Crisafulli Builders, Inc

Custom Home Builders and Remodelers

July 2013, Growing Produce






Pictured left top:  Tony Crisafulli, Josephine Ramshur, Carolina Policicchio
and Ben Crisafulli.   Front:  Domenica and Carmello Crisafulli

The Crisafulli family has been featured in several articles regarding their ties to the Agricultural and Business communities.  Among those publications are Space Coast Living, Space Coast Business and Florida Growers Magazine.  Here are some excerpts and links to articles recognizing our contributions to the community and the local economy.

The company is run by family... Bud's sister, Rachel Whitcomb, serves as his office manager, and he calls her "the most important part of my business, my right arm".  He refers to his mother, Mary, as "the glue that keeps us all together."  As for his youngest son, Steve, a real estate broker and builder (the only one of this three grown children to join t he family business), Bud says, "he s a natural to take it the way its headed now."

The Crisafulli family believes in giving back to the land that has given so much to them...Bud works closely with the St. Johns Water Management District to insure the natural beauty of the land is not exploited and that environmentally sensitive land will be preserved and developed responsibly.  Merritt Island is changing, but the Crisafullis are doing their best to make sure it will always be beautiful.

As their "Indian River Citrus" became world famous for its high quality, the family's roots sank deep in the Florida soil. They became pillars in the little community of Courtenay and founded the Courtenay Christian Fellowship Church.  Carmelo's son, Ben, married Mary Ronsisvalle, another first generation Italian American, who was 1 of 11 children from Washington DC. She went on to become the driving force behind Ben Crisafulli Groves.

Fast forward...on busy Courtenay Parkway (four miles from the Space Center), there's a Crisafulli Builders sign...and the offices of the corporation.  They have been a major builder and land developer for the past 35 years.

Bud Crisafulli, Carmelo's grandson and present-day patriarch, knows that cattle ranching and citrus growing may one day be a part of his family's past. He knew that diversifying was inevitable with the rising costs of labor and maintenance, so he began building homes on land that was no longer viable for citrus.

Excerpts from Space Coast Living,  March 2004

by Beverly Huttinger and Rob Downey


When brothers Carmelo and Joe Crisafulli arrived on Merritt Island in 1920, they found a land rich with subtropical vegetation surrounded by shimmering rivers, with plenty of fish to catch...  The Crisafullis, first generation Italian Americans from Ohio, fell in love with the rich, marshy earth...  After they worked for a few months for a grove owner who paid them $3 a day, an engineer hired the brothers to clear and plant 20 acres by their homesite on Sykes Creek.  In exchange for their labor, he sold them a Fordson tractor for much less than it was worth. The tractor gave the brothers a newfound independence.  It would be the last time they would work for someone else.  They gradually purchased more land, adding to their holdings as they became prosperous, and ended up owning most of the northern part of the island.  They were farmers and proud of it.  As the Crisafullis farmed, they planted citrus. Practiced since the Etruscan times by their Italian ancestors, citrus growing was in their genes. 

In the 1950s, the US government bought a large portion of the Crisafullis' land to build the John F. Kennedy Space Center. Orange trees gave way to rocket hangers and launch pads.  In 1969, four decades after the brothers bought the land, three men were sent to the moon from what had once been their property.



March 2004, Family Affair

August 2014, Water At Risk