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.
A building located here served as a school beginning in 1899. It also was a church, meeting place, and a place to vote. The Goldenrod Ladies Missionary Society met there during the 1930s. In the 1980s, it was leased to the Morning Star Baptist Church, initially for a five-year term. It was later the home of the Bible Believers Tabernacle. The hurricanes of 2003 damaged its roof and for a long time much of it sat uncovered, open to further rain damage inside. It was razed in 2006.
On the northwest corner of the intersection with Tuskawilla Rd., just to the east of here, formerly sat the Tuskawilla Baptist Church, now known as Gospel Light Baptist Church and located on Howell Branch Rd.
To the northeast, on the north side of the railroad tracks, was located a train station for the small community of Bertha and the Gabriella post office. It served a small community which is now little more than a memory.
Though small, in 1891 it was important enough to host an agricultural fair. The two-day February event was organized by Elmer John Beidler and Zele Fry, and was held in F.P. Fair's packing house. When Beidler recorded the planting of a grove in the "Goldenrod District" in the 1880s, it was the first recorded use of "Goldenrod" for the name of this area.
Gabriella was a popular place to stop the "Dinky Line" train running from Winter Park to Lake Charm in Oviedo, to let the passengers pick oranges and wild flowers.
Charles W. Eldridge owned and operated a store here from 1927 to 1934, between Aloma Ave. and the railroad tracks. It carried gasoline, oil, kerosene, staple foods, and basic supplies.
This private school was founded on May 6, 1966. Before the swampy 100-acre campus could be utilized, dirt was hauled in and the lake was dredged for fill. Classes began for 180 students and 17 faculty members on September 9, 1968, and the following June the first graduating class had one student.
The Stuart Building, Holloway Building, Rich Library and swimming pool were completed by 1972, the Dickinson Activity Center was constructed in 1982, and the H. Benton Ellis Building was completed in 1986.
The station was built here in 1908 of wood, galvanized tin, and topped by a shingle roof, for the cost of $116. The adjacent freight platform cost $65. The nearest stations were Gabriella about two miles to the east, and Lake Howell 1.3 miles to the west.
The station served the Osceola and Lake Jesup Railroad, built in 1890. It was nicknamed the "Dinky Line" because of the creaking, screeching noises it made when rounding a bend, plus its fragile qualities. Frequent stops for repairs were necessary.
Just to the south of the railroad tracks in the mid-1930s were the homes of Carl Mathers on the west side of Hall Rd., and the Colicutt family on the east side.
The site is now occupied by a convenience store.
This is a prefabricated house, locally known as the "Sears House" because it may have been constructed from one of the 100,000 home building kits sold through the Sears catalogue by 1940. This home was erected in 1927 by Mr. Burchard and sat at 7421 Aloma Ave.
In the late 1970s, Margaret Moran and Connie Holmes turned it into The Country Store gift shop, and later it became the Wildwood Flower and Gift Shop and then the We've Gone Country store. Moran formed the Aloma Beautification Committee and began a project to plant trees in the Aloma Ave. median islands. The house was moved to this location in 2000 by Kae and Larry Huffaker, owners of Perfect Printing.
Charles W. Eldridge and his son, Charles C. Eldridge, formed the Sunshine Diamond Ball League. Games were played on the field located here from 1929 to 1932. All were day games, since Goldenrod did not get electricity until 1936.
This land was the site of a home and grove owned by Capt. James Walle Wilmott, who moved to Goldenrod in 1883 from England, after a three-year stop in Geneva, Florida. Capt. Wilmott left for Orlando in 1886. The Branchwood Apartments were later built on this site.
Old Howell Branch Rd. was formerly known as Maitland-Goldenrod Rd. It was first paved in 1927.
Venancio A. Adriatico and Elmer Jeen built this home in 1926. Adriatico was born in 1899, and emigrated from the Philippines in 1924 as the servant of Army Sgt. Jean. They drove to Florida from California in a Model T and bought these 10 acres. They used building plans purchased from Montgomery Ward. Beginning in 1930, Adriatico turned his home into an ornamental and citrus nursery, with hibiscus, azaleas, camellias, ferns, acacia and pelican vine.
The ten-acre Adriatico grove formerly contained mostly Hamlin (early variety) oranges. The 1989 freeze necessitated substantial replanting, and they put in 350 red navel (cara cara) trees. Across the street used to be the 1921 home and orange grove of Forrest Selby.
In front of the home, between the fence and the road, you may find in the thick foliage the gravestone inscribed "Safe in the Arms of Jesus". This came from a 40-acre tract purchased by the Adriaticos in Jamestown, east of Goldenrod. A small child was buried there, and the remains were exhumed and moved to a cemetery on Lakemont Ave. in Winter Park.
This congregation began as Tuskawilla Baptist Church and was located at the corner of Aloma Ave. and Tuskawilla Rd. The present parking lot was the site of the Tuck House, built from lumber salvaged from the church near the Lake Howell Cemetery. It was demolished in 1991.
It is estimated that this house was built in the 1880s, at the northwest corner of Howell Branch Rd. and Semoran Blvd. The Tuck family rented this home when they first arrived in Florida in 1919, before they built a home on the northeast corner of that intersection.
This home was bought by the Dike family when they arrived in 1926, and they moved it so that it faced Howell Branch Rd. In 1970, it was moved to this location.
The plat for this cemetery was recorded on November 15, 1902, but there are also older graves here from the 1880s. The plots include those of Confederate veteran, Ezekial Hull, the Dike family, and other pioneer Goldenrod families. Hull is an uncommon Florida veteran, since most Civil War veterans buried in Central Florida were residents of (and served in units organized in) other states. To the south of the platted but undeveloped wooded section is the Slovak cemetery.
The church located here was built in 1894 but was abandoned in the 1920s, and was bought in 1934 by Otie Tuck for $55. She used the lumber for construction of a house on Howell Branch Rd.
This home for American Slovaks was founded in 1952 by Maria Jergo and Karol Belohlavek.
On March 1, 1937, Goldenrod resident and historian Mary Elizabeth Dike Johnston was born in her grandparents' home which stood at this site. Charles Henry Dike and Fannie Lucinda Murdock Dike had moved here in 1926. The two-story house with attic and basement was demolished in 1969, and is now the site of Signal Pointe Apartments.
Ms. Dike's other set of grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Tuck and his wife, Otie Tuck, of Alabama and Kentucky, who settled here in 1919, lived in the house adjacent to a grove on the northeast corner. It was the birthplace of their son, Harlan Tuck, who was a prominent Orlando lawyer. It is now Market Square Shopping Center.
When this church was organized on November 20, 1955, by 81 members of the First Baptist Church of Winter Park, it was known as the East Side Baptist Church. The first services were held at the American Legion Hall, then located at the corner of Holt and Capen Aves. The first pastor was Rev. C.E. (Dan) Patch.
Groundbreaking for their own church building on a three-acre site at the corner of Aloma Ave. and Ranger Blvd. took place on Easter in 1956. The first services there were held on July 8, 1956. The name was changed to Aloma Baptist Church on October 1, 1963.
Construction on the present site was begun in 1980, and the first services took place in the education building on June 7, 1981. The fellowship hall served as the sanctuary until December 22, 1985, when the current sanctuary was opened. It was designed by Jack Garcia and built by Hartman & Sons. The church was built free of debt, with the congregation raising the needed funds ahead of time.
This area, extending north along Semoran Blvd., was named Casselberry after its primary developer, Hibbard Casselberry. He built the city around his Brightwater estate on the Triplett Chain of Lakes and the family ferneries started by Charles D. Haines.
Casselberry, a World War I navy veteran, moved to Seminole County in the 1920s. He bought hundreds of acres surrounding the lakes, and incorporated the town with 25 voters in 1940. During World War II, he shifted from ferns to textile production for the war effort.
By 1983, the town had grown to a population of 750. At the time, lots were selling from $400 to $2,500, and houses and lots were offered by Casselberry for as little as $8,950.
Many years before, a portion of the city was known as Concord.
As recently as the 1930s, this area was a swamp, unfit for the level of commercial development which exists today.
In the early days of Goldenrod, this was a pasture where Basil Corbett (B.C.) Dodd raised cattle. During the winter, he took them back to his Garden Lake Dairy. Dodd moved to Goldenrod in 1910, and was literally a big man in this community. He stood six and a half feet tall, weighed 285 pounds, and wore size 16 shoes. Corbett served as county commissioner from 1946 to 1958.
Just to the south of this site, at the railroad tracks, is where the Lake Howell railroad station stood in the early 1900s. It also was the location of Mock's sawmill.
Long before the McAbee Veterinary Clinic opened here, this was the site of the home of Dick and Dave Neifert.
In 1947, Jane Witek was an Army Air Corps nurse stationed in Orlando, and married Venancio A. Adriatico. In 1955, she established a real estate office at this location, and remained in business here for 25 years. The site is now a used car lot.
Prof. and Mrs. Fred Gifford of Indiana had this prefabricated home constructed here in 1927, and called it the "Wee Hoosier Inn".
Goldenrod Corporation established a park for the community. In the 1920s and 1930s, residents could come here to enjoy horseshoes, shuffleboard, croquet, ping pong and picnics. This is now the site of a convenience store.
Just beyond it is the Goldenrod Civic Center, built in 1951 largely by volunteers. Residents raised money for materials by holding dinners, dance parties, rummage sales, parties, and bake sales. Fred Spelzenhausen was selected as the Civic Club's first president.
The 158-lot Suburban Homes development of the Goldenrod Corporation began on this lot in 1926 with the erection of a home for H.A. Ward. It was a prefabricated model, shipped from the north by train. At the time, what is now known as Aloma Ave. was the two-land dirt road named Winter Park-Oviedo Rd. Ward's real estate office, built in 1960-61, was located next door to the east.
Later, a building was constructed by Mr. Isom, an electrical contractor, and was bought by Leo and Dora Lampe in 1950. It was sold to Joe Madia and a Mr. Gican. For a time after that, floor coverings were sold here at the Kidder & Ward Store. It housed the post office from 1972 to 1985. In 2002, it was replaced by a new drug store building.
A home was built here in 1928 by Robert Whaley for his sisters, Mrs. Nicholson and Mrs. Southern. It was the site of Boyd's Flower Shop, and then the Aloma Florist shop. It was replaced in 2002 by a new drug store building.
Robert Whaley built this house in 1928. It was later turned into Bob's Bar & Grill, and later Muldoon's Saloon. Whaley also built the house at 4923 Pine Ave. for one of his sisters.
Before the current office building, that was the location of the home of Mr. and Mrs. Shepler.
This is another example of the large Suburban Homes development, built in the late 1920s and extensively remodelled in later years.
The present Goldenrod post office sits on the site of the ten-acre homestead of Olaf and Laura Carlson, which was here from 1924 to 1984. The first post office, serving the Lake Howell area at the turn of the century, was located in Upton Moreman's house on Lake Howell Rd. Moreman and his family arrived from Missouri in about 1890, and purchased his land from the Self family.
In the post office are displayed some interesting photographs of early Goldenrod.
Before this was a funeral home, this was the site of the Goldenrod Inn, built by the Spelzenhausens.
Forrest Selby ran a store here on the southwest corner until the 1920s, when he sold it to J.T. McMannis. It carried gasoline, coal oil, bread, flour and canned goods. In 1943, Emil Spelzenhausen, who had moved from New York for his health, was driving around Central Florida when he picked up a serviceman needing a ride. He took him to Goldenrod where he was stationed, and Spelzenhausen stopped in McMannis' store and bought it, a gas station, and a two-bedroom house for a total of $9,500. The store was later known as the Goldenrod Tavern.
In 1949-50, Spelzenhausen built the Goldenrod Market on the southeast corner, now known as Shooter's Den Gun Shop. It served as the post office beginning in 1951, with Walter Spelzenhausen as the postmaster.
They tore down the store on the southwest corner and built the Pure Oil Garage, which was also the home of the first Goldenrod Volunteer Fire Department. Walter Spelzenhausen was its first president. Emil Spelzenhausen, often referred to as the unofficial "Mayor of Goldenrod", died in 1989.
In 1922, Mr. Smith hired Charles W. Eldridge to care for his 40-acre citrus grove. To be close to his employer, Eldridge, his wife, Mable, and his children Charles C. and Bernice, moved into Smith's house at this location, now overgrown.
The railroad tracks that connected Goldenrod with Winter Park and Oviedo were removed decades ago from most locations, leaving empty roadbed, but were still present at this crossing until the late 1990s.
This was the location of Hugo Weber's hardware store, built in 1951 on land bought from Henry M. Ruff. It was later the Lawn Equipment Center and then an electrical company.
About five years after Charles W. Eldridge went to work for Mr. Smith, Smith sold his grove to a Mr. Gardener and gave the Eldridges a 15-acre parcel here. They moved here in about 1927, and began living in a tent. Friendly neighbors built them a house in less than a week. Later, the Eldridges moved to Bo Randall's house and grove on Aloma Ave. between Dean and Tuskawilla Rds.
In 1934, the house was moved to this corner, and it was converted into a grocery store. The store closed in 1946, and has been replaced by a modern gas/convenience store.
Mr. and Mrs. Eldridge worked at Rollins College until they died, in 1951.
This began as a Texaco station, opened by R.C. Brown in the 1950s. It was later the site of the Goldenrod Garage and Car Whiz.
Casselberry, Florida: In the Heart of the Lake District, promotional flier by Hibbard Casselberry (1983)
Early Days of Seminole County, by Arthur E. Franke, Jr. (Seminole County Historical Commission 1984)
Flashbacks: The Story of Central Florida's Past, by Jim Robison and Mark Andrews (The Orlando Sentinel 1995)
Gathering Clusters of Goldenrod, by Mary E. Johnston (Goldenrod Historical Society, Inc. 1992)
Oviedo: Biography of a Town, by Richard Adicks and Donna M. Neely (Executive Press 1979)
Slovaks in Florida, by Andrew F. Hudak, Jr. (DaK Grafik Print 1991)