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 school building opened in 1968 to replace the previous school, which had most recently been enlarged in 1958.
In 1876, this community consisted only of the families of Ed Bann, Frank Murray and Gus Mohr. Then, a trip to Orlando by oxcart took five hours. The next settler was Henry P. Belknap of Cincinnati, who had visited in 1876, spent more time in 1878, and settled here in 1879. In may of 1883 he became Gotha's first postmaster and by 1885 was the schoolteacher.
At about the same time, Georg Hempel of Buffalo, New York, came to this area and decided to lay out a German town and name it for his birthplace in eastern Germany. He had recently received a large payment for his patented improvement of the printing press. Hempel opened a store, planted citrus trees, and set up a sawmill that supplied lumber for many early buildings of Winter Park and Maitland.
He was soon joined by Bernhart Huppel, Ludwig F. Hartman, Harry C. Moore, Herman A. Regener and Rudolph Wichtendahl. Charles Koehne arrived soon after and opened a two-story, 17-room building by 1894. Dr. Stanley Scott had an office on the second floor. Mr. and Mrs. William F. Kline, who lived across the street, bought the store in 1919 and operated it until 1930. It was torn down in 1963.
The athletic and social club, named the Turnverein, was organized in 1886 with more than 30 members. Gotha residents gathered in its hall for activities, including dancing and bowling.
Many residents were employed as grove tenders for absentee owners from Chicago, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Louisville, and other eastern and midwestern cities. The area was hit hard by the freezes of 1894 and 1895, but the grove workers persevered and built the groves back.
Lumber continued to be supplied for houses in Winter Park, Altamonte Springs, and Maitland. Gotha residents considered incorporating as a separate municipality in the 1920s, but instead chose to remain as an unincorporated part of Orange County.
This store was formerly known as Fischer's Country Store, Hamm's Grocery, and Fulmer's Cleaners. This particular building is a remodeled house erected in about 1879, and was orginally owned by Brockman, Koegel and Gunter.
Although the German Lutheran settlers needed a church by 1888, a yellow fever epidemic delayed a traveling missionary's arrival until 1891, when Rev. Carl F. Brommer preached to the local residents.
Zion Lutheran Church organized in 1892 and built a sanctuary in 1894 at the corner of Morton-Jones Rd. and Hempel Ave., with a small cemetery nearby. Beginning in 1894, it was served by Pastor Edward Fisher, who also traveled among Palatka, Martin, Manville, Apopka and Tampa. By 1900, the Gotha congregation had grown to 80. That building was sold to citrus executive Everett Fischer, who dismantled it in 1928 to build a cottage on Hempel Ave.
In 1920, the present building was constructed by the Presbyterians who later sold it to the Lutherans. During World War II, German prisoners of war interred in the area worshiped at the church. In 1961, the Gotha Baptist Mission organized itself into the Park Ridge Baptist Church, under the leadership of Rev. Doug King. They shared this building until 1963, when they completed a new sanctuary on Crystal St. to the north. This building is now used exclusively by Zion.
Henry A. Wilkening came from Kansas by train in 1911. In 1926, he built a two-story business block here, including a grocery store and drug store, with apartments upstairs. He dug a deep well, and operated the "Gotha Water Works" for his properties. Shortly afterward, he built the Gotha Garage next door, and this was the location of Gotha's first telephone and power lines. The store and garage were torn down in 1938, but the water works continue to serve three houses and the Zion Lutheran Church.
A small home was built here in the late 1880s on the 40-acre homestead of Henry Nehrling, who came from Howard's Grove, Wisconsin, periodically from 1886 to 1904 to work to established a ten-acre nursery which was a showplace from the Orient. He developed new varieties of amaryllis and caladiums and published Our Native Birds of Song and Beauty. Nehrling's ornithological library was later donated to Rollins College. He was known as the "Patron Saint of Florida Gardens".
In the early 1900s, that small home was removed and was replaced by this two-story ramshackle house moved from Lake Olivia by oxcart.
Nehrling called his estate Palm Cottage Gardens, and it had thousands of visitors, including Theodore Roosevelt. In 1933, four years after Nehrling's death, the home was acquired by New York journalist E. Julian Nally, who began a program of its restoration. In 1981, after four years of vacancy and vandalism, Howard and Barbara Bochiardy became the new owners of the home and the remaining six acres. In 1995, Richard Nehrling, a great-grandson of the original owner, heard about the home and his ancestor, and began working toward saving the home from developers and perhaps turning it into a museum. The county and Nehring's heirs are working on a plan to keep the property intact, with the county purchasing and renovating it.
This 1221-square-foot church building was erected in 1884-85 by Presbyterians in Seneca in Lake County about 6 miles east of Eustis. Seneca, settled in 1881, had a hotel, school and two churches, and ceased being a town late in the 19th century. The church closed in about 1899, and the Brethren purchased it for $75 in 1912. It was moved to its present site in 1925 to be used as a chapel for this camp.
In the 1960s, the post office was located in a rental building at 1002 Hempel Ave. In 1992, this modern facility was dedicated. Note the community blackboard.
The first mail service in Gotha was provided by a mail carrier from Orlando, paid for by H.A. Hempel out of his own pocket. Although there may have been another in existence as early as 1888, the first documented post office building was erected in 1914 next to the church. It was later moved to Gotha Rd.
About 1/4 mile due west of here, on Moore Rd., were located the McNeil Packing House and the Gotha railroad depot, along with railroad tracks. Both were torn down in 1942.
In 1985, this pavilion was built and a time capsule was buried at the base of the flagpole, here on the grounds of the old school. This land was donated in 1897 by Henry Temple and in 1906 the third Gotha school was built. The first one had been a one-room log house in 1885 near here, taught by Henry P. Belknap. The second school had been established in 1886 or 1887 next to the Turnverein property. It was given to the county school board in 1892.
The third school opened in 1907, and in 1926 it was moved by horse and logs to Mill Lake to become the center part of the Gotha community clubhouse. A new school was built here that year in its place, with Libby Dann as its teacher, and was used until 1968. A school for black children operated for a time in 1925.
This and other canals were dug in 1919-23 to form the scenic Butler Chain of Lakes.
The town's location between the lakes of the Butler Chain caused it to take on a name from the lakes region of England. However, there is disagreement over who actually named it.
Some believe that John H. Dawe took the name of an English town named Windermere when he drew up the plat in 1887. Dawe became construction engineer of the Florida Midland Railway in 1886, which stretched from Apopka to Ocoee by December of 1886. By 1888, Dawe had become the railroad's general manager. Another theory was that the area was named after England's Lake Windermere by Oxford scholar and traveler Dr. Stanley Scott, who homesteaded 160 acres on the west side of Lake Butler in the mid-1880s. However, Scott came here in 1887 after Dawe.
This church began in 1908, with various itinerant ministers conducting services. It was officially organized in 1916. The Windermere Improvement Company donated a lot, an Orlando architect drew up plans for free, and the sanctuary was dedicated in 1924. It is now affiliated with the United Church of Christ.
East of here was the site of a cabin which was found roofless by John Calvin (J.C. or Cal) Palmer in about 1910, and which he made his first home here.
This was originally named "Lake Dawn", but due to a mapmaker's mistake, it was changed to Lake Down.
Dr. J. Howard Johnson owned a sawmill in Ohio, and was immediately impressed by the stands of timber in this area. He moved the sawmill to Windermere. He and Cal Palmer noticed that orange groves prospered and the lakes were clear.
Beginning in January of 1911, they bought 2,000 acres from Samuel S. Griffin for $10,000 and formed the Windermere Improvement Company to develop and market it. New residents moving from the north built stores and houses and planted more groves.
In the early 1890s, Windermere had a reputation as a prime citrus-growing area. Brothers Sydney and Joshua Chase bought a vast orange and lemon grove in 1892 where there are now large homes.
The freezes of December 26, 1894, and February 7, 1895, devastated crops and many settlers became unable to make their mortgage payments. Large tracts of land changed hands through a series of foreclosures and tax sales. In the early 1900s, land was cheap.
A hundred years later, that same land is now the site of some of the largest and most expensive homes in Central Florida.
This is the oldest remaining schoolhouse in Orange County. It was built in 1890 as a single-story rural school, with a 15-by-21 foot floor. Through 1916, it served the 12-block town of Windermere, Chase Groves (now known as Isleworth), and a few other children living toward the north and east. During the 1890s, it served between 12 and 23 students at a time.
Beginning in 1911, this building was also used for church services. In 1923, it was rented to Lloyd Armstrong, a worker at Chase Groves. He and his wife and 11 children purchased the property in 1933, constructed two additions, and converted a portion to use as a kitchen and a bathroom. One of the Armstrong daughters gave the building to the town of Windermere in 1995. The additions were removed, and the floor plan has been restored to its original size. It has been added to the National Register of Historic Places.
This building began as a one-room schoolhouse, built in 1916. A second room was added in 1922, and a third in 1952. This replaced a prior 16' x 18' building at Seventh and Main Sts., built of plain boards, which also served as a church and clubhouse. It later became the town office.
The first library in Windermere was an informal book exchange which operated out of John Luff's Country Store. In the 1960s, the building which was the town's administrative office served as the library. In May of 1990, the Chase family donated $232,000 toward construction of this library, which opened on August 29, 1991.
This wood frame structure was originally built on the shore of Lake Butler for the Windermere Woman's Club in 1922, on a lot donated by the Windermere Improvement Company. Later, it was called the Windermere Community House and was moved in 1937 to its present location on a concrete block foundation. The Rotary Club has met here since 1969. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
In front of the town hall were erected a 30' metal flagpole erected in 1991 and a memorial to the three Windermere boys killed in World War II. There is also a time capsule sealed on April 30, 1975, to be opened in 2025.
In 1917, a wood frame grocery store was established here by J.W. McMurtrey. The store was replaced by the 1970s with the present concrete block structure which houses the Main St. Mower & Garden Center and a nail shop.
The Florida Midland Railroad came through Windermere in 1887. That year, railroad executive John H. Dawe helped to draw a plat for the town, and built a platform here and a house for himself elsewhere.
The unmarked dirt road that runs parallel to and west of Main St. is known by some residents as Pine Needle Rd. It is also known as Dirt Main St. Between it and Main St. ran the railroad tracks.
Alice Marshall opened Finders Keepers here in 1969. This is also known as the Cal Palmer Memorial Building, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Originally, this was the postmaster and town development office of Cal Palmer. Behind it was a shuffleboard court, built in 1911. In 1939, the shuffleboard club took over this building and used it for storage.
The first post office opened in 1888 on the northeast corner of this intersection, but closed after the 1894-95 freezes. A new post office was established in R.E. Kline's grocery store on the southeast corner. On the second floor, Mrs. Kline ran the Little Hotel. The building was later acquired by Mr. and Mrs. Grice, and even later became the Country Store, operated by John Luff.
A later post office ("Uncle Nick's Federal Building") was operated by postmaster Nick Maddock on Fifth Ave. Initially, the mail came by water four miles from Gotha.
The present building was constructed by Arthur E. Davis in 1947, with a soda fountain and an over-the-counter drug store. It was later sold to John Luff, and later was the home of Windermere Accounting, owned by Davis' daughter, Glenna Bardoe.
In 1964, June Kent found a model home for sale on SR 50. The owner, Jerry Chicone, offered to donate it for use as a library if the town would move it. At a cost of $3,000, it was moved here and in 1968, the carport was enclosed and shelves were installed.
The building was used as a municipal administrative office, dedicated to June Raboy Kent, librarian. Later, it became rental property and then was converted to use as a community building.
A three-story resort hotel opened here in 1913 as the Rossmore Inn, later called the Pine Tree Inn on the highest bluff (35') overlooking Lake Butler. It was used both by northern winter visitors and by Orlando residents looking for a weekend getaway spot.
It served as the Crawford Hulvey Military Academy, which moved here from Orlando in 1925. It burned down in 1937.
This church was organized in 1959 by Charles Tyndall and J. Lawton Shaw. Initially, they met in the building now occupied by the Reddi-Market, south of the church. The first sanctuary, which is the southernmost building on the present church grounds, was designed by Ed Thomas and built in 1962, and renovated in 1994. It was replaced in 1973 with the present sanctuary, and was supplemented in 1990 by the family life center and education building. The church's facilities are used by numerous youth and community organizations.
This home was built in 1912 by J.C. (Cal) Palmer and his wife. It was later the home of their grandson, John Luff, who served as mayor and ran a store on Main St.
Cal Palmer and Dr. J. Howard Johnson of Wauseon, Ohio, spent six to eight months traveling around Florida in 1910. After three to four days of fishing in the Butler Chain, they realized they had found an angler's paradise.
He and Dr. Johnson formed the Windermere Improvement Company which figured strongly in the development of the town.
This part of Lake Butler is named after the hometown of many of Windermere's earliest residents, Wauseon, Ohio. Others came from Cleveland. On the right you can see pilings in the water where the railroad bridge used to be.
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)
History of Orange County, by William Fremont Blackman (The Mickler House 1973)
The History of Public Education in Orange County, Florida, by Diane Taylor (Orange County Retired Educators Association 1990)
History of Windermere, Florida, U.S.A., by Carl D. Patterson, Jr. (1996)
Orlando: A Century Plus, by Baynard H. Kendrick (Sentinel Star Company 1976)
The West Orange Times, September 2, 1993
The Winter Garden Times, April 24, 1974
Click here for a copy of the trail rules.