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 park was named in 1977 to honor Merrill Schwartz, a prominent community leader who pushed for the designation of park areas and the passage of strict tree preservation ordinances.
The recreation complex was dedicated on October 11, 1986, and the ball fields were named in memory of three local citizens. William (Bill) Miller was the Eastmonte Park softball coordinator and an organizer of the South Seminole Umpires Association. Neal (Perk) Perkins served the Orlando Recreation Bureau for 30 years. Robert M. (Bob) Flaherty was honored for his service to the City of Altamonte Springs softball program.
This was originally a satellite church, established by St. Mary Magdalene's on Maitland Ave. It became a separate church with its own pastor in 1980.
In 1888, the Town of Altamonte Improvement Company mapped their future development extending from this point two blocks west, six blocks south, and five blocks east. Passing through the center at this point was to be the Alabama, Florida and Atlantic Railroad, which was never built. It was based on an 1887 plat of "Altamont", prepared by Byron S. Ashley and R.D. Fuller.
A post office had opened here in 1874, with Delia S. Katline serving as the first postmaster. The town had one store, with George E. Wilson as the sole storekeeper and postmaster, until the Baker brothers opened a second store in 1886.
There was confusion, as the towns of Altamont and Altamonte Springs were only about four miles apart. The town located here virtually disappeared following the devastating freezes of 1894 and 1895. By 1900, nearly all of its residents had moved to Altamonte Springs, Forest City or Longwood.
In 1872, Dr. Washington Kilmer became one of the first to settle here, after walking from Cincinnati. He acquired this land and set out trees for an orange grove. Kilmer is credited with coming up with the name "Altamonte".
As part of the Sanlando development, Frank Haithcox opened the Sanlando Golf and Country Club in 1927. In exchange for four hundred lots, Calvin O. Black of Cleveland, Ohio, built an 18-hole golf course, a watering system, and a clubhouse. It was taken over during the Depression by Overstreet Investment Company, and later renamed Rolling Hills.
This church organized in 1967 and began with services in the Altamonte Springs Community House, before erecting its own building here later that year. Rev. David R. Burkette was the founding pastor and the designer of this sanctuary/education building, which was built by Rupert Rump. It was renovated in 1991. The children's building was erected in 1973.
The Moravian church is the oldest Protestant denomination, founded in 1457. In the United States, its main centers are in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
The community of Palm Springs near the intersection of the Florida Midland and Orange Belt Railroads began to draw some of the activity from Altamont in the late 1880s. A post office was established near here, with Frank S. Baker as the first postmaster. The town was hit hard by the 1894 and 1895 freezes, and the post office was discontinued in 1900.
About two miles to the northeast was the town of Glen Ethel, which obtained a post office in 1887 and a school in 1889, and essentially disappeared in 1895. The post office was discontinued in 1899.
The springs themselves were a major recreational attraction. Moses Overstreet bought them in 1944 and added them to Sanlando Springs Tropical Park.
The springs were originally named Hoosier Springs until Frank Haithcox and his company came along. Haithcox was the chief operating officer of the Altamonte Homes Company, which embarked on the development of the large Sanlando project. He renamed the springs Sanlando Springs, and put in a pool and bathhouse in April of 1926. At its peak, Sanlando Springs Tropical Park had special aquatic shows with log rolling, plus swimming classes.
During the Depression, the company became defunct and Haithcox lost most of his interest in Sanlando. Overstreet Investment Company foreclosed on it and took over its operation.
The park was improved and expanded in 1950 by Mr. and Mrs. J.E. Robinson. In 1970, it was acquired by a developer and made a part of The Springs community.
This group of schools was opened to handle the rapid growth of Altamonte Springs and the surrounding area. Forest City Elementary and Teague Middle Schools opened in 1971, and Lake Brantley High School opened in 1972. Only one section of the original Teague Middle School building remains.
The building now known as the Altamonte Chapel began as the Lake Brantley Union Chapel, begun in 1882 and completed in 1885. It was located not far from this location. Mrs. Carlos Cushing, a winter resident from Boston, persuaded her husband to start the project on land donated by George and Louise Lewton. She had it designed by a Boston architect.
The Winter Park Congregational Church sent a minister to conduct monthly services. There were also Presbyterian and Methodist congregations in the area, and they probably worshipped here. After the freezes of 1894 and 1895, the area along Lake Brantley was abandoned and a family deeded the property to Rollins College in exchange for tuition for their two daughters.
In 1905, hunters Arthur Fuller and Maxwell McIntyre found the abandoned church in the woods in good condition and proposed to move it into town. Rollins College, having done nothing with it to that point, sold it to them for $600. The church was disassembled and moved piece by piece to its present location in downtown Altamonte Springs.
The woodwork details suggest that J.A. Clouser, prominent in early Longwood, may have been involved in the construction of the chapel.
Forest City was settled in 1882 by Charles and William McCoy and J.M. Hower Jr. The population grew to about 200 in 1885, at a time that there was one church and one school.
The Forest City branch of the First Baptist Church of Apopka began in 1895 with a revival in Forest City by Rev. Lorenzo Dow Geiger. The church became independent in 1896.
Chester Fosgate came to this area in 1907 at age 16 from Boston to learn the citrus business. A decade later, he founded a Forest City packing house near here that he built into one of the South's largest. His was the first in the state to pack and ship a million boxes of fruit in one season.
In the 1920s, he started one of the first juice canning plants in the state. He later marketed orange and grapefruit juices and a citrus blend under trade name Ace High. He also was the exclusive packer for Duncan Hines concentrate.
H.M. Sweeney, operator of the Union Drawn Steel Company of Hamilton, Ohio, in 1920 bought one of the old Swedish groves. He had come to the area in the hope the climate would improve his wife's health.
In 1925, the Seventh-Day Adventists bought 500 acres less than two miles west of here as the site for a school that had been on the grounds of its Orlando sanitarium that later became Florida Hospital. Besides Forest Lake Academy and a church on the grounds, the Adventists continue to operate a nursing home at the site.
Highland Stanford Company of Los Angeles had built the first juice canning plant in Florida at the site of the old Forest City sawmill in 1928. In 1929, the land boom burst, the stock market crashed, and Central Florida groves were quarantined after Mediterranean fruit flies were found in Orlando. The company failed after the 1929 season, and Fosgate bought the plant. He later sold the packing plant operation, which became Hi Acres.
He sold a marmalade-making business to Deep South, a Winn-Dixie subsidiary. Coca-cola later bought the concentrate plant from Hi Acres.
In the 1950s, Forest City was in the heart of the Citrus Belt. During its peak, Chester Fosgate's Citrus Concentrate Cooperative had a plant payroll of 2000 in 20 buildings for packing, storing and processing concentrate. Fosgate was 74 when he died in 1965.
His landmark citrus plant closed after the 1983 freeze. His heirs decided not to replant the groves, and sold the land to developers. It was torn down in 1997. Fosgate was posthumously inducted into the Florida Citrus Hall of Fame.
This was the heart of Forest City, including a schoolhouse, railroad depot, general store and a 2-story boarding house, completed in the mid-1880s. Lots were platted for homes and commercial development in 1883. An 1886 timetable lists Forest City as a stop on the Florida Midland Railroad.
After the 1894 and 1895 freezes, Frank Pounds started a sawmill, producing wooden crates at the site of what would become the Hi Acres citrus concentrate plant. He lived in the converted schoolhouse.
Swedes planted orange trees in the Forest City area, after migrating from the Swedish colony in Sanford. Some settled in Piedmont, between Lockhart and Apopka. One early grower, Gust Jackson, came in 1889 after digging for gold in California.
A Sightseeing Tour of Seminole County Historic Sites, Seminole County Historical Commission (1991)
Flashbacks: The Story of Central Florida's Past, by Jim Robison and Mark Andrews (The Orlando Sentinel 1995)
History of Apopka and Northwest Orange County, Florida, by Jerrell H. Shofner (Rose Printing Company, Inc. 1982)
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.