Instructions:
1....Print this file.
2....At its end, click on "rules" to see a copy of the trail rules, print it, and then click where indicated at the end of the 3-page rules and patch order form to get back to the list of Florida trails.
3....If you want a hand-drawn map showing the locations of all of the sites, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to Steve Rajtar, 1614 Bimini Dr., Orlando, FL 32806.
4...Hike the trail and order whatever patches you like (optional).
WARNING - This trail may pass through one or more neighborhoods which, although full of history, may now be unsafe for individuals on foot, or which may make you feel unsafe there. Hikers have been approached by individuals who have asked for handouts or who have inquired (not always in a friendly manner) why the hikers are in their neighborhood. Drugs and other inappropriate items have been found by hikers in some neighborhoods. It is suggested that you drive the hike routes first to see if you will feel comfortable walking them and, if you don't think it's a good place for you walk, you might want to consider (1) traveling with a large group, (2) doing the route on bicycles, or (3) choosing another hike route. The degree of comfort will vary with the individual and with the time and season of the hike, so you need to make the determination using your best judgment. If you hike the trail, you accept all risks involved.
This is Apopka's oldest cemetery, with graves dating to 1854.
Around this cemetery have existed some important buildings. The first Baptist church was located here, before it was moved to Main St. The Methodist church was built on the east side of the cemetery, but was destroyed by a 1912 windstorm. The first school was located here until it burned.
Dr. Zelotes H. Mason and Peter Buchan, influential Masons living near here, were instrumental in securing the charter for the local masonic lodge. Mason practiced medicine in the area from 1871 to 1893. Buchan, a Scottish silversmith, came to Apopka by 1854 after hearing stories of Florida's climate and fertility.
For his 1924 funeral, 12 robed members of the Ku Klux Klan marched from the Methodist Church to the cemetery along with an American Legion contingent.
The first official Klan funeral was that of Benjamin B. Collier during 1925. Collier was a Confederate veteran and a member of the original Klan. Rev. Holmes Logan presided over the service, but Klan members conducted the funeral itself. The American flag and a fiery cross were carried to the gravesite.
The early military road came into Apopka from the east at this point. At this corner was the home of mayor E.J. Ryan.
Methodist services were first held in 1870 by Parson Brown, a circuit rider. They met in private homes and The Lodge, then in the first schoolhouse. They built their own church near here to the east of the cemetery, and a regular pastor was assigned in 1881, with Rev. Robert H. Barnett being the first. The first parsonage was built in 1891-92.
The church building was destroyed by a windstorm in 1912.
Orange Lodge No. 36, F.& A.M., was chartered with 14 members on January 14, 1856, at a meeting at Robert Barnhart's mill on the Little Wekiwa River at Shepherds Spring. The original lodge building was to be built by the mill, but Barnhart asked to be let out of the contract when the mill broke down.
It has met continuously since that time. The first slate of officers included Judge James G. Speer. On June 25, 1858, the lodge moved from the mill to the home of John L. Stewart. A building committee was appointed on November 26, 1858. Stewart sold the lodge a two-acre portion of a 40-acre tract he had obtained in a deed signed by President Franklin Pierce in 1855. Slaves finished a wood building without an anteroom or ceiling on October 21, 1859. Pins, rather than nails, were used to hold the timbers together.
Beginning on March 28, 1860, Stewart rented the lower floor one Sunday a month for the Baptists, and J.M. Jackson rented it one Sunday a month for the Methodists. On the other two Sundays, it was used by other Christian denominations.
This was designated as a "moon lodge", with meetings scheduled on the Friday before each full moon from "two o'clock to candle light". As it was the only lodge in Orange County, Masons came from Orlando, Sanford, Kissimmee, Tavares, Sorrento, Fort Mason, and other settlements. Members who had to travel for miles at night would be better able to find their way with the light of the moon.
The community which grew up around this building was also referred to as "The Lodge", until renamed Apopka in 1870.
William Mills bought the first story on December 26, 1868, and with Stewart operated a general store here until about 1880. Portions of the two acres were sold to D.C. Shaw (1874), J.J. Combs (1877), M.J. Doyle (1877), and E.R. Prince (1878).
After Mills and Stewart sold their store to James D. Fudge in the mid-1870s, it was known as Fudge Hall, and school was held here. Fudge formed a partnership with William A. Lovell, an experienced merchant. J.J. Combs bought it in 1884 and put in a ceiling, then sold it to parties in England. The lodge bought back the first floor in 1907. The lodge operated a printing office and wine shop here. This lodge has been meeting in one building longer than any other lodge in Florida.
Due to the effects of highway widening and deterioration, the lower floor was removed and replaced in 1952. The wood was cut away and replaced by cement blocks. While the work was going on, lodge members used a ladder to get to the lodge room.
This was the house of Agnes Smith, who welcomed soldiers' wives into her home during World War II. H.H. Witherington built it in 1887 of virgin yellow pine.
This home was built in 1902 by A.C. Starbird, who moved in 1920 to Wekiwa Springs to be a promoter of the Wekiwa Springs Realty Co.
The settlement on East End had a Florida Midland Railroad station from about 1886, even though it was less than a mile from The Lodge.
This Queen Anne style home was built in 1903 for the Eldredge family. Dr. Thomas E. McBride acquired it during the 1920s, when it was located at 21 N. Highland Ave., the first tract of land in the Apopka area purchased from the U.S. government. The 4,000 square foot eight-room home sat empty for several years after Dr. McBride's death in 1978.
The house was divided into four sections in 1985 and moved to its present location. It was enlarged by about 10,000 square feet and transformed into a restaurant with a Victorian atmosphere.
Dr. McBride was one of Apopka's first practicing physicians, and Mrs. McBride was a famous pilot and flying instructor.
Luther Fuller Tilden (1834-1929) moved to Florida upon his doctor's recommendation to seek relief from bronchitis. He arrived here in 1876 and built a two-story house above a little pond. His was the first house in Apopka with glass windows. Tilden developed a tract of land known as Tilden's Addition in the old section of town near The Lodge.
Here until about 1999 sat the house built and occupied by Dr. L.H. Henley, until he moved to Lakeland in 1901.
Piedmont was a close-knit community of Swedish immigrants begun in the late 1870s. Probably the first to arrive was Olaf Larsson, who settled there in December of 1877. John Thollander arrived in the mid-1880s, and served as postmaster just after 1900, while the post office was located in a room attached to the front porch of his home. The post office was discontinued in 1922.
Gust Johnson operated a store and, with Jonas Larsson, grew grapes and operated a winery. John Anderson and his sons operated a sawmill on Bear Lake. Peter Olson donated land for a school, which also served as the community's social center and church. The Piedmont Plant Company opened in 1913.
The railroad (TO&A) would stop at Piedmont if flagged, but after it became the Florida Central and Piedmont Railroad in the early 1890s, a station was built. Piedmont Park was built on Hotz Lake, on land donated by John J. Anderson. It became a popular recreation spot with electric lights after 1920.
Orange County would allow schools to be formed and operated, so long as a minimum of seven students were enrolled. To meet this requirement, Piedmont registered a three-year-old child as the seventh student in its school.
Lakeville originated in about 1884. The following year, it had a post office and a store. Its streets were laid out in 1886. by the end of the decade, it had a tourist hotel, the Warner House, owned by real estate dealer C.O. Warner, who also had cottages to rent on Lake Apopka. W.L. Reed began serving as postmaster in 1886, and L.A. Smith was the storekeeper. Not much remained after the freezes of 1894 and 1895.
This church formed in the 1880s on Broad St. in Johnson Town along the northwestern edge of Apopka. It was dismantled in 1890 and moved to Mead's Bottom to the southeast of the TO&A and Midland Railroads.
A new sanctuary was built in 1905 while Rev. G.W. Jenkins was pastor. It was moved to its present site and rebuilt, completed on October 19, 1930. The present building was finished in 1973.
In 1886, William Clark of Chester, Connecticut, bought several hundred acres near here and built a sawmill. The area had been inhabited by a few cotton farmers before the Civil War, but after Clark arrived the settlement became known as "Clark's Corner" or "Clarcona".
Its Union Congregational Society Church was founded on March 20, 1886, with Rev. Lincoln Harlow as its first pastor. Nearby Horseshoe Lake was a popular place to swim and picnic. Cogswell Grove, planted in the early 1870s by G.M. Kent and later owned by Nathaniel M. Cogswell until 1923, was a well-known grove. In the 1920s, the major business establishment was J.W. Cumbie's general store. A blacksmith shop was run by Thomas Johansson.
In about 1950, the black school was merged with Wheatley. A new school was built in 1951 to be an elementary/junior high. In 1955, four more grades were added, and Wheatley became the black school for all twelve grades. Ten years later, it divided into two schools, elementary and junior/senior high. The high school was abolished in 1969, and Wheatley again became solely an elementary school.
Developers Hunt and Davies opened Wheatley Subdivision in 1926. It included five acres for this school, which cost $5,700. It is named for Phyllis Wheatley, an 18th century black poet.
This church was founded in 1937 by Belle William, J. Miller, R. Foster, Sam Brown, and several others who left New Hope Missionary Baptist Church. Zephaniah Turk became its first minister. The present building was dedicated on July 25, 1965.
The land for this church was donated by George W. Oden. It was built in the 1880s, in this Mead's Bottom neighborhood which was exclusively black until about 1920. The present sanctuary was built in 1961.
Nearby, a two-story school for black children was built in 1910.
The hall was built here in 1909. A moving picture theater was opened here in 1926 by Tom Barnes and Cecil Ross, and was later replaced by the Ace Theater.
Davis Lodge No. 47, A.F.& A.M. was founded in 1928, and in 1946 they purchased the Odd Fellows building.
This street was formerly known as Ninth St., but was renamed to honor the longtime owner of Michael Gladden's Market and laundry. Notice the monument to him on the southeast corner of this intersection.
This was the site of the Georgia Smokehouse, opened in 1929 by Benny Watters to deal in cured meats. Barney Watters and his brothers-in-law, Clayton and Dan Blackwelder, bought the business in 1946 and operated it at another location. B.L. Watters Building Supply, now known as Lumberjack, took over the location in the 1950s.
The center of town was shifted westward from The Lodge when the railroad came through. On land deeded by Mercy G. Wadsworth in 1885, the passenger and freight depot was built in 1918 by the Tavares, Orlando and Atlantic Railroad Company (TO&A).
The tracks crossing Main St. were removed in about 1969.
In this museum are artifacts of early life in Apopka and the surrounding area. Particularly interesting is the collection of photographs of the older homes in the area.
The museum began on the second floor of the city hall, then was located in the McBride Building, before it was moved here.
This building, still used for this lumber and building supplies business, was built in 1924.
This church began as a mission in 1893, and acquired its own building in 1902 by buying and remodeling the old Congregational Church. It remained a mission until 1962, when it was granted full parish status with Rev. Fred Herlong as rector. Shortly afterward, the congregation moved to the corner of Park Ave. and Main St., and then to this location.
This church began in the home of Judge James G. Speer on the shore of Lake Apopka in 1855. It was reorganized in 1873 by Zelotes H. Mason and J.M. Auld as the ruling elders, and Rev. Wallace as the supply minister. They first met in The Lodge, and then in the Methodist church building. The sanctuary was built in 1886 at the corner of Highland Ave. and Fifth St.
The church burned in 1951, and was replaced the following year at the same location.
The First Baptist Church of Apopka was organized in 1860 by Rev. George K. Powell and 21 charter members, but was soon disbanded. It reorganized in 1880, and land by Edgewood Cemetery was purchased from Zelotes Mason for $25 in 1881. Until their own building was finished, they met in The Lodge.
In 1908, they purchased land at Highland Ave. and fourth St., and constructed a new sanctuary. In 1940, they moved to Main St., across the street from this site. They added a Sunday school wing and a two-story education wing in the mid-1950s. The present sanctuary was built in 1960.
In 1885, a citizens committee cleared this road (formerly called Fourth St.) from The Lodge to Central Ave. and covered it with clay, making it the first hard road in Apopka. It also had a wooden pedestrian sidewalk.
This is a replica of the Boston fern, the first plant to be grown commercially in Apopka. The monument, dedicated on October 22, 1982, has 18 stainless steel fronds 10 1/2 to 14 feet long, standing in a four-foot concrete pot. Ferns helped Apopka become known as "The Fern City" (1924), the "Indoor Foliage Capital" (1950s), and in the 1980s, the "Indoor Foliage Capital of the World".
Harry Ustler, a flower company order clerk from Springfield, Ohio, moved to Florida in 1912 and found that ferns could be grown here for only 10 to 20% of their cost in Ohio. He became a waiter at the Altamonte Hotel, and while there shared this information with hotel guest W.P. Newell. These two men began growing ferns in a shed near Lake Eola in Orlando, then moved to Apopka. Ustler's two brothers joined him here by 1920, and the family started its own fern business.
This was planted here just east of the "Green Building" by Parkinson Dodge Shepherd to celebrate Arbor Day in 1900.
After the first school burned, a four-room two-story wood frame building was erected in 1886-87 by L.G. Silas and painted by H.G. Cronk. It received state accreditation as Apopka High School in 1901. A tornado destroyed it and 24 other buildings on January 12, 1918, and it was replaced by a green brick building for $16,000. Just to the north of the school, from the early 1880s, was a baseball field.
The next Apopka High School here was completed in 1925 and vacated in the 1960s. The city purchased it in 1966 and remodeled it in a Georgian Colonial style. The police and fire departments and the emergency operations center were soon added.
Further renovations were made in 1987, adding an atrium with an elevator on the east side. That connected it to the old high school gymnasium, which was modified to house the new city council chamber and administrative offices.
The town was incorporated in 1882 as "Town of Apopka City", and organizational meetings were held in Fudge Hall. The name the residents had wanted was simply "Apopka City", but they lacked the requisite population for a city. Five years later, it was shortened to "Apopka".
This was the location of the large home of Wallace T. Champneys, who sold dry goods at "Apopka's Big Store at the Monument" in the 1920s. The home had originally been built in Clarcona, and was moved here between 1910 and 1915.
In the early 1920s, Charles R. Converse operated a drug store here in a two-story frame building, facing onto Park Ave. He sold it to Walter B. Sheppard, who operated it as the Apopka Drug Store. In the 1940s, it was replaced by a one-story building, which was demolished in 1997.
This was the medical office of Dr. Thomas E. McBride, built in the 1930s. From 1985 to 1992, it was the location of the Apopka Historical Museum. Later, it housed the office of a member of the Florida House of Representatives.
In the 1880s, Mrs. E.C. Morgan operated a hotel here. Room and board cost $5 per week or $16 per month. A north wing was added in about 1908. Later, while it was owned by Lacey Stewart Williford, it was remodeled, renamed the Wayside Inn, and opened for tourists in 1913. Messrs. Pierce and Torry operated a sawmill behind the hotel.
S.W. Eldredge sold his store to Walter B. Sheppard, who operated it as Sheppard's Drug Store from 1946 until 1979. It then housed a typewriter and cash register store.
In earlier days, a meeting room known as Harrison Hall occupied the second floor of the Harrison Block, a wooden two-story building erected by 1880.
Congregtional services began in Apopka in the early 1880s, and the First Congregational Church was formally organized in 1886. The building erected in 1886 was also used by a Lutheran congregation. After the devastating freezes of 1894 and 1895, much of population left the area and the church building was converted to offices.
The first occupant after the conversion was Dr. L.F. Henley, and then it was used by real estte agent J.D. Mitchell. St. Luke's Episcopal Church of Orlando bought it in 1902 from the Congregational Synod in Jacksonville for $75.
The furnishings brought here in 1942 came from a church that had been abandoned in Zellwood. The building was removed in 1970.
On February 12, 1912, Orange County's oldest surviving bank opened for business on land donated by S.W. Eldredge. The State Bank of Apopka had the first depository window in Central Florida. A new building was erected in 1949 across the street from the first one, and a second story was added in 1958. That building was replaced by a new one in 1965 at this site.
The title of Apopka's first bank goes to The Bank of Apopka (a/k/a The Prince Bank), started by Edward Rufus Prince in 1885. It went under on July 18, 1894.
Wallace T. Champneys had his first store at the adjacent corner, then moved it here. He sold it in 1935 to Kerr and Edwards, and the building was later torn down.
In the 1920s, there was a fountain topped with electric lights in the middle of this intersection. In 1936, Apopka's first traffic light was installed for the cost of $87.50. Speed was limited to 10 mph through the business district.
The hotel, named for an Apopka pioneer, was built in 1926 for a cost of $180,000, financed by bonds. It replaced the old city hall, which had been demolished in 1926. Ragsdale Pharmacy opened in the hotel in 1927 and city offices still continued to operate from this location.
In 1933, the hotel was leased to R.R. King of North Carolina, who renamed it King's Inn. It was sold at auction in 1936 to A.D. Rainville of New York, and in 1938 it was bought by A.H. Albee of New Hampshire, who named it the Palms Hotel. It was sold in 1941 to Glover Burney, and in 1944 C.L.C. Bruner bought it and let rooms cheaply to servicemen. It was later demolished.
Until it went out of business in about 2002, this was one of the oldest surviving businesses in the city. It was bought by T.A. Shepherd in 1946.
This building was erected in 1927 and has housed a variety of tenants. The Fern City Drug Store was operating in August of 1938, when the W.P.A. sewing room was established upstairs. The Willis brothers opened the Fern City Service Station behind it in 1935, for the sale of Standard Oil products.
It was later known as Fern City Sundries, and then Henry's Portion Meats.
The first newspaper in town was the Apopka Pioneer, which began in 1877, and which was succeeded by the Apopka Little Floridian. Its owner sold out to Willis S. Russell, who started the Apopka South Florida Citizen in 1879. Its name was shortened to the Apopka Citizen after it was bought in 1882 by Page McKinney, who later sold it to F.A. Taylor.
In the 1880s, George E. Bryson bought it and operated it under the name of the Apopka News Budget. Walter Russell also published the Apopka City Union. In 1886, Rev. Branch briefly put out the Apopka Scintillator, and from 1888 to 1892, the town also had the Apopka Advertiser.
In 1913, the Apopka Publishing Company next door in the Eldredge building began printing the Apopka News and the Orange County Advocate, but it was destroyed by the 1918 tornado. Albert M. Hall's Apopka Chief distributed its first edition on April 20, 1923, and it continues today.
The newspaper has since moved to 439 W. Orange Blossom Tr., and this building has been added to 404 S. Central Ave.
This section of Orange Blossom Trail was a part of the Dixie Highway, which was the dream of Carl Fisher of Indianapolis. He had made his fortune in the new auto industry, and wanted to build a highway from Chicago to Miami. When news got out, many communities formed associations to lobby for inclusion on the route.
The Dixie Highway Association met in Chattanooga and chose a route passing through Tallahassee and Jacksonville, and proceeding south along the east coast. Frenzied lobbying also produced an inland route passing through Gainesville, Ocala, Winter Park, Orlando, Kissimmee, Bartow and Arcadia, rejoining the coastal route at Palm Beach.
In 1915, Fisher led an auto cavalcade from the Midwest to Miami, popularizing auto trips to Florida. The Dixie Highway was officially open for traffic in October of 1925 from the Canadian border at the northern tip of Michigan to Miami.
This home was originally built elsewhere, and moved here when the Starbird Lumber Mill relocated in 1902.
Mr. and Mrs. W.T. Berry moved into this house in 1891.
This home was built in the 1920s for Mrs. Percy McDonald.
This was the site of Ryan Muncipal Airport, which Helen McBride leased from 1942 to 1952 to teach military pilots to fly in her four airplanes. McBride had received her pilot's license in the mid-1930s, and was a cross-country racer and World War II flying instructor.
This portion of the airport was sold in 1954 to the Orange County School Board, and the school opened the following year.
After the antiquated buildings on Main St. became too crowded, Apopka Memorial High School was opened here in 1950. Later, when the present high school was built on Martin St., this became a junior high and then a middle school.
This home was built for Dr. Tripp in the 1890s. It was later the home of the Rencher family, the Stephens family, and Robert Pittman, III.
This home was built by George W. Tibbetts, who arrived in Apopka in 1914 and also built a two-story brick business block near the intersection of Fourth St. and Central Ave. Later owners included the McCormacks and the Minors.
This home was built by mayor Edward B. Waite in 1886. It was he who established the address system for Apopka, using this intersection as the center from which all addresses originate. It is one of the more ornate 19th century homes in Apopka.
This was built by R.M. Mitchell in 1887, and was later the home of mayor J.D. Mitchell. It was later Josephine Nolle's "Griff Inn" boarding house. Even later, it was the home of C.M. Walters.
This home was built during the 1880s by Chester Merrill. It was later acquired by the family of Florence Ustler.
The Methodists shared the Presbyterian church building from 1917 to 1922, and then built Rogers Hall in 1923. Along with a parsonage built at the same time, the cost was $20,000. Crowding was relieved a bit by additions built in 1952 and 1956. The building was replaced in 1961 by the present $225,000 building.
The facility was begun on May 9, 1946, to serve the youth of the area.
Boone's Florida Historical Markers & Sites, by Floyd Edward Boone (Rainbow Books 1988)
First Baptist Church of Apopka: Centennial Celebration 1880-1980, by Lucy Goolsby and Phyllis Hayes (1984)
Flashbacks: The Story of Central Florida's Past, by Jim Robison and Mark Andrews (The Orlando Sentinel 1995)
Florida Historic Homes, by Laura Stewart and Susanne Hupp (Sentinel Communications Company 1988)
Florida's Fabled Inns, by Louise K. Frisbie (Imperial Publishing Company 1980)
The History of Apopka, by Patricia Lee Evans (1967)
The History of Apopka, by Ralph G. Grassfield (Apopka Printing Company 1926)
History of Apopka and Northwest Orange County, Florida, by Jerrell H. Shofner (Rose Printing Company, Inc. 1982)
The History of Errol Estate and Country Club, by Harry J. Deck (1994)
History of Orange County, Florida, by William Fremont Blackman (The E.O. Painter Printing Co. 1927)
The History of Public Education in Orange County, Florida, by Diane Taylor (Orange County Retired Educators Association 1990)
Oakland: The Early Years, by Eve Bacon (The Mickler House 1974)
Orlando: The City Beautiful, by Jerrell H. Shofner (Continental Heritage Press 1984)
< i>Webb's Historical, Industrial and Biographical Florida, by Wanton S. Webb (W.S. Webb & Co. 1885)
Click here for a copy of the trail rules.