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).
The fort was built near here in 1835 by soldiers commanded by Lt. Col. Alexander C.W. Fanning (1788-1846), along the military road from Ft. Mellon (Sanford) to Ft. Gatlin (Orlando). The fort was named in 1838 in honor of William Seton Maitland (1798-1837) of New York. At the same time, Lake Fumecheliga, Seminole for "muskmelon place", was changed to Lake Maitland.
Andrew Jackson had commissioned William Maitland as Brevet Captain for his gallantry and good conduct at the Battle of Withlacoochee on December 31, 1835, and the Battle of Welika in July of 1836. He was severely wounded at Wahoo Swamp on November 21, 1836, and spent nine months trying to recover from his wounds. Despondent over his condition and humiliated over his having to leave his men and the fighting, he jumped overboard in Savannah Harbor and drowned in November of 1837.
The fort was never used in battle, and was abandoned in 1842. The following year, the first homesteaders arrived.
This road, as well as three others in Maitland, are named after George Horatio Packwood, one of the early settlers of Maitland. In 1873, he built Packwood Hall at the corner of Maitland and Packwood Aves., and the hall became the center of social life of early Maitland. In 1876, he and his brother, along with H.S. Kedney and Isaac Vanderpool, laid out the town's streets.
This building, used by youth groups, was erected in 1968 and sits in a city park, just on the other side of the foliage lining the east shore of the canal.
Louis F. Dommerich, a wealthy New York silk merchant, purchased a large estate from Maj. Bolling Robertson Swoope, a Virginia Confederate veteran. Swoope had acquired it in 1874, and had planted the groves and gardens. Swoope was also superintendent of the South Florida Railroad.
Dommerich named his estate "Hiawatha", and of the 210 acres, 138 were landscaped gardens, with the rest planted with oranges. Eight miles of wooden walks passed through azaleas and palms. The Florida Audubon Society was organized here by Louis and his wife, Clara, and had its early meetings at Hiawatha. Their thirty-room frame house was built east of Lake Minnehaha in the early 1890s, and was rebuilt in 1928. It was sold in 1954 for $420,000 to make way for the Dommerich Estates Subdivision.
This Georgian Revival home was built in an Italianate villa style in 1918-19 by James Stokes of Connecticut, who died before he could move in. At the time, it was the focal point of a five-acre tract, including citrus groves. The entrance drive began at Lake Knowles, and led up to the house.
This house was built by Bonner MacCaughey, a well-to-do Chicago businessman, in about 1925. He spent twenty Florida winters in it before pasing away in it in June of 1945. The style is Mediterranean, with white stucco and a breezeway connecting the main house and the guesthouse/servants' quarters.
This land was part of the William C. Temple estate. 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.
A Florida Victorian home was built in 1878 a little to the west on the present site of the 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 predecessor 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 half 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.
The home is still standing to the east of the hotel, moved there to make room for the 1922 construction, but is not visible from this point.
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, and was not moved 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.
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 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.
This bridge was erected in 1924 by the Luton Bridge Co. of York, Pennsylvania. The first permanent bridge over this water, known as the Maitland Run before it was dug out as a canal, had been erected in 1899.
Dr. H.W. Caldwell had this built by Hanner Brothers in 1914-15 in the English Tudor style. In 1936, Mr. and Mrs. W.T. Morris purchased it and had architect James Gamble Rogers II redesign the exterior in a French style, including the addition of a two-story wing on the northeast corner. A tennis court was added on the street side in 1978. The home is named for Carolina, Ohio and Virginia.
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 this 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.
George W. Moyers operated a sawmill on the shore of this lake, where the campus of Rollins College is now located. Moyers named the lake after his state of origin.
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 on the east side of this lake in 1858.
David Mizell grew cotton here 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.
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.
George Moyer's sawmill was orginally opened by Capt. John K. Coiner in 1875. Coiner opened this canal to run his logs through.
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 elegant chapel, whose tower peeks over the treetops, 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.
The building whose roof can be seen to the right (north) of the chapel is the Annie Russell Theatre. 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 threatre 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.
In 1925, Dr. N.L. Bryan and his wife Mary bought land along the south shore of the lake to create a subdivision called Ellno Willo, after their children Elliot, Norman, William and Mary Louise. This Spanish style home was built as part of that subdivision in 1926 for W.B. and Gussie Joiner.
Herbert and Gertrude Halverstadt had this home built in 1928, using Spanish architecture typical of the Florida boom period. Mr. Halverstadt was the mayor of Winter Park from 1945 to 1947, and Mrs. Halverstadt was the president of the Woman's Club of Winter Park in 1949.
This was the home of Dr. and Mrs. N.L. Bryan, and stands on 1.9 acres of beautifully landscaped property. It was built with a Northern Italian Renaissance style, with walls 1 1/2 feet thick. With 15 rooms, it is a small version of a large Italian farmhouse.
Frederick W. Lyman is credited with first giving expression to the founding of the 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 Soceity, 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.
Before the construction of the library, this was the site of 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 facility, north to the Alfond Swimming Pool, 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 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.
Now a public park with a sand beach put in by the city in 1948, this was also 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 opening 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.
While Albin Polasek (1879-1965) was the head of the sculpture department at the Chicago Institute of Art in 1914, he 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 from 10:00 a.m. to noon and 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday through Saturday, and 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. on Sunday. 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 in front of the gallery.
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 wee removed in 1903.
The hotel burned to the ground on September 18, 1902. During its existence, it attracted statesmen and celebrities. Numerous photographs remain, showing its Mansard roof, perforated by dormers.
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 beautiful 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".
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 Codominiums.
Hamilton Holt, Rollins College president from 1925 to 1949, entertained students and visitors, granted honorary degrees, and represented 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.
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 exterior. 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.
This home, 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. It was moved in 2001 across Interlachen Ave. to the public golf course to make room for the landowner's new home.
Previously on this site was the Ergood-Roe-Tousey Cottage, 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 magnificent view of Lake Osceola and the surrounding countryside.
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.
Architect and carpenter William S. Waterhouse built a home here in about 1885 for Charles H. Hall of Marquette, Michigan, who had bought the land in 1874. The Hall home was sold in the 1930s to Chester Fosgate, who sold it to Ed Owens.
In 1948, Mr. and Mrs. Edgar Smart bought it and lived here until 1959, when they sold it to a developer. It remained vacant for several years, and was torn down. In 1972, the West Cove Condominiums were built.
On March 15, 1935, a group of Seminole Indians unveiled a coquina rock marker with an embedded D.A.R. plaque, on land donated by Edward R. Hall, son of Charles, here at the site of the fort. The marker, which sits in the driveway on the west side of the property, is dedicated to Capt. Maitland, "Hero of the Seminole Indian War."
Boone's Florida Historical Markers & Sites, by Floyd Edward Boone (Rainbow Books 1988)
Chronological History of Winter Park, by Clair Leavitt MacDowell (Orange Press 1950)
Early Winter Park: A Photographic History From the Beginning to 1900, by Jane C. Goddard (1968)
Flashbacks: The Story of Central Florida's Past, by Jim Robison and Mark Andrews (The Orlando Sentinel 1995)
Florida History Through Its Places, by Morton D. Winsburg (Florida State University 1987)
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 (Pineapple Press, Inc. 1991)
Florida's Past: People and Events That Shaped the State, by Gene M. Burnett (Pineapple Press, Inc. 1991)
Fort Maitland: Its Origin and History, by Alfred Jackson Hanna (The Rollins Press 1936)
History of Orange County, Florida, by William Fremont Blackman (The E.O. Painter Printing Co. 1927)
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)
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.