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 or (2) 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 bike the trail, you accept all risks involved.
KILLARNEY
This is the western end of Phase I of the West Orange Trail, ending about 5.2 miles to the east in Winter Garden. It is part of the national Rails to Trails movement, converting to recreational use land which once was under railroad ties and rails.
In 1880, a few immigrants from County Kerry, Ireland, established a settlement here and named it Killarney. Although most returned to Ireland following the freezes of 1894 and 1895, some remained.
The first Killarney post office opened on October 7, 1899, with Belle Walton Burdett as the postmaster. It was discontinued on May 31, 1902.
At the intersection here of the tracks of the Seaboard Coast Line and the Tavares & Gulf Railroad, a sawmill office was built in about 1908. James William Jones acquired it and operated a general store in it. When the post office was reestablished on May 18, 1926, it was located in the back of Jones' store, and there it remained until 1968.
A portion of the store's foundation is still visible.
This granite marker commemorates the family of S.B. Hull, who arrived in this area in about 1905. This is one of the oldest orange groves in the state, known as the Burdette Island Grove before the Hulls bought it in 1912. Simeon Benjamin Hull served as a trustee of the Oakland-Winter Garden School District, second vice president of the Orange County Chamber of Commerce, and was appointed by the Orange County Board of Commissioners to make the 1927 Agricultural and Industrial Survey for Orange County for the State Department of Agriculture.
OAKLAND
The present sanctuary for this congregation was dedicated on June 8, 1969, with Rev. H.P. James as pastor.
The original church building was erected in 1911 under the supervision of Rev. J.R. Bronson, and rebuilt and rededicated on November 30, 1919, while Rev. R.D. Nimmons was the pastor. It was substantially renovated in 1944, and rebuilt in 1990.
This congregation is one of the oldest in Orange County, having been established in about 1844. The sanctuary here was rebuilt and dedicated on April 21, 1991.
This is reputed to be the oldest remaining house in Oakland. It began as a wayside inn built in the 1860s by an English couple, who later returned to England. Capt. Bluford G. Sims taught grades 1-8 here five months a year.
It was later remodeled as a residence and in 1903 became the home of Ezekiel C. Vick and his family. It later was the home of Mr. Vick's daughter, Dewey, and her husband, E. Lee Mathews.
This building housing the stores of Michael (east half) and Brock (west half) was built by J.O. Robinson after the fire of 1912.
J.O. Brock owned an old cow that was allowed to roam the neighborhood, and which ignored boundaries and barricades. It was especially fond of the prize grapefruit tree behind the white picket fence in Mr. Michael's yard. During the last of many episodes in which the cow jumped the fence to eat the tender grapefruit leaves, Michael fired his shotgun to scare the animal out of his yard.
The animal bolted as intended, but ran headfirst into a barn door and died from the impact. Michael approached Brock and asked him how much he would charge to sell the cow. Brock thought about it and set the price at $20. Michael pulled a $20 bill out of his wallet, handed it to Brock, and said "Here's your money - I just killed your cow."
Railroad developer Peter Demens' Russian roots showed through at the depot, built with a Russian architectural style, to the west of where the small white building presently sits on the north side of the West Orange Trail.
After the arrival of the railroad, the town began to boom. Buildings went up for a hotel, an opera house, stores, a hospital, many small workmen's homes, a telegraph office, a newspaper, and substantial homes for company officials.
In 1889, Oakland became the junction of the Orange Belt and the Florida Midland Railroads. Not long after that, Peter Demens moved to Asheville, North Carolina. In 1892, he went to Los Angeles and acquired a steam laundry.
Demens also grew citrus, wrote for the Los Angeles Times, worked as an Associated Press reporter, and took charge of the Russian government purchasing bureau until that country was overthrown by the Bolshevists. Demens died on January 21, 1919.
Severe freezes on December 26, 1894, and February 7, 1895, nearly eliminated the freight traffic on the Orange Belt. On March 31, 1895, the line was leased to Henry B. Plant and was operated as a part of the Plant System. In July of 1902, the Plant System was merged into the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company, which merged with the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad Company.
Oakland was incorporated as a town on November 1, 1887. Oakland's greatest era was from 1885 to 1890, but in 1890, a major fire completely destroyed the business district. Oakland settled back to its agricultural resources, which were severely damaged by the 1894 and 1895 freezes. By 1900, the population had dropped to about 200.
The center of Oakland's government sits here, in what originally was the Bank of Oakland building. It was built in 1912, and J.H. Sadler served as the bank's first president. It closed in 1926, reopened briefly in 1928, and closed permanently that same year. The town bought the building in 1928 for $2,250. From 1930 to 1964 the front portion served as the post office. The police department remained here until 1984.
Oakland was granted a charter as a city on June 1, 1959.
The Tavares, Apopka and Gulf Railroad (T, A&G or T&G) desired to extend its line from the northwest through Oakland around 1890. The Orange Belt Railroad threatened to obtain an injunction preventing it from doing so, if T&G came too close. In response, the T&G workmen built the line in a more easterly direction, apparently missing Oakland.
When a Sunday and holiday occurred consecutively, so that the courthouse would not be open, they switched the tracks south and reached Oakland before Orange Belt representatives could get their injunction. T&G built their depot at this location. The line was eventually taken over by Seaboard, then discontinued, and most of its tracks in Oakland were removed.
This was the home of Edmund E. Petris (1848-1931). He arrived in Mellonville in 1874, then ran a general merchandise store in Longwood. When the railroad was run to Oakland, he moved here to this spacious company house and worked as an upholsterer of Pullman car seats. He served as the station agent for 35 years and was one of the community's most popular citizens.
Originally, Peter Demens lived at this site. Mr. and Mrs. Robert Fulton Smith (1834-1907) came with Demens to work for the railroad. Mr. Smith was a railroad engineer, and bought Demens' house when the latter moved to North Carolina. Mr. Smith operated a blacksmith shop behind the house.
A granddaughter, Annie Doris Smith, married Dave Starr, who was the Orange County sheriff for 23 years. They tore down Demens' house in about 1971 and replaced it with the present ranch style home.
The first Presbyterian church in the area was founded by Judge James Gamble Speer, who secured occasional preaching services by the pastor from Apopka. Early services were held in a log schoolhouse in Beulah at the Reeves settlement, and later in Speer's home and Eliot S. Dann's home.
A new church was organized by seven members in 1887, and a church building had been constructed in anticipation of its founding. A new church building, of cream-colored brick, was built in 1919 on a lot donated by Luther Fuller Tilden, a Methodist.
The 1887 building was given to the Methodist congregation in 1923. After poor attendance closed it, it was demolished. The remaining members of that congregation either joined the Presbyterian church or became affiliated with the Methodist church in Winter Garden.
The education building on the east side of the church was dedicated on March 27, 1950. The present sanctuary was dedicated on May 30, 1971, and it contains the original 1887 pulpit. The stained glass windows were made locally by Nobis Studios. The memorial window at the entrance lobby is dedicated to the memory of Judge Speer. Another window near the church offices honors Luther F. and Emily A. Tilden.
Next door to the 1919 brick Presbyterian church had stood a two-story school, which had been built in 1890-91 on land donated by Judge Speer. It was later bought by Mr. Crenshaw and converted to a house, and later was used as a manse for this church.
TILDENVILLE
This was the home built in 1910 by Charles Herbert Tilden, and was later owned by his granddaughter, Margaret McKinnon. The dining room is paneled with pine sheets used by Tilden for the manufacture of orange crates.
Daniel McKinnon IV (1872-1933) and his brother, William, came from Maxton, North Carolina, in 1905. Daniel married Mable Tilden (1884-1963), and Will married Blanche Wise (1883-1952). Daniel's interests included citrus, lumber, and naval stores.
This was the home of James Hardy Sadler, who planted the row of large oak trees dividing the road.
Sadler (1859-1934) was a grandson of Judge Speer. His 1906 home was the showplace of Oakland. Later it was divided into two houses, which are now located behind the present home. Sadler was a promoter of the Bank of Oakland, which opened in 1912, and he served as president until it closed in 1926. The bank reopened in 1927, and was taken over the following year by the First National Bank at Winter Garden.
When the bank closing threatened to cause depositors to lose money, Sadler paid them out of his own pocket.
On this land was located the home of James E. Willis (1835-1916) and his wife, Elvira Hobart (1844-1912). The home was removed in the late 1950s and replaced with these two new homes for his grandchildren, Robert Cooley Willis (15200 CR 438) and Helen Willis Bourland (15150 CR 438).
George Frank Connell and Lulu G. Connell built a home here. Mr. Connell's claim to fame was that he was the owner of the first automobile in Oakland, a one-cylinder Cadillac.
It was later the home of Mr. and Mrs. Clarence H. Tilden, which was lush with tropical plants. It was a mecca for horticulturalists and garden lovers. J.S. Reddick bought it, tore it down, and built a large home in its place.
A school was built in 1905-06 on this land donated by Confederate veteran James Willis (1835-1916). When it was damaged by a 1928 tornado, a new brick school building was erected across the street and to the right. The present Tildenville Elementary School was built in 1964 on the site of the 1905-06 school.
Luther Fuller Tilden (1834-1929) moved to Apopka in 1875, upon the advice of the doctor treating his bronchitis. He built the first house in Apopka with glass windows. In November of 1877, he relocated to the south shore of lake Apopka, where he bought 561 acres from the Ropers. The village he founded is now called Tildenville.
Tilden built this large two-story home near the lake with hand-sawed pine lumber. The trees grew on his Apopka farm, and the lumber was rafted across the lake.
His brother-in-law, James Willis, arrived in 1877 and homesteaded on an adjoining 160 acres. He built his two-story home on what is now Tildenville Rd. (CR 438).
Here is located the headquarters of the Association, which in 1909 began using the citrus brand labels "Fellowship" and "South Lake".
WINTER GARDEN
The land for this school was donated in 1927 by Luther Fuller Tilden, a developer of citrus groves and vegetable fields. Construction of the school was supervised by his son, Will Tilden. Additions included a gymnasium in 1951 and a cafeteria in 1960. The student body became integrated in 1965. In 1976, with the opening of West Orange High School, it was converted into a middle school.
The school was designed by M. Leo Elliott, Inc., and was constructed by Daugherty-Nichols-Young, builders.
The Winter Garden Masonic Lodge #165 F.& A.M. was chartered on January 16, 1907, as South Apopka Lodge #165. Its home here was built in 1951-52.
The previous city hall, built in 1937, was torn down in 1979 to make room for this modern building. The municipal complex was built by L.B. Samford, Inc. of Miami.
When J.S. Dillard arrived in 1888, he cultivated land which he called the "Washington Place". Later, it and the town became known as Winter Garden.
This three-story brick hotel was built in 1927. It was the only hotel in west Orange County for nearly three decades.
Citrusman Jerry Chicone Sr. bought the unfinished building in 1925 from out-of-state investors who lacked the funds to complete it. He finished the construction and opened it with 52 rooms two years later. It was a central gathering place for the town.
It ceased being a hotel in the late 1950s, the upper floors were closed in the 1960s, and an attempt at turning the building into an apartment house was begun in the early 1970s. The building was condemned in 1972 and boarded up. Many plans have been discussed for renovating or tearing down the building, but it remains standing, unoccupied.
In the 1880s, this was the location of the railway depot of the Orange Belt Railroad, which Peter Demens extended to St. Petersburg. The Atlantic Coast line replaced it around the turn of the century with another wooden depot, and later with the existing brick building on the northeast corner (1 N. Main St.). For a while, that building housed the Winter Garden Chamber of Commerce.
A.B. Newton arrived here from Mississippi in 1892 and opened a dry goods and notions store at this location. He applied for a post office, but was turned down as a result of protests from the Oakland and Ocoee post offices. His application was later approved, and his post office opened on December 28, 1892.
Newton's store was the first in Winter Garden, at a time when the settlement consisted of about six houses, a sawmill, and a railroad depot. He also was the city's first mayor when it was incorporated in 1908, published the city's first newspaper (the Ricochet), and was the station agent for the Orange Belt Railroad.
To the west of Newton's store was located Geo. T. Smith & Co. That is now the site of the Block Building, at 12 W. Plant St.
The present building on the Newton site was erected in 1912.
This congregation organized in Ocoee on August 26, 1888, with nine members. Those instrumental in its founding were Rev. J.A. Richardson, J.L. Dillard, A.W. Hurley and W.L. Story. The church moved to a wooden building across the street at 114 E. Plant St. (where the Rainbow Supermarket now sits) in 1915 when J.S. Dillard offered them $250 to move to Winter Garden.
This formerly was the site of a large sawmill operated by Will Pennington. In 1922, while J.B. Holley was the pastor, the present brick sanctuary was built, with an auditorium that seats 600. The architect was J.J. Baldwin, and R.W. Wimbish was the builder.
This church has been active in starting other churches as missions - the First Baptist Church of Windermere, the Park Ave. Baptist Church, the Oaklevel Baptist Church, and the Starke Lake Baptist Church. It also started a ministry at the Oakland/Winter Garden Campground in 1977.
This church building was erected in 1951, under the supervision of Rev. J.W. Calloway, pastor.
OCOEE
This Stick style depot was built in 1914 for the Tavares and Gulf Railroad (T&G, or "Tug and Grunt"). It served as the depot until 1960.
Passenger service ended in 1938, but produce and pulpwood continued to be shipped from Ocoee until July 31, 1969. The Seaboard Coastline Railroad formed in 1967 and absorbed T&G, and the last train service was on December 31, 1969.
The Ocoee Lions Club has used the depot for its meetings since 1979.
There were Methodists in this area as early as 1854. This particular church was formally organized in 1881 by physician and minister Rev. R.M. Dickenson of Danville, Virginia. A wood frame building was erected in 1891 and used for services until 1954.
An educational building was begun on December 13, 1953, and the first services were held in it on October 3, 1954. The new sanctuary was started on February 3, 1957, and its official opening was held on November 9, 1958. A parsonage was built on Magnolia St. in 1963, and a new fellowship building was completed in April of 1979 and dedicated as Marsden Hall.
In what is now the parking area was where the first Ocoee school was located, beginning in 1880. The students were taught by Mrs. E.D.M. Perkins in a three-sided hut beside a brush arbor.
John R. "Bud" Pounds came from Stone Mountain, Georgia, in about 1885. He settled in Minorville with his wife, Mattie L. Pounds, and started a sawmill business. He had a portable sawmill which could be moved directly to each jobsite.
Capt. Bluford Sims offered Pounds this lot if he would move to Ocoee and build a home on it. He completed the house in August of 1887.
Pounds operated the first water works in Ocoee. A deep well next to the old jail on Kissimmee St. provided water pumped to the railroad and this house. The pump engine was gasoline powered, and the old steel water tank brought from Raiford was dismantled in the 1960s. The city was ready to buy the water works, but the deal literally fell through when the well caved in.
This congregation was organized in 1883, and Brig. Gen. William T. Withers began its construction later in that decade. He died before it was completed, so Mrs. Withers finished it in his memory.
This Gothic style church building was built on land donated by Capt. Bluford M. and Lena Sims. The interior was also furnished by the Withers family, and it was dedicated on May 23, 1891. The bell was made in London and the stained glass window behind the altar was made in Belgium and carried by ship to Sanford, and by ox cart to Ocoee.
This is the oldest Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) building in continuous use in Florida.
In 1923, Mr. and Mrs. Fred H. Maguire bought this home, which had been built by the Eckles Brothers for retired streetcar conductor George Massey. They enclosed the back and side porches and added a second floor.
Mr. Maguire grew citrus and vegetables and owned a packing house in Minorville to the south, and moved it in sections to the corner of Oakland Ave. and Taylor St. When the Town of Ocoee was incorporated in 1923, Maguire became its first mayor. He resigned that position when he and Claude Hawthorne bought the electric company from Winter Garden in 1924.
Dr. Samuel R. Scott from Blakely, Georgia, came to Ocoee with his family in 1922. They lived for a while with the Pounds family while their home was being built at 102 Cumberland Ave. His first medical office was in a small building at the southeast corner of McKey St. and Cumberland Ave., and then had this office built. Originally, it had a flat roof.
After Dr. Scott's death, it was rented to motorcycle, television and T-shirt businesses. It was sold in 1982 and converted to an attorney's office.
Brig. Gen. William Temple Withers (1825-1889) was wounded by a musket ball in the 1847 battle of Buena Vista, and remained in ill health until his doctors advised him to live in Florida for its mild climate and outdoor life. Withers was a lawyer, planter, horse breeder and horticulturalist, and left Kentucky to move here with his wife and daughters in the 1880s.
They bought a small orange grove near Starke Lake and built a comfortable frame vernacular style home with Stick style elements, plus a boathouse and bathing tank, in 1888 for a total cost of $3,700. He landscaped his home with many varieties of palm and subtropical trees and shrubs.
The boathouse was moved back from the lake shore in 1894 and converted to a cottage. Spencer Brooker and his new bride, Dolly Withers, lived there. In 1915, the cottage was rented to Hoyle and Lucy Pounds. The cottage was torn down by the city in 1985.
David O. and Margaret Francis Maguire moved to this area from Loganville, Georgia, in the 1890s. They taught school here and Mr. Maguire, with Tyrannus J. Minor, built the Citrus Exchange packing house in Ocoee. They bought this house in 1910.
In 1984, the city purchased the house and the Ocoee Historical Commission undertook the job of restoring it.
This lot was owned by Capt. Bluford Sims, who sold it to Henry J. Bennett of England for $375 in 1886. Benjamin Luther Griffin bought it thirteen years later. He and his wife, Henrietta, had a three-room house built here of long leaf yellow pine. It was expanded as their family grew.
This property was sold by Capt. Sims to Mary Parker in 1897, and she sold it to Mrs. S.J. Davis in 1911. William P. Blakely of Tennessee bought it in 1913 and added a library room lined with hundreds of books and National Geographic magazines. He nicknamed this home "The Nook".
Blakely had arrived here in 1881, and he taught school in his home in 1903. He also ran a general store, was a county commissioner and justice of the peace, and was an active member of the Orange County Chamber of Commerce.
The home was inherited by Dolly Withers Brooker in 1935, and she left it to her son, James, in 1941. After Harold and Jewel Stoutenburgh acquired the house in 1954, the tall pitched roof garage at the northeast corner of the lot was torn down, with many of the old blocks being used in the construction of the present garage.
Prior to 1920, this was one of the two Ocoee black neighborhoods. The other was Baptist Quarters, located east of Bluford Ave. and south of Orlando Rd.
The U.S. Senate election of 1920 produced a violent chapter in Ocoee's history. One candidate was white Republican judge John M. Cheney, who was rumored to be encouraging black voter registration in Ocoee. On the Sunday before the election, the Ku Klux Klan staged a silent march through Winter Garden and Orlando to warn blacks to stay away from the polls.
Mose Norman, a black Ocoee farmer, was turned away from the polls when he showed up to vote. He returned with a shotgun, but was disarmed and beaten. He then went to the home of July Perry, an influential and respected black landowner. Perry obtained a note from Cheney stating that he and Norman were eligible to vote.
A group of white men burst into Perry's home, and two of the attackers (Elmer Daniels and Leo Bogard) were killed. Perry was arrested and jailed in Orlando, where a mob broke in and lynched him not far from Cheney's home by the Orlando Country Club.
In Ocoee, rampaging whites burned down black homes, churches and businesses. At least five blacks were killed, and by the end of the day, most of the rest left. The American Legion patrolled the streets for a time, to prevent further violence. By 1921, only 17 black residents remained. In 1925, there were none, and Ocoee had no black population for about the next 50 years.
This was the location of the home of July Perry, and an important site during the riot of 1920.
Sidney West of Bedford, Virginia, built this home in the early 1920s in a grove of about 15 acres. The frame is made of pine and the floors are oak. Mrs. West taught piano lessons here.
In 1965, Bill Tompkins bought the building and converted it to a funeral home. It was sold to Don Cooley in 1976, and to James Collison in 1977.
APOPKA
On a wooded slope on the south shore of this lake, wealthy settlers from South Carolina established Oakland Park in 1844. They and about 100 slaves cleared land for cotton, corn and sugar cane, and by 1860 it was a busy industrial center with noisy sawmills, a grist mill, sugar mills and cotton gins. The rich mucklands were good for farming.
Not long after the Civil War, Oakland was dominated by seven main families - the Speers, Sadlers, Tildens, Wises, Willises, Petrises and Hulls.
In November of 1877, Judge Speer and others living near the lake petitioned the Internal Improvement Fund for ownership of the swamps and overflowed lands north of the lake. Their request was granted in 1879, contingent on their draining the lake and digging a canal to connect it to Lake Dora.
The Apopka Canal Company began immediately and built the canal in 1887. That project allowed oranges to be loaded on a boat at the Oakland dock and be shipped solely by water through lakes and the St. Johns River to Jacksonville and Savannah.
Lemuel H. Davis completed the Apopka Canal which had been started by J.G. Speer's Apopka Canal Company. The canal, which connected Lakes Apopka, Beauclair, Dora and Eustis, lowered the level of Lake Apopka enough to expose about 20,000 acres for cultivation in 1893. Prior to that time, the muck and sawgrass reached nearly to present-day Orange Blossom Tr.
Another attempt at bringing the area under cultivation was attempted by Zellwood Florida Farms, described in the Zellwood section of this plan. It wasn't until 1943, using experience gained in the Everglades, that the mucklands became productive to raise crops as part of the war effort.
This church was founded in 1937 by Belle William, J. Miller, R. Foster, Sam Brown, and several others who left New Hope Missionary Baptist Church. Zephaniah Turk became its first minister. The present building was dedicated on July 25, 1965.
The land for this church was donated by George W. Oden. It was built in the 1880s, in this Mead's Bottom neighborhood which was exclusively black until about 1920. The present sanctuary was built in 1961.
Nearby, a two-story school for black children was built in 1910.
The hall was built here in 1909. A moving picture theater was opened here in 1926 by Tom Barnes and Cecil Ross, and was later replaced by the Ace Theater.
Davis Lodge No. 47, A.F.& A.M. was founded in 1928, and in 1946 they purchased the Odd Fellows building.
This street was formerly known as Ninth St., but was renamed to honor the longtime owner of Michael Gladden's Market and laundry. Notice the monument to him on the southeast corner of this intersection.
This was the site of the Georgia Smokehouse, opened in 1929 by Benny Watters to deal in cured meats. Barney Watters and his brothers-in-law, Clayton and Dan Blackwelder, bought the business in 1946 and operated it at another location. B.L. Watters Building Supply, now known as Lumberjack, took over the location in the 1950s.
The center of town was shifted westward from The Lodge Masonic meeting house when the railroad came through. On land deeded by Mercy G. Wadsworth in 1885, the passenger and freight depot was built in 1918 by the Tavares, Orlando and Atlantic Railroad Company (TO&A).
The tracks crossing Main St. were removed in about 1969.
This was the medical office of Dr. Thomas E. McBride, built in the 1930s. From 1985 to 1992, it was the location of the Apopka Historical Museum.
In the early 1920s, Charles R. Converse was operating a drug store here in a two-story frame building, facing onto Park Ave. He sold it to Walter B. Sheppard, who operated it as the Apopka Drug Store. In the 1940s, it was demolished and replaced by the present one-story building.
S.W. Eldredge sold his store to Walter B. Sheppard, who operated it as Sheppard's Drug Store from 1946 until 1979. It then housed a typewriter and cash register store.
In earlier days, a meeting room known as Harrison Hall occupied the scond floor of the Harrison Block, a wooden two-story building erected by 1880.
This building was erected in 1927 and has housed a variety of tenants. The Fern City Drug Store was operating in August of 1938, when the W.P.A. sewing room was established upstairs. The Willis brothers opened the Fern City Service Station behind it in 1935, for the sale of Standard Oil products.
It was later known as Fern City Sundries, and then Henry's Portion Meats.
This home was built during the 1880s by Chester Merrill. It was later acquired by the family of Florence Ustler.
This was built by R.M. Mitchell in 1887, and was later the home of mayor J.D. Mitchell. It was later Josephine Nolle's "Griff Inn" boarding house. Even later, it was the home of C.M. Walters.
This home was built by mayor Edward B. Waite in 1886. It was he who established the address system for Apopka, using this intersection as the center from which all addresses originate.
PLYMOUTH
In 1924, this church was reestablished by 22 members of Apopka First Baptist Church. Rev. E.M. McDowell of Eustis began preaching here twice a month in 1925, and Rev. George C. Case came from New York in 1927 to serve as pastor.
In the mid-1940s, a $1,100,000 plant was built by the newly-formed Florida Foods, Inc., for the production of frozen concentrated orange juice. It later reorganized as Vacuum Foods, Inc., then Minute Maid Corporation, and then became a division of the Coca Cola Company.
This concrete block station is the successor to the old wooden TO&A depot. It now serves the Florida Central Railroad, the Florida Northern Railroad and the Florida Midland Railroad.
Anderson Pittman Fudge, the son of Apopka's first mayor, moved from Georgia to Florida in 1875. He settled in Maitland, then moved to Longwood, then in 1881 established his homestead here. At the time, there were only five or six other settlers in Plymouth.
The home remained in the family until 1948, when Anson Fudge sold it to C.P. Bateman.
One home, a couple of blocks to the north, dating from the 1890s, is about all that is left from the settlement of McDonald.
The first settler, Andrew A. McDonald, arrived from Virginia in about 1873. His eldest son, Dr. M.G. McDonald, began practicing medicine here in the 1880s. Marion Fitzhugh McDonald became a charter member of the Plymouth Citrus Growers Association, which organized in 1909.
Percival McDonald operated a general store. He also operated a packing house with S.W. Eldredge of Apopka, but it closed after the 1894-95 freezes. Percival and two of his brothers then moved to Mexico, and he didn't return to Plymouth until he retired thirty years later.
Rev. J.T. Leonard formed a Presbyterian congregation which grew to about 100 members by 1889. McDonald also had its own school and post office.
ZELLWOOD
This building is dedicated in memory of Lt. Col. Thomas Ellwood Zell, who founded this community. The dedication plaque was presented by The Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States.
The library is open on alternating Saturdays.
At a meeting in 1906 in Lewis Osborn's home, friends gathered for Sunday worship and Bible study. Later meetings were held in a hall above a store on Jones Ave. The church officially organized on April 30, 1911, with 12 charter members and Rev. King Jones of Orlando as pastor.
The Methodists used the Episcopal Church building for their twice monthly preaching services until construction was complete on their own building on a lot donated by Mr. and Mrs. James Laughlin. It was finished in 1925, except for classroom doors which were not acquired until 1932.
In 1934-35, the church absorbed many members from the disbanded Conquest Church in McDonald. A parsonage was built in 1948 for $4,500 and an education building was added in 1954-58. The present fellowship hall/education building was erected in 1974-75, and the old one was renovated to include a church office.
This is the oldest currently operating store building in Orange County. Lewis Osborne and Lilla Hammond Osborne bought the store from Lewis' father, Caleb Osborne, who had bought it from A.H. Ashman in 1894, when it had served as a trading post since 1886 or earlier. While it was owned by the Osbornes, the General Mercantile Store included a hardware store, post office, library, and meeting room.
It was sold in 1930 to William S. Jones, who operated his store here until 1944.
This was the location of the depot of the Tavares, Orlando and Atlantic Railroad Company (TO&A). The railroad reached Zellwood in 1885, and made regular stops for many years thereafter.
The depot was converted to a feed store in 1978, and was later removed.
This road is named for James W. Jones, who moved his family from Tennessee to Texas in 1904 to try farming, and heard about Zellwood in 1908. He came here in 1909 and was quite impressed. Jones persuaded friends and relatives from Texas and Tennessee to join him here, in the area known as the "Apopka Sawgrass". His enthusiasm earned him the nickname "Sawgrass".
Arthur King followed Jones' advice and in December of 1909, bought ten acres of recently drained marshland for $1,000. Jones Vincent came here from Texas in 1911 to grow vegetables, but would wind up raising ferns.
On December 1, 1911, a Pullman car full of "agricultural pilgrims" arrived, and another train with livestock and equipment came the next day. All except for King avoided the muck, trying oranges and other ventures.
In 1914, King gave up the battle of fighting unpredictiable cold and water on his land, and moved to higher sandy soil to attempt to raise citrus. By 1917, the few remeining farmers reached the same conclusion, abandoning their farms and allowing Lake Apopka to flow back over the land.
Zellwood Florida Farms obtained permission to lower the level of Lake Apopka. In May of 1915, 135 truck farmers met at Tildenville on the south end of the lake to try and stop the project.
Orlando attorney Leroy B. Giles and L.W. Tilden were successful in having legislation adopted which prohibited private parties from lowering the level of any body of water with an area of more than two square miles, without the consent of all surrounding landowners. Unfortunately for the farmers on the south shore, it was determined that the lowering proposed by Zellwood Florida Farms would not be affected by the legislation, since it wouldn't bring Lake Apopka below its "low water mark" of 62 feet.
Zellwood Florida Farms built the 45-room Holly Arms Hotel on the edge of the sawgrass, which opened for business in 1916. It advertised "steam heat and modern conveniences".
Orlando H. Carl Dann developed 61 real estate projects between 1910 and 1930. He built suburban housing, country clubs, hotels, but was a large failure in Zellwood. He proposed to develop the state's largest concentration of mucklands outside the Everglades, namely this area north of Lake Apopka.
Dann had DeLuxe Bus Lines of Orlando bring people on a new route to the Holly Arms Hotel and Zellwood, where he proposed to grow potatoes, which were in short supply at the beginning of World War I. Tracts were sold, potatoes were planted and, although they grew, they rotted as soon as they were gathered, probably because of a lack of potash and phosphate in the muck.
After 1918, the Zellwood Farms land was abandoned. In about 1920, Richard Whitney bought the bankrupt Zellwood Farms Company. A five-term president of the New York Stock Exchange, Whitney formed the Alpha Peat Company in 1922 to harvest and sell peat. He renamed it the Florida Humus Company in 1925. A 1926 hurricane put the area under six to eight feet of water.
In 1935, Whitney pleaded guilty to extensive embezzlement and was imprisoned. The company barely survived. Zellwin Farms Co. now cultivates the property.
This road is named for Pittsburgh steel magnate James Laughlin, Jr., who made his home north of Lake Maggiore in Zellwood.
TANGERINE
Raymond J. Wright came here in 1878 from Port Huron, Michigan, in search of a healthful climate. He bought over 100 acres here north of Lake Ola, setting out about ten for an orange grove with the help of Holland Williams. His son, W.G. Wright, drew the early maps of the region.
For obvious reasons, this house, built in 1884, is known as "Seven Chimneys".
George H. Wood homesteaded near here and named his property "Deer Park" in 1882. He bought this land from Raymond J. Wright and built his home here at the center of town in 1884, at the location later known as Woodlawn Villa. At a prayer meeting in his home in 1886, plans were laid for the organization of a congregational church.
Clarence Estey arrived in Tangerine in 1919, and became the storekeeper and postmaster. In 1920, he married Winifred Wood and they made Woodlawn Villa their home.
William H. Earl donated the land on which this hall sits. Its first name was Tangerine Hall, later changed to Tangerine Community Hall, and then to Johnston Hall.
After the 1894-95 freezes, Earl not only restored his groves, but also bought groves from others anxious to be rid of them. By 1904, he owned seven groves on the east side of Lake Ola.
The Tangerine Improvement Society was founded on April 3, 1909, for the general improvement of the town. They hold their meetings in the present building.
This church was organized on May 4, 1886, as the Union Church of Christ in Tangerine. Shortly thereafter, the name was changed to the Congregational Church of Christ. The charter members were Thomas Jewett, Mr. and Mrs. George H. Wood, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph W. Leland, Rev. and Mrs. G.B. Sperry, and Mrs. R.J. Wright. Thomas Jewett and George H. Wood were its first deacons.
The church building was begun in 1886 and completed in 1887. The Sunday school was organized that same year. Mrs. George Wood organized the Ladies Aid Society in 1913. In the late 1940s, the name was changed to the Tangerine Community Church.
Lewis Marot came here with his brother Henry in 1879 from St. Louis with a covered wagon and a pair of mules. He set up business in Tangerine's first store, built by Holland Williams at this location. Initially, his supplies came by ox cart driven by Williams from Ft. Mason on the north side of Lake Eustis.
Then, on a weekly basis, Marot drove his mules and wagon to the nearest store - in Mellonville 25 miles away - to bring supplies and mail back to the village. Marot was the first storekeeper and served as the community's first postmaster.
Marot moved to the community of McDonald to the south, where he was later bludgeoned to death with an axe. The store was taken over by Charles Newell. The store finally closed in 1970.
Prior to the Wauchusett House becoming the center of social activities for the town, Marot Hall located just south of the store hosted most community activities.
On October 18, 1885, Rev. Perrin B. Fisk of Waitsfield, Vermont, preached the village's first sermon there. He was the Home Missionary Societies' appointed minister to the Congregational Church in Mount Dora, and was asked to continue holding services here.
In the beginning, the nearest post office was in Mellonville, 25 miles away. The mail was brought to Tangerine on horseback, until Lewis Marot began his weekly trips there by mule and wagon. Marot served as postmaster from 1879 to 1902.
He was followed by John L. Stewart (1902-13), Mrs. William Layton (1913-19), Clarence H. Estey (1919-33), John W. Jepson (1933-37), and Ward S. Estey, who took over in 1937. In 1946, Estey built a new post office at this site.
In 1883, J.M. Bourland built the Bourland House here, Tangerine's first hotel. The name was soon changed to the Acme Hotel, operated by Mr. Reddick. It was then bought by William H. Earl of Worcester, Massachusetts, who in 1884 renamed it the Wauchusett House. It burned down in June of 1888 along with three other homes, in a fire that began in A.C. Bennett's barn, and was rebuilt. For a time, it was also called the Lake Ola Lodge.
The hotel was the social center of the town. It hosted various groups, such as the Saturday Afternoon Leisure Club and the Literary Society, who met there weekly.
Dr. Benedict Lust bought it in 1913, and opened it the following year as a sanitarium named Jungborn of Tangerine. It was also known as Qui-Si Sana, meaning "to be young again". In 1927, while known as the Naturpath Sanitarium, it was considered to be one of Florida's leading health resorts.
Dr. Lust, who had arrived here from Germany, retained his loyalty to his native country during World War II. On the property was a tall tree in which he had installed a radio transmitter, and he used it to communicate with German submarines in the Atlantic Ocean until the federal government discovered it and put a stop to it. The sanitarium burned down in 1943.
The name of this lake supposedly comes from the daughter of an Indian chief who had camped here years before the coming of white settlers. The first name given to the village in the 1870s was Olaville.
ASTATULA
Near the southwest corner of this cemetery are the graves of the Hux family. T.A. Hux was the first settler here, arriving in 1872. He raised sugar cane, cotton, oranges and cattle.
This town was founded in 1882 with the name of Astabula, but the post office changed the spelling in 1884 to Astatula. By 1887, it grew to a population of 100.
FERNDALE
Ferndale is an unincorporated community, largely depending on agriculture.
MONTVERDE
This town was settled in about 1885. In its early days, it was known mostly for its grapes and parsley. Cyrus T. Lowry ran a steamboat from Montverde to Oakland, giving it a link with Orlando. It was incorporated in 1924 with W.D. Walker as its mayor.
The most well-known institution in town is the Montverde Academy, founded in 1912 by Dr. H.P. Carpenter as the Montverde Industrial School. He came from the Epworth School at Enterprise to teach boys and girls in the industrial, trade and preparatory areas. J.P. Donnelly, an important figure in the history of Mount Dora, donated money for the manual training building which was named in his honor. You will notice it on your left.
Boone's Florida Historical Markers & Sites, by Floyd Edward Boone (Rainbow Books 1988)
Early Settlers of Orange County, Florida, by C.E. Howard (1915)
Finding the Red Brick Road, by Toni Christian (Times Printing Service 1986)
Flashbacks: The Story of Central Florida's Past, by Jim Robison and Mark Andrews (The Orlando Sentinel 1995)
Florida: A Short History, by Michael Gannon (University Press of Florida 1993)
Florida Historic Homes, by Laura Stewart and Susanne Hupp (Sentinel Communications Company 1988)
Florida's Fabled Inns, by Louise K. Frisbie (Imperial Publishing Company 1980)
Full Steam Ahead!, by Albert Parry (Great Outdoors Publishing Company 1987)
The History of Apopka, by Ralph G. Grassfield (Apopka Printing Company 1926)
History of Apopka and Northwest Orange County, Florida, by Jerrell H. Shofner (Rose Printing Company, Inc. 1982)
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 (Orange County Retired Educators Association 1990)
History of the Zellwood United Methodist Church, (Zellwood United Methodist Church 1996)
Lake County, Florida: A Pictorial History, by Emmett Peter, Jr. (The Donning Company 1994)
Memories of Mount Dora and Lake County, by David Edgerton (1983)
Oakland: The Early Years, by Eve Bacon (The Mickler House 1974)
Orlando: The City Beautiful, by Jerrell H. Shofner (Continental Heritage Press 1984)
Pictorial History of Florida, by Richard J. Bowe (1970)
Tangerine Memoirs, by Winifred W. Estey (The Tangerine Improvement Society 1957)
Webb's Historical, Industrial and Biographical Florida, by Wanton S. Webb (W.S. Webb & Co. 1885)