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.
David W. Mizell arrived in this area in 1858 with horses, cattle, hogs, turkeys and goats, and bought eight acres of land from Isaac W. Rutland. Lying between present Lakes Mizell, Berry and Virginia, he named his settlement Lake View. Mizell built a log cabin about a mile east of here in 1858.
David Mizell grew cotton and became the first chairman of the county board of commissioners. His descendants remained very involved in local government.
In 1870, the name of the settlement was changed to Osceola. A post office was established in the home of Col. E.B. Livingston, who also kept a stock of groceries for sale. Osceola became a part of the Town of Winter Park when it incorporated in 1887.
In 1881, Loring A. Chase of Chicago visited the area and convinced his boyhood friend, Oliver E. Chapman of Massachusetts, of the area's potential. The Chase & Chapman partnership bought 600 acres from Colling R. Swope, Hiram Potter and Lawson Chase for a total of $13,000.
They had the area surveyed and named it Winter Park on August 29, 1881, intending it as a winter retreat for northerners. Streets were laid out with ample space for parks, schools, hotels, a business district, and "a separate and adequate area for the negro population".
Chase had suffered from bronchitis and claimed to have come to Florida "not looking for real estate, but health". The town was planned to attract men and women of intelligence, culture, character, taste and means. Chase & Chapman advertised throughout the eastern U.S. Before the end of 1881, a road was completed to connect the new town with Osceola to the east. At the time, Winter Park's population consisted of 12 families. Within three years, it grew to 600 people. By 1885, there were several businesses and 63 dwellings. That year, the Chase & Chapman partnership was dissolved by Chase buying out Chapman's share for $40,000.
The Town of Winter Park was incorporated in 1887, with Robert White Jr. as the first mayor. Osceola was included, as was Hannibal Square. The latter will be covered in more detail along the route. At the time, 51 families were from the South and 141 from the North, broken down as 57 Democrats and 133 Republicans.
The museum is located in the Farmers' Market Building, and has displays of photographs and memorabilia from the early days of Winter Park. The museum was established on March 11, 1995, with ceremonies that included the unveiling of the memorial oak tree and plaque (just to the west of the front door) honoring former mayor Hope Strong, Jr. and Historical Society past presidents Dr. John Grass and John Twachtman.
Brothers C.H. and B.A. Galloway obtained a franchise for the Winter Park Telephone Exchange in 1912. Its first telephone was installed in Oneonta Lodge (Trovillion Grove). In 1913, it was combined with Galloway's exchange in Maitland to form the Winter Park Telephone Company. Later, it merged with United, and subsequently became part of Sprint.
The home which stood at this site was built by Deacon Robert J.D. Larrabee, and was used as the first mens' dormitory by Rollins College in 1885-86.
This church was organized in 1911 by M.F. Boone and Rev. C.J. Smith, following his departure from Mt. Moriah Missionary Baptist Church. A number of the Mt. Moriah families formed the new congregation, and built the present sanctuary in 1934. At times, the church has been known as the Bethel Progressive Baptist Church.
The initial plat of Winter Park provided for a segregated black section, which became the community of Hannibal Square. It was included in the 1887 incorporation of Winter Park, but was detached after a stormy debate in 1893.
Hannibal Square was physically distinct from the white section of town, and developed its own churches and schools. The first church was built in 1884 with the help of the white Congregational Church. Surrounding lots were made available to "Negro families of good character who can be depended upon to work in the family or in the groves."
Methodist and Baptist Missionary churches were built the following year. In 1891, the Chase-Moore Literary Club was organized, presided over by Gus C. Henderson, the second editor of the Winter Park Advocate, a black newspaper begun by S.A. Williams on May 31, 1889.
Despite a Winter Park Town Council resolution opposing it, state legislators in 1893 cut Hannibal Square away from Winter Park. The town council offered a school building as a gift if they would incorporate as a separate city, but Hannibal Square declined.
In 1916, a Woman's Civic League was organized. The Hannibal Square Library was organized in 1936, and in 1937 Hannibal Square Associates organized and began to erect a library building on three lots donated by Winter Park for that purpose and a park. It was moved next to the black elementary school on New England Ave., which had been built in 1927 for $14,387 by John W. Bryan. The Mertie Graham Grover Memorial Library opened the following year.
Although Hannibal Square had officially been brought back into the city of Winter Park, there was still the desire by many whites to keep the area effectively separate. An agreement was reached in 1944 between the city and the West Side Civic League to establish and uphold boundaries between the black and white sections. The city bought 13 lots in the black section to trade with blacks who had bought lots in the white section.
The library became an annex of the Winter Park Library. Later, it became the office for Head Start as part of the Winter Park Community Center. The former library can still be seen from the north and east behind the Community Center.
The nursing home, founded by Channie Alams Laughlin of the Benevolent Club, opened in 1961. It replaced the first westside funeral home, operated by Mr. and Mrs. Richmond J. Lawson. The funeral home was then moved further north on Pennsylvania Ave.
The Congregational Church had built the Hooker Memorial Home in 1907, and located it to the rear of the main church building on Interlachen Ave. In 1940, a new Hooker Memorial was erected on that site, after the old home was moved to this site, having been purchased by a group of black women.
This church was organized on May 21, 1893, with Rev. S.A. Williams as pastor. At the same time, a wooden church was erected on Pennsylvania Ave., across from the present building. Prominent founders included Robert Ghent, William Slaughter, Charles Brookins, Major Smith, Walter Simpson, Gilbert Brookins, Bernard Lampkins, Israel Richardson and Aaron Horton.
In 1930, the old church was demolished and some of the old material was salvaged and used in the construction of the present building, which sits on a site purchased from Mrs. Emma Jones. It was designed and built under the leadership of Rev. J.E. Fobb, with Dexter Ray, Earl McKinney, and Richard Charlton, Sr. contributing greatly toward its construction.
On February 11, 1890, while Knowles Public School opened for the white children, a school for black children opened across the street on Pennsylvania Ave. The church auditorium was used for school functions and town gatherings.
Lake Hall Lodge No. 33 was founded here by the colored Free Masons on January 7, 1884. The building later housed the Hannibal Laundry, and then a curio shop.
This is the oldest remaing building in Hannibal Square, previously serving as a hotel.
The church was established in 1887 in the home of Rev. and Mrs. Charles Ambrose. The first pastor was Rev. C.J. Smith, who served until 1911. The church building, costing $500, and built on land donated by the Winter Park Co., was completed in 1892.
The church annex and parsonage were built in 1959.
This church organized in 1923, and moved into its present building in 1935, while Rev. E. Butts was the pastor.
This church organized in 1928, and the wooden sanctuary building was erected in 1934 by Rev. J.W. Warner.
Although the origins of lakes is generally a topic for geology rather than history, this lake is quite new, having been formed in 1981. After 70 consecutive days without rain, a sinkhole swallowed Mae Owens' home, several expensive Porsche cars, a corner of a city swimming pool, and part of a street. After it stabilized and filled with water, it was named Lake Rose.
Its size and notoriety were the catalyst for the establishment of the Sinkhole Institute at the University of Central Florida.
This athletic facility became a part of Rollins College in 1933.
This was the Winter Park Junior-Senior High School, beginning on March 14, 1926. Before that time, the land was known as the Ufford Tract, and the five acres were bought from E.E. Johnson and assoicates for $35,000. Daughtery & Young Construction Co. built the school for $136,690. It was designed by H.M. Reynolds of Orlando. The campus was enlarged in 1940 when the county bought 12 adjoining lots and installed a new gymnasium, extra classrooms, and lights on the football field.
Until September 3, 1963, it had an all-white student body. In the late 1960s, it was integrated, then moved in the 1970s to a much needed new facility in a residential neighborhood to the east.
Frederick W. Lyman is credited with first giving expression to the founding of a college. Dr. E.P. Hooker, a former president of Middlebury College, joined Lyman in earnestly urging the building of one. The Florida Congregational Association also considered sites in Mount Dora, Jacksonville, Daytona and Orange City.
Winter Park was selected after its citizens offered the largest initial subscription, $114,000. The college was incorporated on April 28, 1885, by Rev. E.P. Hooker, Rev. J.A. Tomlinson, Hon. Frederick W. Lyman and Rev. S.D. Smith.
The college is named after the largest single contributor, Alonzo W. Rollins, who donated $50,000. Under his brother, George Rollins, work was begun on two dormitories at the estimated cost of $25,000. Dr. E.P. Hooker was named the first president.
Classes began for 43 students on November 4, 1885, and tuition was $32 for a 33-week term. Opening exercises took place in the audience room of the Congregational Church, with an address given by Rev. S.F. Gale, secretary and treasurer of the General Congregational Association of Florida. White's Hall (above the Pioneer Store) was used for administration, a chapel, library, and class recitations. Male students lived in Deacon Larrabee's house, and females lived in the Ward cottage.
The founders of Rollins College believed in "the New England idea of education, with the New England professor to elucidate it". A marker was placed in 1940 in the narthex of Knowles Memorial Chapel to recognize the contributions of the "Congregational Education Society, and many individuals of the Pilgrim Faith". This is the first institution of collegiate rank established in the State of Florida.
The first female graduate of Rollins was Alice E. Guild. As she was part of the class of 1890, she is believed to be the first recipient of a college degree in the State of Florida.
This is the gift of Henry Alvah Strong, and was begun in 1939. Instead of a cornerstone, the end of a garden seat brought from Italy by Mrs. Strong, and used at her home, "Haleono", in Rochester, New York, was imbedded in the wall to the right of the front entrance.
These dormitories opened in 1936 and are named after Lucy A. Cross and Caroline A. Fox. The name of this portion of the street was changed in 1941 from Kentucky Ave. to Holt Ave., in honor of college president Hamilton Holt.
These buildings were designed by Richard Kiehnel of Miami in 1930-31. They have been used as fraternity houses. Imbedded in the front wall of Pugsley Hall is a stone from the foundation of the 1850 farmhouse birthplace of Hon. Cornelius Amory Pugsley in Peeksill, New York. Mayflower Hall was so named by the college president in an effort to attract a donation from the owner of supposed relics from the 1620 pilgrims' ship. The college received a piece of the keel and a quilt, believed to be authentic.
This was erected in 1939 in memory of Susan Hart Dyer, creator and director of the Rollins Conservatory of Music, to be used for student recitals.
The museum was the gift of B.L. Maltbie of Altamonte Springs and Buffalo, New York, to house the famous collection of seashells of Dr. J.H. Beal of Merritt Island. The building was designed by Harold Hair and built by H.C. Cone, who completed it in 1941 for a cost of $10,000. Since 1991, this has been the home of the Rollins College Center for Environmental Studies.
This combination, known as Rollins Center, was dedicated in 1941 for a cost of $65,000. Near the entrance is a 1950 plaque to the 28 Rollins men who died in World War II.
Built in 1908, this was a gift of Andrew Carnegie. Until the opening of the Mills Memorial Library in 1951, this was the college's main library. It was then converted to classrooms, and now houses the admissions offices.
Here and at the opposite end of the Horseshoe are located stones of many noteworthy persons, both real and legendary. This collection was begun in 1930 by president Hamilton Holt.
The city of Orlando raised $75,000 toward the building of Orlando Hall in 1947-48. A loggia attached it to the Sullivan House, built at the same time, and the Woolson House, which predated it. Its first occupant was the College's English department.
Before the construction of the present library, this was the site of the second Rollins building named Knowles Hall. It opened on March 9, 1910, as a gift of Mrs. Francis B. Knowles to replace the earlier one which had burned down in 1909. Designed by Whitfield and King of New York, it housed a 350-seat chapel, recreation rooms, laboratories, and the Thomas R. Baker Museum.
This was built in 1950, and took over from Carnegie Hall as the library in 1951. The cost of $525,000 was donated by the Davella-Mills Foundation.
This facility, with a large swimming pool behind it, replaced two older structures. Lakeside Cottage, built in 1886, was used as a residence for 34 men. The Lyman Gymnasium, a gift of F.A. Lyman, was built in 1890. It was used for athletics and as an auditorium. Basketball was introduced to the college in 1900.
This men's dormitory was built in 1908, and was a gift of Loring A. Chase. It was designed by New York architects Whitfield and King, and is built of sand-lime, white brick with a roof of heavy red tiles. It has spacious terraces overlooking Lake Virginia. Prior to its becoming offices, it was the Sigma Phi Epsilon House.
This is the second campus building, constructed in 1886 for a cost of $9,762.91, including furnishings. It was built as a women's dormitory, men's dormitory, dining hall, library, infirmary, administration building, music conservatory, classrooms, and military headquarters during World War II.
These dormitories opened in 1936 and are named after Sullivan French Gale, organizer and first superintendent of the Congregational Home Missionary Society in Florida, and Frederick W. Lyman, benefactor of the college. The site was previously occupied by the first building completed on the Rollins College campus. It was Knowles Hall, which was dedicated on March 9, 1886, with an address given by Hon. A.J. Russell, state superintendent of schools. It was named after its donor, Francis Bangs Knowles. The Hall included a chapel, library, administrative offices and classrooms, and it was built for the cost of $8,463. It was destroyed by fire in 1909.
This dormitory opened in 1936, and was named after Dr. E.P. Hooker, the college's first president.
Richard Kiehnel of Miami designed this building in 1930. It has been used as a 25-person dormitory and fraternity house. It is named for Edward W. Rollins, who donated $35,000 toward its cost. Near the entrance is embedded a boulder taken from the 17th century New Hampshire farm of ancestor James Rollins.
This was the first home of the Morse Art Gallery begun in 1942 by Jeanette Morse Genius in memory of her grandfather, Charles Hosmer Morse. The Morse museum was moved in 1995 to a new location on Park Ave. The Cornell museum is open to the public.
This elegant chapel was designed by Ralph Adams Cram, and was built in 1932 with funds provided by Frances Knowles Warren. It was designed in the Spanish Mediterranean style. The bell formerly hung in the Congregational Church for 56 years.
Between the chapel and the Annie Russell Theatre is a garden planted in memory of Joshua Coffin Chase and Mary Justice Chase.
Annie Russell was an English-born actress whose commercial acting career lasted from 1877 to 1917. Mrs. Edward Bok (Mrs. Efram Zimbalist Sr.), who financed the Bok Tower in Lake Wales, admired Russell and gave Rollins College $100,000 to build the theatre in her name in 1931. Russell had moved to Winter Park and taken an interest in the Rollins Student Players.
Russell became the artistic director of the theatre and served as a consultant in dramatic arts until her death in 1936. The building was designed by Ralph Adams Cram in the Spanish Mediterranean style.
On the front of the building, in addition to the plaque honoring Mary Louise Bok, are plaques in remembrance of Edyth Bush, Rose P. Skillman, and Dorothea Thomas Lynch, the first director of the Rollins College Dramatic Arts Department (1925-1934).
Now a public park with a sand beach put in by the city in 1948, this was the site of the depot for the Winter Park-Orlando Railroad. In 1888, the railroad obtained right-of-way privileges along Phelps and Ollie Aves. The formal openeing of the line was January 2, 1889, and the fare to Orlando was 15 cents. The railroad also ran eastward to Lake Charm in Oviedo.
It was nicknamed the "Dinky Line" because of the creaking, screeching noises it made when rounding a bend, plus its fragile qualities. frequent stops were made for repairs, and for picking flowers.
The depot, built in 1889, was taken down in 1967. The last trains to and from Oviedo had stopped making their runs that same year.
In the early 1900s, Rollins college students were prohibited from visiting the railway on Sundays. They were also not allowed on that day to ride, drive or go boating.
The land was donated to the city in 1956 by the Rotary Club of Winter Park. Look for the monument, a little to the west of the dock, showing where the train station stood.
Pioneer citrus grower R.N. Batchelor had a large home built here in 1885 for a cost of $7,000. The home was dominated by an attached hexagonal tower with an open belvedere topped by a conical cap. The house was briefly leased to Rollins College in 1957 for use as a women's dormitory. The site is now occupied by Sutton Place South Apartments, acquired by the college for use as dormitory space.
This home was built facing the lake in 1884 for Judge Peleg Peckham.
Charles H. Morse of Chicago bought most of what was Osceola in 1920. In the late 1930s, he built his home and kept 150 acres undeveloped as a refuge from the hustle and bustle of the city. The road had been laid out in 1916. The names of Virginia Dr., Shadow Ln. and part of Ardmore Dr. were formally changed to Genius Dr. in 1936.
Until very recently, it was managed by the Winter Park Land Company, which permitted the public to drive through around Lake Mizell and enjoy the solitude, interrupted only by the calls of the peacocks that live here in the wild. The land, which stretches south to Glenridge Way, is now the subject for future residential development.
The Business Men's Club, with R.F. Hotard and Arthur Schultz as president and vice president, had this impressive building constructed in the early 1920s as the club's headquarters. That use was brief, as the home was sold for $85,000 in 1925 to W.R. Rynlander of Orlando. In March of 1930, he sold it to John and Prestonia Martin.
After Dr. Martin's death in 1956, the Mediterranean style mansion became known as Martin Hall. Rollins College acquired it as its Conservatory of Music. The college relinquished it in the 1970s, and has been privately owned since.
Dr. J.B. Greer, Winter Park's first doctor, built this Victorian style home in the early 1880s. He used this as his office as well as his home. Originally, the porch entrance was in the middle of the front, but later was moved to the corner and the porch was extended around the side. Also added later to the back and side were a two-story addition and a deck/gazebo.
This house was built in 1910 as a seven-room home for the caretaker of The Palms. The front and back porches and wash shed were removed, and the two-story north wing was added. The original heart pine siding, covered by aluminum on the front, can be seen on the back when the house is viewed from Brewer Ave.
The house was moved here in 1952-52.
Alonzo W. Rollins willed this property to Rollins College, which received it upon his death in 1887. The groves provided income to the college until they were virtually destroyed in the freezes of 1894-95.
Edward Hill Brewer, a manufacturer of carriage accessories, bought it as a site for a winter cottage, and in 1898 built his home. Originally, it was constructed of clapboard covered with a wooden shingle roof and a spindle balustraded veranda.
It was renovated in 1924 to duplicate the Brewers' Georgian Revival style residence in Cortland, New York. Today, the home is dominated by a highly modulated Colonial Revival style front, with an Ionic pedimented portico supported by paired columns.
The interior was redesigned in 1937-38 by Winter Park architect James Gamble Rogers II for then-owners Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Detmar Trismen. They sold 35 of the 40 acres in 1951 to Archibald Granville Bush, who subdivided it into Detmar terrace and Osceola Shores. Upon Mr. Trismen's death in 1958, the home was acquired by Robert Govern and family. In 1982, Mr. Govern was convicted of drug trafficking, and federal authorities confiscated all of the contents of the home. For years, the mansion stood vacant.
While Albin Polasek (1879-1965) was the head of the sculpture department at the Chicago Institute of Art in 1914, had had a student named Ruth Sherwood. In 1950, at the age of 71, he came to Winter Park to visit her. He decided to stay, bought land fronting on Lake Osceola, and they were married later that year. Within a year, Ruth Sherwood died.
The Albin Polasek Foundation preserves the studio-home which he built as a memorial-museum where his works may be viewed by the public. Three works that can be seen without entering the gallery grounds are "Forest Idyll" at the entrance to the City Hall, "Man Carving His Own Destiny" on the grounds of the library, and "Evoking Memories" on the wall near you.
This home was built in 1883 by Rev. Charles W. Ward, the minister who presided over the first Episcopal service in Winter Park on April 15, 1883. On the Osceola Ct. side are two large camphor trees framing a view of the multiple gables and narrow, banded windows. It originally was built on brick piers and had open porches.
Mrs. Ward died in 1884, and Rev. Ward sold the home to Alonzo Rollins. Ward moved to New Jersey and committed suicide. The bronze tablet on the boulder by the sidewalk commemorates the home's use in 1885-86 as the first women's dormitory for Rollins College.
One of the first acts of the Winter Park Company was to contract with Francis B. Knowles to build the Seminole Hotel between Lakes Osceola and Virginia. Knowles loaned $150,000 for the project, and the first brick was laid on March 26, 1885.
The five-story 250-room Seminole Hotel was the largest in Florida when it opened on January 1, 1886. Opening day ceremonies attracted 2000 visitors. It was heated with steam and accommodated up to 400 guests.
A mule-drawn trolley (the "Seminole Hotel Horse Car") ran down the middle of New England Ave. from the railroad depot to the hotel in 1885. The tracks were later extended to the Dinky Depot on Ollie Ave. The tracks were removed in 1903.
The hotel burned to the ground on September 18, 1902. During its existence, it attracted statesmen and celebrities. Numerous pictures remain, showing its Mansard roof, perforated by dormers.
Rev. G.D. Simon Jr. bought the property including the ruins, extending to the brook connecting Lakes Osceola and Virginia, in 1906. Mr. and Mrs. Harley B. Gibbs built a cottage on the site, purchased in 1919 by Mr. and Mrs. W.D. Freeman, and it was inherited by Billie Freeman, wife of Ray Greene, a local real estate salesman. The Gibbs-Greene Cottage is located at 242 Chase Ave.
The library was the outgrowth of a reading circle led by Mrs. E.P. Hooker, which began in the Lyman home in December of 1885. The first library building was erected in 1902 on Interlachen Ave.
This home was built in 1922 for Dr. Charles E. Coffin, whose ancestors bought Nantucket Island from the Indians. Dr. Coffin was president of The Fortnightly Club, which was involved in the early social and intellectual development of Winter Park.
This property had been owned by Francis B. Knowles when the Winter Park Library was built here in 1901-02. the building cost $200, furnishings were $25. Wings were added on the north and south sides in 1925, and the Mary Wattles Garden was enclosed in 1956-57 to create a meeting room.
In 1979, All Saints Episcopal Church bought the building and named it after its Senior Warden and Treasurer who had died earlier that year. It was extensively remodeled in 1980 through the generosity of the Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation and the people of the church. The Center, including its Kingsley Auditorium, was dedicated on October 11, 1981.
The Woman's Club was formed by 16 women who met in January of 1915 at Osceola Lodge, the home of Mrs. Charles H. Morse. This clubhouse was built in 1921 for a cost of $40,000. Until 1912, this site had been the tee for a hole on a golf course built by Mr. Morse which extended south to Lake Virginia and west to New York Ave. Sheep were used to keep its grass under control.
Women in Winter Park and Orlando were allowed to vote in municipal elections in 1919, the year before the 19th Amendment was ratified in time for the 1920 presidential election. This is likely the result of pressure applied by the Florida Equal Suffrage Association founded by Unitarian minister Dr. Mary A. Safford, and the Men's Equal Suffrage Association headed by Orlando incumbent mayor E. Frank Sperry.
After the church was founded in 1886, the original building was begun that same year and completed in 1891, and followed the French Peasant Gothic style. The Ella K. Comstock Memorial Rectory and the Harriett Street Switzer Memorial Parish House were built in 1925.
The new sanctuary building was opened for its first service on March 29, 1942. Architect Harold Hair of Winter Park used a Gothic style design. The bell tower, offices, and a two-story education building with 24 classrooms for 400 students were built in 1963. The bell itself dates from 1877.
Dr. Gustavus R. Alden built a home here for his wife, Grace Alden, author of the Pansy books. It was bought at the turn of the century by banker M.M. Smith. At the time, the house had no electricity, no plumbing, and a wood stove in the kitchen, all typical for Winter Park at the time.
In 1931, Mr. Charles H. Morse left a house at the southeast corner of Interlachen and New England Aves. (356 E. New England Ave.) to All Saints Episcopal Church. Along with the former Pansy Cottage location, it was the site of the Langford Hotel, which opened in 1956 and was demolished in 2002.
J.R. Tantum, a homeopathic doctor from Wilmington, Delaware, moved to Winter Park in 1881. While temporarily staying at the Rogers House, Tantum built a home here in 1883. The horse-drawn trolley to the Seminole Hotel passed by his house, and he was briefly the president of the Winter Park Hotel Company.
Tantum died in 1887, and three years later the home was acquired by William Schultz. In 1948, the Langford Apartments were built, necessitating the moving of the cottage to Interlachen Ave.
This home was built in 1905 by Albert Wagner of Pennsylvania and his invalid sister-in-law, Jean Wallace Webster. The house was originally square, with open unbalustraded porches on brick piers. A two-story addition in the 1930s to the southeast side included a paneled chapel and library. Other two-story additions were also made to the north side and northwest back corner.
Depending on how you count the vestibules, halls and nooks, there are at least 20 rooms. This includes a library and a chapel which was added in the 1930s by an Episcopal bishop named Matthews, and is now used as a music room. There are 88 windows and no two are exactly the same size. That bishop married a lady named Procter of the family which owned Procter & Gamble, which manufactured many cleaning products, so that the local joke was that in this home, "cleanliness was next to godliness".
This Arts and Crafts Style cottage was the first recipient of the Winter Park Historical Association's Heritage Plaque to recognize the site's significance in the history of the city.
The first Congregational service in Winter Park was held by Rev. S.B. Andrews in the Town Hall on October 8, 1882. The church was organized on February 17, 1884, under the supervision of Rev. Dr. Edward Payson Hooker, who later became the first president of Rollins College. Charter members included Methodists, Episcopalians, Congregationalists, and Unitarians.
The first sanctuary was built here in 1885, facing New England Ave. and sitting a little further from Interlachen Ave. The Hooker Memorial House opened on May 26, 1907, and served the congregation until it was moved to Hannibal Square in 1940. That same year, the present Hooker Memorial (Hooker Hall, 215 E. New England Ave.) was built by William H. Waterman to house the Sunday school and parish activities.
The present Old Lyme Colonial style sanctuary was designed by architect W.H. Nicklas of Cleveland, assisted by H.M. Reynolds of Orlando. It was built in 1924 by the Marshall-Jackson Co. of Lakeland, Florida. The grounds and parking lots were expanded from time to time by the acquisition and removal of the homes of Alice Palmer, Roy Heizer, and the Hearn family.
In 1883, Judge J.F. Welbourne of Indiana had a Victorian style house built on the east side of Interlachen Ave. Atop the house was an open belfry with a pyramidal cap.
Some time after Mrs. Welbourne's death in 1884, the property was purchased by W.J. Waddell, who made it his residence. In about 1910, he had it moved across the street to a portion of this site. Waddell then operated it as a boarding house known as the "Osceola House". The Congregational Church bought it in 1968 and integrated it into the church grounds.
This was the site of the Welbourne Cottage until it was moved across the street. In 1948, the Tantum-Schultz Cottage was moved here and the verandas were removed. In 1952, Mr. and Mrs. James Drum of Michigan bought it, divided it into six rental apartments, added the fancy ironwork, and named it "Lady Shadows". Later renovations have obscured the original details.
Dr. J.E. Brecht, a dentist, had a home built here in 1886 on six acres which stretched to Lake Osceola. The next owner, J.H. Wyeth, added electricity, a first for houses in Winter Park, and in 1889 added an ornamental fence.
In 1920, Dr. and Mrs. J.A. Trovillion bought it and renamed it "Trovillion Grove". The first home telephone in the Winter park exchange set up by Galloway was installed here. It was not the first telephone in Winter Park, however, as J.B. Steinmetz in 1901 connected his home in Clay Springs (Wekiwa) with Rollins College to keep in touch with his daughter who was a student there.
The home was demolished in 1989 to make room for a $4.5 million condominium development.
The Rogers House opened with 20 hotel rooms on April 8, 1882. The land had been given to Mr. and Mrs. Rogers by Oliver E. Chapman and Loring A. Chase. At the time, Winter Park had no real roads, just sandy trails through the woods. The first 17 guests of the hotel included Chase, Chapman, and Chapman's family.
The hotel doubled in size in 1888, and its room rates at the time were $10 to $17.50 per week. A second-floor rear room housed J.F. Welbourne's law office, and it was there that the Winter Park Hotel Co. charter was framed.
In 1904, it was bought for $7,000 by Charles H. Morse, and was renamed the "Seminole Inn", enlarged, and had steam heat and electric lighting added. A veranda was added, overlooking Lake Osceola. In 1912, it was renamed "The Inn", and in 1915 the "Virginia Inn", a name that it kept until it was torn down in June of 1966. In its place was built the Cloisters Condominiums.
In 1912, the Adornment Committee of the Board of Trade built docks here and at the ends of Ollie and Old England Aves., for a cost of $100.
Since 1938, the Scenic Boat Tour has taken visitors past Rollins College, Kraft Azalea Gardens, the beautful homes in the Isle of Sicily, and magnificent mansions along the shores of the lakes of Winter Park, giving the area the nickname of "Venice of America".
Notice the commemorative plaque in the median of Morse Blvd. (just east of the intersection with Interlachen Ave.), placed on the 50th anniversary of the founding of Rollins College.
Frederick W. Lyman built his home here in 1883. It was later known as the President's House, while it was owned by Rollins College. It was sold by the college and burned in 1959. The site is now occupied by Whispering Waters Condominiums.
The church organized in 1885, and early services were held in the audience room of the Congregational Church. In 1893, Prof. William J. Kirkpatrick donated a 55' x 145' lot here and the cornerstone for a sanctuary was laid on April 12, 1895. The entire church, designed by pastor Rev. John H. Martin, cost $3,000 to build.
In 1922, the original sanctuary was moved to the west and turned ninety degrees to face Morse Blvd. A new one, patterned after the Church of the Redeemer in Los Angeles, was built in its place. The old parsonage was moved to the north of the new sanctuary to create a U-shaped group of buildings. The Wesleyan Building fronting on Morse Blvd. was completed in 1949, and Asbury Hall in 1956.
The church was built of hollow tile and stucco, trimmed in stone. The prior sanctuary and parsonage were covered with lath and stucco, and all roofs were made uniform with red Spanish tile. The 56-foot tower had an illuminated cross on top.
On May 7, 1967, the present sanctuary at the northeast corner of the property was dedicated and assembled by George de Ris of the J.&R. Lamb Studies, Inc. of Tenafly, New Jersey. James Gamble Rogers and Lovelock and Fritz of Winter Park were the architects, and the general contractor was Allan Trovillion.
Hamilton Holt, Rollins College president from 1925 to 1949, entertained students and visitors, granted honorary degrees, and respresented the college to the public here. The home was built for Mrs. S.F. Pryor in 1922. Ten years later, it was acquired by Rollins College as a home for its president.
After Holt's retirement in 1949, it served as an off-campus residence hall, sorority house, museum of art, and the chancellor's office. It was bought by Dr. and Mrs. Mumby in 1979, and they added a terrace and free-form swimming pool.
Francis B. Knowles built this home in 1882 for speculation. It is believed that the Knowles family wintered here for a few years before his death. It was originally surrounded by orange trees and a white picket fence.
Charles H. Morse bought the house in 1904, doubled its size, and renovated it with a Craftsman style. This architectural style emphasized functionalism, ease of maintenance and comfort, and the use of native building materials.
In 1945, Hugh McKean and Jeanette Genius, Morse's granddaughter, married and moved into the home.
Oliver Chapman built a home here in the spring of 1882, having the appearance of a rustic lodge. It had a large sloping shingle roof, with a porch on the south and eastern sides facing Lake Osceola. It was later known as the Twitchell home. It has been replaced by a later building.
James Seymour Capen visited Winter Park in 1884, and soon returned to live here permanently. When this home was built in 1885, it was a small house that cost about $825. Extensive additions included bathrooms and a stucco interior. The original open front porch was converted into an enclosed reception room. it is easily identified by its half-timbered gables.
Capen raised grapefruit and was an organizer of the Orlando-Winter park Railroad Company, and the secretary of the Winter Park Land Company.
The home formerly located here, named "Casa Feliz", was built in 1932 for Robert Bruce Barbour. It was designed by Winter park architect James Gamble Rogers II, as a modified reproduction of an old Andalusian house.
The home may look older than its construction date, because of the use of older materials. Bricks came from the old Orlando Armory. The handsome roof tiles are more than one hundred twenty years old. The roof was designed with a six-inch sag to simulate age. The home was moved across the street in 2001 to the golf course for a long period of rebuilding.
Previously on this site was the Ergood-Roe-Tousey Cotage, built in 1887 for John R. Ergood, the city's first postmaster. The Queen Anne style home had a tall square tower with a dome-topped cupola having a magnificant view of Lake Osceola and the surrounding countryside.
Charles H. Morse helped organize the Country Club in 1914, and leased land to it for $1 per year. During World War I, the land was turned into a pasture for 250 sheep and 150 goats. It went inactive in 1925, but in 1937 was reactivated.
In June of 1996, the citizens of Winter Park voted to purchase the course, which once stretched to the land on which the winter Park Mall now sits, making it the second largest golf course in the South.
The clubhouse was built in the 1920s, but was little used by the late 1930s. Arthur Harris obtained permission for dual use by the Country Club and the University Club, and that continued from 1937 until 1948, when the University Club moved to a new building.
Across Old England Ave. is a park with the Pulsifer Place monument. It honors Royal MacIntosh Pulsifer (1843-1888), the president of the first railroad across Florida, from the St. Johns River to Tampa Bay. The monument was placed to acknowledge his assistance to the founders of Winter Park.
This is an example of a Georgian Revival residence, uncommon in Winter Park. At the time this architectural movement was flourishing, Winter Park's population was declining because of the freezes of 1894-95.
The essential Georgian elements present here are the rectangular block form, hip roof, corner pilasters, a portico, and total symmetry. The eaves brackets show a Victorian influence from an earlier period. The house was built in about 1905.
Benjamin E. Edwards built this Craftsman style home in 1915. It has a full basement and attic. The screened porch on the east side is original, the one on the north was added later.
Edwards' daughter, Grace Osborne Edwards, was a founder of the Winter Park Garden Club.
After the fire that destroyed the first hotel with this name in 1902, a second was erected here in 1912 with a different view of Lake Osceola. This hotel was smaller than the original, having 82 rooms. One of its most famous guests was Pres. Calvin Coolidge, who visited here in 1929.
In 1916, the hotel added a $3,000 boathouse on Lake Osceola.
This Florida Victorian home was built in 1878 a little to the west on the present site of the Alabama Hotel. It had originally been owned by the Packwood family, later by the Palmers, and in 1904 was acquired by William C. and Carrie Temple. They added a private gas plant and a sewage system and, in 1912, a telephone. Well water was piped to the five bathrooms.
Mr. Temple, a steel industrialist from Pittsburgh, owned the predessor to the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team and formulated rules for the World Series. He also helped to form the Florida Citrus Exchange and was the head of it in 1915, when Louis A. Hakes made an important discovery at his home about helf a mile to the southeast of here.
The story actually began in Oviedo not long after the 1895 freeze. A fruit buyer brought budwood from Jamaica, and prominent Oviedo resident Butler Boston budded the trees in three groves. In about 1900, budwood was taken from one of the groves, that of J.H. King, and was budded to trees in the grove of Mr. Hakes.
In 1915, Mr. Hakes noticed an unusual fruit growing on one of the trees along his driveway, and showed it to Temple. Temple showed it to M.E. Gillett of Buckeye Nurseries, which purchased the tree, and erected a padlocked fence around it. The nursery determined that it was a 50-50 cross between an orange and a tangerine, and budded thousands of new trees from it. That first Temple orange tree is now believed to have more than 7 million descendants.
This land was part of the William C. Temple estate, and his home was located here. The land was bought in 1920 and the hotel was completed in 1922. It was leased in 1923 to D.L. Rice of Washington and F.B. Lynch of New York. Later, it was sold to Fred and Clifford Folger of Nantucket.
It was operated as a hotel from its opening until 1979, when it was converted to condominium apartments. The walled garden was designed by Noella Schenck.
When William C. Temple built this structure in 1904, it was a summer kitchen and dining room adjacent to his house. It has a full basement, so it was not moved to the north with the house when the hotel was built. It is essentially unaltered from its original appearance, including the etched glass front door.
The Refectory was converted to a clubhouse for the Alabama Condominiums.
Until 1937, the name of this public park was Honor Azalea Gardens. It was renamed Kraft Memorial Azalea Gardens in honor of the late George Kraft. The large monument with columns, inscribed "Pause Friend let beauty refresh the spirit" was given to the city in 1969 by Kenneth H. and Elizabeth P. Kraft, in memory of George and Maud H. Kraft.
In 1939, a stone and plaque monument was erected to honor Judge Leonard J. Hackney, as the creator of the gardens. The drinking fountain nearby was erected in 1947 in honor of the Winter Park Garden Club's Year Book First National Award in the November 1945 Horticulture contest.
This bridge was erected in 1924 by the Luton Bridge Co. of York, Pennsylvania. The first permanent bridge over the Maitland Run below, before it was dug out as a canal, had been erected in 1899.
This home was built n 1936-37 for Mrs. Steinway, of the piano manufacturing family. It was designed by Gamble Rogers in a typical New England style, with a simple pediment over the front door.
This Gamble Rogers-designed Georgian Colonial Revival style home was built in 1936-39 for Mrs. F.A. Mizener. Its cost was $35,000.
This home was built by the Dean of Rollins Chapel, Dr. Camel. The eastern and western wings are later additions.
This is a simple retirement bungalow with a desirable view of the golf course.
"Bungalow" is derived from a Bengali word meaning a low house with porches, used as a wayside shelter to nineteenth century British travelers in India. Between 1910 and 1930, the bungalow was one of the most popular home designs in Florida.
A bungalow is generally one to one-and-a-half stories with a shallow pitch roof, with at least two rooms along the front of the house. The masonry piers holding up the porch floor often continued above it, topped by short wood columns supporting the roof. Generally, the front door was off-center, with an asymmetrical window pattern.
The congregtion of this church first organized in 1913.
Loring A. Chase donated three acres here in 1906 to be used as a town burial ground for white people. The official map of the cemetery was drawn up in 1910 by J.O. Frear. The Pinewood Cemetery for blacks was established about three miles to the southeast of this site.
This cannon and stone monument were dedicated on Veterans' Day in 1960, to honor the members of the armed forces.
The modified cross with unusual sculpture marks the graves of Albin Polasek and Ruth Sherwood.
The carved obelisk on the other side of the hedge marks the grave of Frederick Detmar Trismen, once the owner of The Palms.
On the east side of this dirt road, you will see the gravesites of Winter Park families that have been mentioned along today's route, including the Trovillions, the Wards and a tall column for the Krafts.
The monument closest to the intersection is that of Loring A. Chase, a founder of the city, benefactor of Rollins College, and former owner of the land where the cemetery now lies.
Thirty Christian Scientists met in Winter Park in November of 1952, to consider organizing a Christian Science Society. The first service was held at the University Club in December 7 of that year. They opened areading room the following October and bought this property in March of 1954.
In June of 1954, the Society became the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Winter Park, and the cornerstone for the building was laid on May 20, 1958. The first service was held in the building on January 4, 1959. Since Christian Science churches are dedicated only when they are free from debt, formal dedication did not take place until December 15, 1963.
The church building was designed by James Gamble Rogers II, and was built by R.C. Stevens Construction Co. Additions completed in early 1985 included a children's room, board room facilities, an enlarged Sunday school area, and additional parking.
The club was organized on December 20, 1934, at the Chamber of Commerce Building. Its leading organizer was Dr. Kenyon L. Butterfield, a retired president of the University of Massachusetts. They continued to meet there until 1936, when they met in the Harris Clubhouse on Webster Ave. This clubhouse opened in 1948.
The first bylaws required most members to hold a degree from a college or university, or to have graduated from the U.S. Military or Naval Academy. Others could get in by special vote, but non-degree holders couldn't constitute more than 10% of the club.
Park Ave. was the first brick street in Winter Park, with a width of nine feet in 1915, just four years after Winter Park residents owned a total of 15 cars. In 1922, the road was paved, and two years later it was widened to its present width. By 1926, 115 miles of Winter Park's streets were either bricked or paved.
Park Ave. was a part of the Dixie Highway, which was the dream of Carl Fisher of Indianopolis. 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.
These apartments were designed in 1933 for Robert Bruce Barbour by James Gamble Rogers II. The exterior stairway on the southernmost block may be the only one of its type in Winter Park.
The first Roman Catholic mass in Winter Park was celebrated in about 1900 at the home of Mr. and Mrs. J.H. LaMontagne. The church, now known as St. Margaret Mary's, opened on March 15, 1925. Rebuilding following a 1948 fire included an expanstion of the sanctuary toward Park Ave., and the present sanctuary was built in the 1960s with a design from Stiekle International Architects of Cleveland, Ohio.
The school adjacent to the church's north side was estblished in 1954.
This museum was originally founded by Jeanette Morse Genius McKean in 1942 as a part of Rollins College, in memory of her grandfather, Charles H. Morse. It has been a separate institution since 1976, owned and operated by the Elizabeth Morse Genius and Charles Hosmer Morse Foundation. It includes late 19th and early 20th century American paintings, sculpture and decorative arts, and is best known for the work of Louis Comfort Tiffany.
The Tiffany collection was assembled in 1955 by the gallery's founder and includes most of the leaded windows designed personally by Tiffany. It also includes Tiffany's "Electrolier", a 1,000 pound electrified chandelier designed for the 1893 Chicago World Columbian Exposition. The McKeans brought it from the chapel at Tiffany's burned Long Island estate in the 1950s. Hugh McKean was the director of the museum for 53 years.
A school opened here for white children on February 11, 1890. By 1902, it had grown to 50 students taught by two teachers. A new building replaced it in 1907, and remodeling in 1923 turned it into the Winter Park Hotel. For a time, it served as a men's dormitory for Rollins College, and in 1949 was reopened as a hotel by A.H. Schaller. Later, it was replaced by the present store.
This building was erected in 1925-26, housing two stores and four apartments.
Charles H. Morse deeded this park to the city in 1911, with the stipulation that it must always remain a park. Morse died ten years later.
Just south of the nearby plants is a memorial to Eve Proctor Morrill, who helped create the Park Ave. shopping area in the 1950s and 1960s. A little beyond that is the 1982 bandstand donated by the Rotary Club, and canopy donated by Southeast Bank.
In 1918, the Winter Park Town Council and Board of Trade resolved to rid the town of flies, and offered a bounty of 10 cents for every 100 flies brought to the Board on Tuesday and Friday afternoons. The rules allowed only swatters of comparable weapons. In 1921, Moses Overstreet's 150 fly carcasses won him second place in the fly campaign.
In the fountain is Albin Polasek's "Emily", presented to the city on March 11, 1984, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival.
Francis B. Knowles built this home in 1886-87, along with two others at the same time, for resale to prospective customers. Its price was about $3,500. The siding is of heart pine. The picket fence along the edge of the south yard is typical of fences in early Winter Park. The roof has been replaced.
Knowles was a major stockholder of the Winter Park Co., and for a time this was used as his office. It was also once owned by Charles H. Morse, who used it as a guest house.
When Loring Augustus Chase visited the area in 1881, there was a crude freight platform at New England Ave. On March 18, 1882, a new passenger train depot was dedicated here on the east side of the tracks. It was built with lumber from G.W. Moyer's sawmill on Lake Virginia, established in 1875 by Capt. John K. Coiner on what is now the Rollins College campus. It cost $1,100 and was erected by carpenters Pierce, Thayer and Clark.
When the South Florida Railroad was established in 1880, it ran on 16 lb. rails with a 3' gauge. They were replaced by 50 lb. rails and widened to a standard gauge in 1885. The railroad was reopened to the public on February 13, 1889, following the county's stoppage of all rail and other traffic to prevent the spread of the statewise yellow fever epidemic. That same year, a covered platform with a baggage room at the end was added.
The depot was equipped with electric lights in 1906. A new express office was built just south of the depot in 1909.
In 1913, a new depot opened to serve the Atlantic Coast Line on the west side of the tracks. The Winter Park Board of Trade billed its opening as "Town Improvement Day".
When built by Loring A. Chase in 1882, this was called the Pioneer Store. That business later moved south one block. This was the first structure on Park Ave. (the fourth in Winter Park), and was built of wood. The initial base dimensions were 30' x 65'. The upstairs hall was used for social functions, and doubled as the first school (opened January 15, 1883, with 14 pupils), church, town hall and post office.
The lower floor was leased to John R. Ergood and Robert White Jr. for a store. In 1883, Clinton Moses bought out White's interest, and the business changed to Ergood & Moses. Other businesses shared the building, such as Cora Richardson's Berlin Bazaar, which began selling "fancy work" in 1887.
In 1914, it was covered with brick veneer and the front porches were removed. It housed a pharmacy for many years, beginning with the one owned by Dr. Jerry Allen Trovillion from 1908 to 1914, and later with Taylor's Pharmacy beginning in October of 1948. Dr. Trovillion installed Winter Park's first soda fountain. It later became a clothing store.
This 40-unit apartment house was built in 1926 during the Florida Land Boom. The land was bought in April of 1925 by Dr. R.F. Hotard, sold by him in June for $12,000, rebought by him for $18,000, and sold again in August of the same year for $25,000. In 2003, most of the building was torn down, leaving only the original southern entrance.
Formerly known as the F.W. Shepherd Building, this was Winter Park's first brick commercial structure. The Ergood store had only a brick veneer over a wood frame.
This replaced Ladd's Hardware & Drugs, which was located in a wooden building erected in 1883 by Mr. Hill. In 1884, it was bought by Jonathan Symonds and Loring A. Chase, and it became known as the New Hampshire Building. Mr. Ladd bought it in 1886. F.W. Shepherd tore down the wooden building in 1912 and replaced it with the present one.
In 1885, the Winter Park Company was formed with a capitalization of $300,000 to develop and promote Winter Park. The intitial officers were president F.L. Lyman of Minnesota, vice president Franklin Fairbanks of Vermont, treasurer F.G. Webster of Massachusetts, and secretary Loring A. Chase. Those men also served on the board of directors with Alonzo W. Rollins and W.C. Comstock of Illinois and Judge J.F. Welbourne of Winter Park. In 1886, the Earl Building was constructed on this site.
Charles H. Morse founded the Winter Park Land Company in 1904, which bought 1200 town lots, orange groves, and wild land from the Winter Park Company. For $15,000 in 1917, he built this Morse Block as the city's first modern offices here for his company, which shared the block with the Baby Grande Theater, H.A. Ward, H.W. Barnum, and the W.C.T.U. Reading Room.
The Baby Grande was operated by B. Beacham, who also had a theater on Orange Ave. in Orlando. In 1913, the Grande Theatre had opened, and two years later Mac Tillman became manager of it and Orlando's Lucerne Theatre, each of which admitted whites and blacks to separate seating areas.
The Baby Grande was rebuilt in 1927 and a $10,000 pipe organ was installed. The theatre closed in 1940, reopened in 1947, and later closed permanently.
In 1911, the present restaurant was the Post Office (146 Park Ave. S.) and the first Bank of Winter Park (150 Park Ave. S.). The shuttered portion between the two main sections was originally set back a few feet from the sidewalk.
The first mayor of Winter Park, Robert White Jr., built this general store here in 1884 after splitting from John Ergood the year before. It originally was a white wooden building with a tin roof, but has been substantially altered through the years, including a brick veneer overlay in the mid-1920s. Major additions were constructed in 1925 and 1956.
Across the street in Central Park is a monument to Robert White and his White's Hall. It served as the first Rollins College recitation building in 1885-86, before the completion of the first Knowles Hall.
William Chase Temple organized Masonic Lodge No. 239 upstairs in 1915.
To the west, in Central park is a monument to Charles H. Morse, dedicated on November 20, 1980, and a memorial fountain. In 1920, the fountain was placed in the center of the park, dedicated to Winter Park's residents who served in the World War (later expanded to include those who served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam).
That same year, the Bird Club installed a bird bath in the Friendship Rose Garden, which was laid out by Mrs. J.K. List of the Town Adornment Committee. Three years later, the rose garden was formally dedicated and named the Mae Spooner Dickson Memorial Rose Garden. In the rose garden, located just north of New England Ave., is a 1963 plaque placed in memory of Foster R. Fanning and Jessie M. Fanning.
This brick building was built by Walter Schultz in 1916. It was originally called the Men's Store, and has had a number of commercial tenants, including Schultz's, Baker's and Wrenn's, for many years. After its original construction, it was enlarged by a one-story addition to the rear.
Prior to this building, there was a bicycle shop located on this site. It was moved, and later demolished.
Originally, the buildings were were known as the Henkel Block, built by Dr. Miller A. Henkel. He arrived in Winter Park in 1883 in search of a climate which would give his wife relief from her tuberculosis, and for many years he was Winter Park's only practicing physisican.
James Seymour Capen had a real estate office here (Capen & Company), beginning in 1886, and other tenants included Dr. J.L.B. Eager's The Seminole Pharmacy, Maxson's Book Store, Pierce and Matthews Market, and Dr. Henkel. A shed-roofed porch supported by simple posts provided the only shaded sidewalk in Winter Park.
A small state bank opened across the street (300 Park Ave. S.) in 1917 with assets of $30,000. Union State Bank's first president was Dr. C.D. Christ. It reorganized in 1922 to become Florida Bank at Winter Park, and was one of only two area banks to survive the Depression. It was renamed the Florida Bank & Trust Company in 1945.
In 1952, it moved to this location, with a new bank building replacing the Henkel Block. Five years later it became the First National Bank of Winter Park. It became Barnett National Bank of Winter Park, and later was purchased by Barnett National Securities Corporation, which renamed it Barnett First National Bank of Winter Park. It expanded in 1969-71 to become Winter Park's largest banking institution. Later, it became a branch of Bank of America.
The earlier building on this site, constructed in 1886, was the home of The Winter Park Company. It was taken over by Charles H. Morse in 1904 and later moved north on Park Ave.
Built in 1922, this was known as the Hamilton Hotel until 1977, when it was bought by Cissie and John Spang. The balcony was installed in 1932.
In 1916, this was the location of the Standard Auto Garage. In 1921, Ed F. Keezel built an adjacent brick structure, which housed the Orange Hardware and Furniture Co. Two years later, the Martin Bros. 5, 10 and 25 Cent Store opened here. Keezel added more stores running to the intersection of Lyman Ave. in 1924.
The theater was built in 1939, and opened for business in 1940. As multi-screen theater complexes became popular in the 1970s and 1980s, this was converted into shops and restaurants.
When built in 1916, the first half of the school cost $30,000. Its first classes in January of 1917 had 150 pupils in eleven grades, taught by ten teachers. The second half was completed in 1922 for $21,000.
The building originally had ten classrooms, a basement and an auditorium. In 1926, the east wing with eight classrooms and a large basement room for a cafeteria were added. In 1927, grades 7-12 were moved to the new school building on Huntington Ave., and for many years this remained an elementary school. Later, it was used by Rollins College for regular classes, professors' offices and its School for Continuing Education. The school was razed in January of 1989 and the site is now used as a parking lot.
The first town hall was located above Ergood's Store at the corner of Morse Blvd. and Park Ave. The present city hall was completed in 1964.
A History of the First United Methodist Church of Winter Park, by W. Breathitt Gray, Jr. (Ferris Printing Co. 1972)
Boone's Florida Historical Markers & Sites, by Floyd Edward Boone (Rainbow Books 1988)
Chronological History of Winter Park, by Claire Leavitt MacDowell (Orange Press 1950)
Early Days of Seminole County, Florida, by Arthur E. Franke, Jr. (Seminole County Historical Commission 1988)
Early Winter Park: A Photographic History From the Beginning to 1900, by Jane C. Goddard (1968)
The Episcopal Church in Winter Park, Florida, 1883-1983, by Statson Conn (Moran Printing Company 1984)
First Congregational Church of Winter Park, Florida, 1884-1984, by Harry S. Douglass (Florida Press, Inc. 1984)
The First Twenty-Five Years of the University Club of Winter Park, by William E. Stark (1959)
Flashbacks: The Story of Central Florida's Past, by Jim Robison and Mark Andrews (The Orlando Sentenel 1995)
Florida Cow Hunter: The Life and Times of Bone Mizell, by Jim Bob Tinsley (University of Central Florida Press 1990)
Florida: Historic, Dramatic, Contemporary, by J.E. Dovell (Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc. 1923)
Florida In the Making, by Frank Parker Stockbridge and John Holliday Perry (The deBower Publishing Co. 1926)
Florida Off the Beaten Path, by Diana and Bill Gleasner (The East Woods Press 1985)
Florida Portrait: A Pictorial History of Florida, by Jerrell Shofner (Pineappple Press, Inc. 1990)
Florida: The Long Frontier, by Marjorie Stoneman Douglas (Harper & Row 1967)
Florida's History Through Its Places, by Morton D. Winsburg (Florida State University 1987)
Florida's Past: People and Events That Shaped the State, by Gene M. Burnett (Pineapple Press, Inc. 1991)
Ghost Towns & Side Roads of Florida, by James R. Warnke (Roving Photographers & Assoc., Inc. 1978)
History of Development in Orange and Seminole Counties, (Orange-Seminole Joint Planning Commission 1966)
History of Florida, by Henry Gardner Cutler (The Lewis Publishing Company 1923)
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, ed. (Orange County Retired Educators Association 1990)
I Never Had Enough Money to Leave Town, by Ed Winn (1992)
The Navy in Central Florida, (Boone Publications, Inc. 1971)
Non-Vital Fact Book of Florida, by Evanell K. Brant (1979)
Orange County: The Source, (Office of the Orange County Chairman 1993)
Orlando, A Century Plus, by Baynard J. Kendrick (Sentinel Star Company 1976)
Oviedo: Biography of a Town, by Richard Adicks and Donna M. Neely (Executive Press 1979)
Pictorial History of Florida, by Richard J. Bowe (1970)
President William Fremont Blackman and His Administration 1902-1915, Rollins College Bulletin vol. LIV, No. 4, Dec. 1959
The River of the Long Water, by Alma Hetherington (The Mickler House Publishers 1980)
Some Kind of Paradise: A Chronicle of Man and the Land in Florida, by Mark Derr (William Morrow and Company, Inc. 1989)
The University Club of Winter Park: 1934-1994, (The University Club of Winter Park 1994)
Winter Park Portrait: The Story of Winter Park and Rollins College, by Richard N. Campen (West Summit Press 1987)
The Winter Parker, Vol. 1, No. 1 (The Angel Alley Press Feb. 1952)
Winter Park's Old Alabama Hotel, by Noella LaChance Schenck (Anna Publishing, Inc. 1982)
Click here for a copy of the trail rules.