Historic Winter Park, FL

Today Winter Park is one of the wealthiest cities in Florida. The estimated household income in 2008 was $60,053.00. The estimated median house or condo value in 2008 was $453,797.000. This just maybe what Loring Augusta Chase pictured when he arrived from Chicago, IL in 1881. Many of the first historical houses can be seen on walking tours.

Chase was a northerner, born in New Hampshire, and raised in Canton, Massachusetts. Chase joined a Massachusetts regiment at the beginning of the Civil War. It was after his military discharge that he moved to Chicago, where worked as a real estate broker and other jobs. Loring Chase health was failing in 1880 and on medical advice he ventured south in 1881.

Oliver Everett Chapman was Loring’s childhood friend from Massachusetts. When Chase arrived in Florida in 1881, the two men brought three homesteads amounting to 600 acres between Lakes Maitland and Osceola. The two men planned to build a residential community of winter vacation homes for rich northerners. The name derived because of the vision the men had of a park setting enrich to enjoy the winters. Since it was to be a winter community – Winter Park was conceived.

Chapman’s first house was built in 1882 at 420 Interlachen Avenue on Lake Osceola. From 1881-1885, the Chapman-Chase partnership escalated until Chapman sold his interest to Chase for approximately $40,000. He moved west. Today the 20 room Chapman Cottage is known as the Haskell Estate.

William Charles Comstock’s first visit to Osceola before it was renamed Winter Park was in 1876. He came from Chicago where he was president of the Chicago Board of Trade. He built his winter house Eastbank in 1883 near Lake Osceola. He was active in the directorship of the Winter Park Company, serving as a charter trustee of Rollins College, and acting as an early supporter of the Winter Park Public Library. The library celebrated 125 years from 1885-2010.

Alonzo W. Rollins was the head of A.W. Rollins Company based in Chicago. He was born in Maine. For health reasons like Chase, he spent his winters in Winter Park. He was in the group of first people to buy land along Lake Osceola. He gave a cash donation of $50,000 and real estate to establish the college that was started 125 years ago and carries his name.

Franklin D. Roosevelt visited Winter Park in March 1936. He was conferred an honorary degree in literature at Rollins College. Rollins College is located at 1000 Holt Avenue, Winter Park, FL. In 1885 Winter Park was officially chosen as founding place for Congregational Church’s college in Florida. Today Rollins College ranks number one for the sixth consecutive year amid 118 regional universities in the South in the annual standing of “America’s Best Colleges,” published by U.S. News & World Report . Before Rollins has ranked second among regional universities in the South and first in Florida for 10 consecutive years prior. Rollins is one of the nation's 50 "Best Value" private colleges and universities, according to The Princeton Review . The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has selected Rollins as one of the recipients for the 2008 Community Engagement Classification. In 2009, the Fulbright Program recognized Rollins as the top-producing master’s institution in the nation (based on Carnegie Classification).

Rollins College is a nonsectarian, independent, and co- educational college. The 70-acre campus college is located on the shores of beautiful Lake Virginia. The Winter Park Institute at 231 Interlachen Avenue, Winter Park, FL 32789 began its inaugural year 2008-09 as a center for intellectual commitment at Rollins College and its surrounding community. In the course of public lectures and readings, symposiums, seminars, master classes, interviews, and special-interest sessions the Institute brings together thought leaders from a extensive gamut of disciplines and expertise. This intellectual exchange is intended to foster enlightened and on-going conversation at the academy and to boost the mission of developing a liberally educated citizenry. Office Hours areMonday – Friday, 8:30 AM - 5 PM. Contact information: Office: 407-691-1995, Fax: 407-622-7486, E-mail: winterparkinstitute@rollins.edu.

One of the many historical houses in Winter Park, Casa Feliz (Happy House) is the magnificently restored Spanish Farmhouse designed by highly praised architect James Gamble Rogers II, overlooking the golf course in the heart of Winter Park. The exterior of the house features textures of unique Spanish roof tiles and whitewashed century-old bricks. There is a turret, a bell tower and a heavy timber balcony detailed in colors of the Mediterranean. Green landscaping - courtyards and sweeping oaks, and native plants contained by ancient clay amphora. Casa Feliz once located at 656 North Interlachen Avenue bordering Lake Osceola.

The interiors have been skillfully refurbished to their original grandeur. The luxury fine points of the house - the living room's vaulted ceiling of immense hand-hewn beams; the a great deal of carved European antiques accenting each room; a Majolica-tiled interior courtyard and fountain; arched doorways and a circular staircase - combine for a setting at once calming and spectacular.

The areas of the house open to the public are the living and dining rooms, library, courtyards and detached garden room. The farmhouse is located at 656 Park Avenue North, Winter Park, Florida. The"Music at the Casa" has a Sunday Open House 12-3. The farmhouse is open for self-guided toursTuesday and Thursday 10-12.

The 125 year old Winter Park Public Library is located at 460 E. New England Ave, Winter Park, FL 32789, (407) 623-3300. Winter Park History and Archives Collection were established through the generosity of local historian Eve Bacon. The Special Collections On Loan include:

• Daughters of the American Revolution Scrapbooks documenting the activities of the William P. Duval Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution from1970-1990.
• A part of the Albin Polasek Museum Archives is housed in the Winter Park History and Archives Collection. The Archives include photographs, books, letters, news clippings, and pamphlets associated with the life and work of sculptor Albin Polasek (1879 - 1965). Admission to see the Archives has to be arranged with Polasek Museum manager, who can be reached at (407) 647-6294.
• Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival Scrapbooks are for scrapbooks compiled by the Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival. These scrapbooks document this occasion which started in 1961 and occurs annually in March. They are available for public use but it is necessary to make prior arrangements with the Winter Park History and Archives Collection archivist.
•  Collections can be accessed online at online collections.

The Sinkhole at Winter Park (1981) formed catastrophically in the time span of one day. The city of Winter Park stabilized and sealed the sinkhole, converting it into an urban lake. These features occur in what is known as karst topography. Video tape tell the whole story - from beginning to what we hope is the end!