z-Hills
Locals call it Z-Hills, and the breakfast scene here is taken seriously — a town that treats a quiet Tuesday morning as a reason to actually cook, not just pour cereal.
For something in the evening, Zephyrhills Brewing Company at 38530 5th Ave downtown is one of the few breweries actually based in Pasco County rather than just passing through on the way to Tampa.
Good to know
Zephyrhills sits in eastern Pasco County. The 2020 census counted 17,194 residents, up to roughly 18,150 by 2021 estimates. Its downtown historic district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.
For the county seat a short drive north, there’s what’s on across Pasco this August.
Photo: Wknight94, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.