City of Winter Park history

1883 – A telegraph office opens at the train depot on Jan.

The opportunity came in 1884, when the General Congregational Association of Florida met, prophetically, in Winter Park.

1885 – The Florida Congregational Association in late April chooses Winter Park as the site of what will be Florida’s first four-year college, based on residents’ generous pledges of funds and land.

1886 – The Seminole Hotel opens on New Year’s night.

Chartered in 1887, the City was developed as a winter resort for wealthy Northerners seeking refuge from the harsh winters and a tranquil place to live.

1889 – President Grover Cleveland visits Winter Park and stays at the Seminole Hotel.

1890 – President Benjamin Harrison and his wife also stay at the Seminole, coming to town on a private railroad car. (Two years later, Florida is the only state in which Harrison’s Republican presidential ticket does not appear on the ballot.) Knowles Public School opens in February.

1891 – The Henkel Block opens on Park Avenue with five stores, a boarding house and a doctor’s office.

Fifteen street lamps, fueled by oil, are placed downtown.1893 – Residents circulate a petition seeking to change the town limits, cutting out the predominantly black Hannibal Square area.

1894 – Sandspur, a weekly newspaper published by students at Rollins College, makes its debut.

He is paid $35 a month.1896 – A clay road is built between Orlando and Winter Park.

On March 17, 1898 the first murder occurred in Winter Park.

About 1900, Allan Mosely, a caretaker in Winter Park, may have obtained budwood from one of those friends, J. H. King.

The small collection of books was placed in the home of a reading circle member until the library got its own facility, on an Interlachen Avenue site donated by the Knowles estate, in 1902.

1903 – Animals are doing a lot of damage, so five-day permits are issued to kill squirrels and destructive birds.

In 1904 Morse formed the Winter Park Company, successor to the insolvent Winter Park Land Company, and bought the Knowles estate’s vast holdings for roughly $10,000, the equivalent of about $250,000 today.

1905 – The Travelers Insurance Company asks town officials to protect their property from damage by hogs running wild inside the town.

In 1906 Morse deeded the land that is now Central Park to the town, but only so long as it was open to the public and not developed.

In 1908, Jerry and Mary Trovillion and their 16-year-old son, Ray, arrived in Winter Park from Harrisburg, Ill., where Jerry, a medical doctor, had operated a sanitorium.

1909 – A $3,000 bond issue for street improvements is made.

Morse, who married a socially prominent New York widow named Helen Strong Pifford in 1910, also donated an Interlachen Avenue site on which the Woman’s Club of Winter Park built its headquarters.

In 1912, a second Seminole Hotel was built at the foot of Webster Avenue.

In 1913, phone rates were $1 per month and there were a total of 35 operating telephones in Winter Park and Maitland.

He funded numerous civic improvements out of his own pocket, anonymously paying for construction of a town hall in 1916 and for years routinely covering operating deficits as a member of the Rollins Board of Trustees.

During the late 1920’s, the first patrolman and motorcycle officer were hired starting the Patrol and Traffic divisions.

In 1921, the Pioneer Store was bought by Girard Denning, a former mayor, postmaster and fire chief.

Mediterranean Revival-style Winter Park High School, “the most complete and architecturally perfect school buildings to be found anywhere in the state, according to an article in Winter Park Post, was built in 1923 on Huntington Avenue.

Incorporated in 1925, the City of Winter Park is governed by four City Commissioners and a Mayor, all elected at-large for three-year terms.

In 1926, Holt created the Animated Magazine, a live program in a magazine format that brought speakers on a variety of topics to the college every February.

In 1932, the city defaulted on $134,000 in bonds and interest, slashing its budget to remain solvent.

Many of them saw the latest movies at the 850-seat Colony Theater, which opened on Park Avenue in 1940.

In 1950, renowned Czech-American sculptor Albin Polasek arrived in Winter Park to visit Ruth Sherwood, a student he had befriended while heading the sculpture department at the Chicago Institute of Art.

One of the most significant milestones in the city’s history occurred in 1955 with the opening of the Winter Park Memorial Hospital, built on a portion of the long-defunct Aloma Country Club golf course.

In 1956, Robert Langford opened the thoroughly modern Langford Hotel on East New England Avenue, giving Winter Park its first resort-style getaway.

Since 1957, The Winter Park Police Department has had their own dispatchers.

Winter Park voters strongly rejected the proposed route in a 1958 referendum, much to the consternation of some Orlando movers and shakers, such as William H. “Billy” Dial, executive vice president of First National Bank and a major proponent of the route.

In the 1960’s the Winter Park Police Department saw several changes.

In 1962, the former police headquarters was constructed.

The final Winter Park landing took place in 1963 and real estate developers bought the airpark property, which today encompasses the Winter Park Village Apartments and much of the Winter Park Pines subdivision.

When the Winter Park Mall opened in 1964, it was the largest climate-controlled mall in the Southeast.

And in 1970 about 200 Rollins students protested the war in Vietnam by marching from the campus to the McCarty State Office Building, where the Selective Service offices were located.

The Proctor Shops were sold in 1972 and later became Jacobson’s, a popular department store.

In 1975 The SWAT Team was formed.

In a 1978 interview with the Winter Park Sun-Herald, the 86-year-old raconteur recalled running afoul of the law by playing horseshoes with friends near the railroad depot.

The Neighborhood and Business Watch Programs began in 1980.

The Winter Park sinkhole, located west of Denning Drive and north of Fairbanks Avenue, nearly swallowed an entire city block-including automobiles and a house in 1981.

In 1986, a memorial was erected in Central Park commemorating Morse’s contributions.

The expanded Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art, which houses the most comprehensive collection of Tiffany art in the world, opened in July 1995.

(As recorded by Claire Leavitt MacDowell in her book “Chronological History of Winter Park” and reprinted in “The Orlando Sentinel” – 6/29/1997, 7/6/1997)

In 2003, a new Public Safety Building had its grand opening.

The future of the festival was in doubt until John Tiedtke, a Rollins professor and the first dean of the college’s graduate programs, stepped in to serve as chairman of the Board of Trustees, a position he held until his death in 2004.

In 2007, the Hannibal Square Heritage Center opened to honor the history and culture of the neighborhood, where the business district has been redeveloped to encompass trendy restaurants and upscale boutiques.

And in 2011 the entire Downtown Winter Park Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

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