Visual Ephemera

Remembering the Senator

2012-02-10T06:43:00.000-05:00

The January loss of Central Florida's 3,500 year old cypress tree known as the Senator was devastating for lovers of the record-setting tree. The outpouring of sadness from the community was tremendous and the story made the national news and the New York Times. I had no idea that folks cared so much for this behemoth that was already enormous 1,500 years before the birth of Christ. For me it showed that despite the actions of our state and local government, who seem to bend over backwards to allow developers to pave over the state's natural areas, people living here actually do care about the environment. So I found good in the disaster.

The tree, however, is a total loss, and Big Tree Park still remains closed. To honor the beloved tree, I created poster artwork and uploaded it to the Imagekind site to allow people to have a reminder of the great tree. A portion of the proceeds of any sale will be donated to the Friends of the Wekiva River, an organization that works to protect, preserve, and restore the natural functions and beauty of the Wekiva River here in Central Florida. The Wekiva is one of the areas last havens of wildness, and the pressures of development put its natural systems under great stress. In my opinion, it is our responsibility to maintain areas like this for future generations to enjoy.

Now a little about the poster. Based on an image I took of the Senator a few years ago, the piece is designed to look like a vintage travel poster that might have promoted the tree as an attraction around the turn of the century. The letters in the word "Senator" were hand-rendered, based on a vintage font found in a type specimen book. I used to do quite a bit of that in the days before computers. I then scanned in the artwork and re-drew it on the computer in Adobe Illustrator. Other archival elements like banners and corner elements were scanned in from different sources, to create this poster that celebrates the long period of time visitors have been drawn to this wonderful tree.

In addition to making me realize how much people really cared about the tree, the loss motivated me to get out and see some of the places right in my own backyard that I've taken for granted. I thought a tree that stood for 35 centuries would always be there. You never know when that place you've always intended to visit won't be around any more.

Central Florida's shrine to the Tupperware party

2012-02-09T22:10:00.004-05:00

Earl Tupper invented Tupperware, but Brownie Wise brought them to Florida. Wise, a single mom in 1949, moved to Miami at her doctor's advice to help her sick son. Before she moved to South Florida, she sold Stanley Home Products (including Tupperware) through home parties in Detroit. Earl Tupper's innovative plastic containers were slow to move off department store shelves, so when Wise contacted him about a late order, he invited her to meet him and hired her immediately. The company was divided into two parts, the manufacturing division in New England, and Tupperware Home Parties, led by Wise in Florida.

Tupperware's inventor, Earl Tupper

April 1954 issue of Business Week with Brownie Wise on the cover

After a year spent in an airplane hanger in Orlando, Tupperware headquarters opened in 1953 on 1,000 acres in Osceola County next to Gatorland. According to Bob Kealing author of "Tupperware Unsealed: Brownie Wise, Earl Tupper, and the Home Party Pioneers", Wise had a vision for Central Florida, years ahead of Walt Disney, claiming she "really struck on the idea of creating Orlando as a tourism destination, . . . on this idea of Florida as this glamorous place." The Central Florida site became the place where Tupperware sales people could visit for training and was home to the Jubilee, an annual sales convention and celebration.

Vintage postcards of Tupperware World Headquarters

According to "Flashbacks: The Story of Central Florida's Past", Osceola County of the 1950s was "run by a tight group of cattleman and citrus men, wary of outsiders," but Wise soon won them over. In the early 1960s Tupperware built a state-of-the-art auditorium on their property to hold the Jubilee celebrations, and when I moved to Orlando it was still a widely used concert venue (I've seen everything from a lecture by Marianne Williamson to a concert by Willie Nelson there.) Today the 2,000 seat auditorium is called the Osceola Performing Arts Center and it is home to the Osceola School for the Arts.

Wise's home party direct sales tactics were ideal for Tupperware, as party hosts explained Tupper's patented "burping seal" to intrigued housewives. As a result both Tupperware and Wise had meteoric rises in popularity. The first woman to grace the cover of Business Week magazine, Wise became the role model for her mostly female sales force. Eventually, however, the relationship between Wise and Tupper soured and Wise left the company in 1958 shortly before Tupper sold it. Wise started three Mary Kay-like direct sales cosmetic companies that all ended in failure, and Wise passed away in 1992 in Kissimmee.

Images promoting a space-themed Jubilee in 1960. Apparently the rockets
were painted pastel colors matching Tupperware products. From the State Archives of Florida

Brownie Wise's legacy lives on at Tupperware World headquarters, with a new exhibit about the history of the Tupperware brand called the Confidence Center. From an original molding machine used to manufacture early bowls, to keepsake collectible Tupperware "Tiny Treasures", this well-designed space traces the evolution of the brand that is now known world-wide. This compact space showcases the development of Tupperware products, themes of past Jubilees and most importantly the international sales force that continues to use Wise's Tupperware party sales methods today. A quote from Wise in the exhibit puts it this way: "If we build the people, they'll build the business."

To learn more about the free exhibit, visit this companion Retro Roadmap blog.

Old Florida meets Old World at Chalet Suzanne

2012-02-03T08:15:00.001-05:00

Chalet Suzanne is a legendary Florida venue, and had been high at the top of my "must see" list for some time. I finally scratched that itch on Christmas Eve, driving to the Lake Wales destination for a delicious lunch.

Part of the charm of Chalet Suzanne is that it is still a family run business, owned and operated by the descendants of the Bertha Hinshaw who opened the Chalet for business in 1931. Four generations later the Inn and Restaurant are still going strong. Matriarch Bertha, who suddenly found herself a widow in the Great Depression, started the business as as Suzanne's Chalet and was aided by favorable reviews by in travel guides written by Duncan Hines. The business thrived until it burned down during World War II. It was re-built after the war using outbuildings on the property, a fact that might explain the unusual layout of the restaurant. Today the spaces are unique and cozy and the decor is an eclectic blend of Old Florida simplicity and European excess. Stained glass windows compliment Pecky cypress paneling and many of the floors slope from age. It's a wonderful collection of quirky spaces and the bar is incredibly charming. The dining room we were seated in overlooks a small lake and it was full of multi-generational diners full of the holiday spirit. The highlight of my meal was the Lobster Bisque, as soups are the specialty of the house.

My overall impression of the Chalet Suzanne is that it is a hidden gem. Once ideally located between the Polk County tourist destinations of Cypress Gardens and Bok Tower, it is off the beaten path today. The sprawling complex of unique rooms is a popular wedding destination and I'd love to stay in the Inn sometime and could enjoy the funky little bar! If you haven't been, I'd urge a visit, because spots like this are few and far between in Florida these days.

Vintage postcards from the State Archives of Florida

Gift shop and offices for the Inn

The rooms look to be cozy and full of vintage charm

A small airstrip adjacent to the property has skydiving facilities

The soup cannery has tastings where one can try the famous Moon Soup,
Chalet Suzanne's signature item.

The bar is easily one of the most interesting spaces I've seen in Central Florida
– I hope to return soon to give it a try!

Old Florida gourmet at the Redwing Restaurant

2012-01-28T07:52:00.001-05:00

I've entertained several out of town visitors lately and it is always a struggle to think of good local restaurants with history and character. The transient nature of Central Florida seems to spread to its eateries, and few restaurants seem to endure for long periods of time. One notable exception is in tiny Groveland, located west of Orlando on Highway 50.

The Redwing Restaurant, which originated as someones' house, opened for guests as a restaurant in 1948. Back then it would have been surrounded by citrus groves and one can see a smattering of orange trees today on the way to this modest looking establishment. The bar is directly opposite the front door and the small paneled room is filled with taxidermy. Flanking the bar are two rooms, the "Pheasant Room" to the left and the "Boar Room" to the right, named after the stuffed critters that dominate each space. According to their website, the place has the feel of an "old hunting lodge."

On both my visits I sat in a booth in the room with the bar, the best place to see all the action. According to our waitress, the majority of their clientele are locals with the smattering of snowbirds and motorcyclists (who usually visit on Sundays.) The specials are written on a white dry erase board and they feature items like the Southernly Salad (Caesar Salad with fried green tomatoes), a Catfish Po Boy, and something called a Redneck Guido (basically an Italian sub.) I recommend trying the Fried Green Tomatoes, and I highly recommend the Fried Dill Pickles. On my most recent visit I had the crab cake sandwich which was good with Remoulade sauce on a sourdough bun. The apple cobbler was incredible, so I'd save room for dessert too.

Next door is a petting zoo, with turkeys, pigs, chickens, donkeys and goats, so it makes a good place to visit with kids. On weekends they have live music in a screened area in the back. The thing I like best about this place is that it has an earnestness and unpretentiousness to it that is rare these days in Central Florida. It's real down-to-earth and mighty tasty. Two thumbs up from Visual Ephemera!

Happy Chinese New Year!

2012-01-23T19:57:00.002-05:00

I had to go to bank at lunch today, so I went to the nearby Mills/50 District in Orlando, (formerly known as the ViMi District for Vietnamese on Mills), to observe the Chinese New Years celebration. According to Wikipedia, it is the most important traditional Chinese holiday and this year is the year of the dragon. My Chinese zodiac sign is the dragon and 12 years ago during the last year of the dragon, I successfully launched my business.

The celebration I witnessed went from business to business in the Vietnamese district, with a team of gong-bangers, drummers and martial artists. The performers made the dragon dance and the ornate cyan-colored serpent entered each business as the percussionists performed outside. A small crowd gathered for each performance, including beautiful little Asian children dressed up for this special occasion. When the dragon came out of the business it "ate" a piece of lettuce or cabbage that was hung from the store's entrance and the dancer working the front of the dragon lit a long string of firecrackers. The performers all wore ear plugs and had surgical masks because the smoke and noise from the fireworks was overwhelming.

People who only know Orlando by its theme parks would be surprised at how multicultural it actually is. I don't often get to take part in wonderful rituals such as this and I'm glad I did. Perhaps this will be another lucky year of the dragon...

Facing my fears in St. Cloud

2012-01-20T17:15:00.001-05:00

In my dreams the snake is right beneath my feet and I leap to avoid it – clinging to every ounce of anti-gravity I can muster – knowing that when I come down I'm likely to be snake bit. I trace the dream back to my childhood, when I was running carefree through the grounds of Riverbend Condominium in Welaka Florida and came face-to-face with a coiled up Water Moccasin at the base of a palm tree. I still feel a knot in my belly when I think of it today and even though the manger of the complex got his gun and shot the varmint, the snake's ghost still haunts my nightmares.

So when a friend from the SCA read the review of Reptile World on his smart phone, I was less than thrilled. I knew about the 40-year old attraction but had intentionally blocked it out of my mind. Eventually my love for old Florida roadside attractions overpowered my fears and I entered the gift shop. Right away I was confronted with snakes and snake paraphernalia, but I did not waver. As luck would have it we arrived just minutes before the 3 pm snake-milking demonstration and folks were already crowding the space to watch the show. "The most interesting man in the world" started the show by talking about the venom extraction process, the dangers of coral snakes, and how anti-venoms are made. Behind a a barrier of plate glass, he and his wife brought out one snake at a time from what looked like a Tupperware drawer and dropped them on the counter so we could see them before they were milked. Thick cottonmouths were followed by tiny coral snakes then noisy rattlers and finally huge cobras. I must say I found the whole production to be quite entertaining and if I'm going to observe snakes I prefer it to be on the other side of a big glass window.

Owner George Van Horn preps the audience

This Cottonmouth slipped of the table causing me to make sure there were no snake-sized holes in the wall between us

Van Horn and his assistant (wife?) worked in a very precise, businesslike fashion.

This stunning cobra closed the show - it was so long it barely fit back into its drawer

In addition to the snake-milking show, there is a turtle pond, a couple of large alligators, some tropical birds and a gallery of 50 or so varieties of snakes. It doesn't take long to see the place, but I noticed in myself a shift in my consciousness, that I found a beauty in these serpentine creatures I had never allowed myself to notice before. The way they move, their variety and texture and patterns of their skins are wonderfully displayed in this L-shaped room full of snakes. I was very cautious, however, when my friend warned me that one of the cobras was violently attacking the glass. I made sure to give that exhibit some distance, as I wasn't quite ready for my newly-acquired balloon of fearlessness to burst.

Central Florida's oldest attraction burns down

2012-01-16T20:14:00.005-05:00

At 3,500 years old there is no doubt which Central Florida attraction held the claim to be the area's oldest. Centuries before Europeans ever set foot in Florida, the Cypress tree known as the Senator was already a giant. A tourist draw in the early 20th century, the grand tree's park was dedicated by Calvin Coolidge and improved with boardwalks during the days of the WPA.

Early this morning firefighters rushed to the park to find the massive old tree turned into a chimney, burning from the inside out. A smoking stump is all that remains. I have nothing but sadness for the loss of this wonderous behemoth.

Photos from my only visit to Big Tree Park in August of 2009.

(Images of the tree on fire taken from Orlando Sentinel video)

Visual Ephemera's Most Threatened Sites for 2012

2012-01-13T07:36:00.005-05:00

The Florida Trust for Historic Preservation is publishing their call for the 11 most threatened historical places in Florida, so I thought I'd come with my own. Introducing the Visual Ephemera Top 12 Threatened Places in Florida. To qualify it has to be a subject I've blogged about, or at least closely related. Drum roll please....

12. McNamera Pontiac Sign(s), Orlando

I've blogged about vintage stuff in my town before and this is one of our best neon signs. There is also a great service sign around the corner. This dealership has been vacant for quite some time now and I see these signs ending up in someone's collection...

11. Firestone in St. Augustine

Every time we return to see the nation's oldest city, I am surprised to see this mid-century dealership still hanging in there, as it is prime real estate. It would be fun to see it re-purposed into something cool, but that seems unlikely.

10. Wreck Bar

A certain mermaid has been working hard to keep the Wreck Ba r relevant while the Sheraton chain considers remodeling. One of the few porthole bars left in this country, it would be a shame to lose.

9. Tomoka State Park sculpture

Created by renown artist Frederick Dana Marsh, this monumental sculpture needs some loving in a big way. With our underfunded State Parks as caretakers, I don't see it happening soon.

8. Orange City Historic District

Historic District advocate Dallas Wittgenfeld says "most historically significant houses in Orange City are going to be demolished soon and right across the street from our historic founding hotel. Very sad."

7. The Marion S. Whaley Citrus Packing House, Rockledge

Despite being on the National Register of Historic Places, this future looks grim for this complex on US 1.

6. Bob White Citrus Packing Plant, De Leon Springs

What does one do with an old citrus processing facility? This complex of buildings on US 17 continues to deteriorate.

5. Glen Springs pool, Gainesville

Three Elks club members are doing all that they can, but without some help, the pool will eventually start to cave in.

4. Lake Worth Shuffleboard Courts

See previous post. The meeting to determine the future of the courts is later this month.

3. North Florida lakes

Drought+overuse of the aquifer=dry lakes. Livelihoods are being destroyed as it is difficult to fish where there is no water.

2. Florida Springs

Artist Margaret Tolbert says "although flow in the Itchetucknee has declined 15 percent, and White Springs, Nassau County no longer flows, it has scarcely excited notice..." in her book "Aquiferous". The quality and quantit y of the water is at big risk, and the current political climate has made their preservation even more perilous.

1. Belleview Biltmore

The real reason for this post. I've blogged about Henry Plant's Tampa Hotel and the PICO building but never actually seen his former Hotel Belleview near Clearwater. Florida's last operating grand wooden hotel, the city of Bellair meets to consider a demolition permit next week. Want to help try to preserve it? Send an email to: the Mayor and commissioners: gkatica@townofbelleair.net, sfowler@townofbelleair.net, tshelly@townofbelleair.net, kpiccarreto@townofbelleair.net, mwilkinson@townofbelleair.net

Is Shuffleboard Worth Preserving?

2012-01-07T08:40:00.003-05:00

In my own personal quest for the Fountain of Youth, I purchased a vintage magazine ad on eBay recently showing Ponce de Leon being pursued by an overzealous insurance salesman. The briefcase-toting MONY executive attempts to sell a retirement plan to the Spanish explorer by pitching the quintessential Florida senior lifestyle: "Think of those carefree, sun-filled hours in Miami Beach or St. Petersburg ... Bocci, shuffleboard, canasta." Juan Ponce, running away from the salesman yells back "Who needs to prepare for retirement when he can expect eternal youth? Shuffleboard, indeed! Not for Ponce de Leon! I'm taking up football!"

This ad sums up the perception and reality of shuffleboard in Florida: it's a game played by retirees with nothing better to do than push a plastic disk back and forth on a cement court. Throughout the 20th century as more senior citizens retired to the sunshine state for a lifestyle of leisure, one of the primary amenities communities offered them was shuffleboard. And for the senior population of Florida, the game is still very much alive. Also this week, I got my hands on a copy of the Florida Shuffleboard Association's guidebook, and the organization, in its 84th year, seems to be going strong.

Yet all over Florida I see neglected shuffleboard courts covered with leaves and weeds, never being utilized. In Orlando there are beautiful courts at the Marks Street Senior Center that I've never seen used. My assumption is that snowbirds and retirees remain committed to the game, the overall numbers are diminishing as younger generations find other leisure activities more appealing. Two good examples are the KAST club, who's number fell so low that the City of Kissimmee had no problem demolishing their courts to build a picnic pavilion, and the St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club, at one time the world's largest, whose numbers dwindled below a hundred until its recent renaissance.

Neglected courts in a city park in Green Cove Springs, Florida

Neglected courts at a city park in DeLand, Florida

Neglected courts at a city park in Keystone Heights, Florida

A similar situation is playing out in Lake Worth Florida. After offering municipal courts to shufflers for 80 years, the city closed it courts last year and the 100 member strong Lake Worth Shuffleboard Club was forced to play at Boynton Beach. Despite hosting four tournaments a year, the number of shufflers had gotten so low, that city is considering demolishing the courts to create green space, according to an article published last year in the Sun Sentinel. According to one source, the Lake Worth club was so irritated at their treatment from the city, they wouldn't consider returning even if the 28 courts were preserved.

The large complex in Lake Worth has a community center
that was most recently used as a day labor center

So should the courts be saved? Lake Worth resident Wes Blackman sums up the argument for preserving the courts this way: "We were a middle class tourist destination of the 20th Century - and in Florida, that meant you had shuffleboard courts. I think it is important to hang on to important elements of that history."

Historic images of shuffleboard in Lake Worth

I think the larger question is, if the city allows the courts to survive, can shuffleboard be made relevant to a younger group of players? The St. Pete Shuffleboard club has shown it can be done, but it take s a big commitment of energy by creative individuals. My hope is that this younger Floridians rediscover this incredibly fun game, and this colorful part of Florida's past shuffles on into the future.

If you are interested in having your voice heard in the discussion of Lake Worth's shuffleboard courts fate, you can send a letter to:

Lake Worth City Hall
7 North Dixie Hwy.
Lake Worth, Florida 33460
Reference: Shuffleboard Court Building or Save the Shuffleboard Courts or January 25th Charette

Or email: Mayor Pam Triolo ptriolo@lakeworth.org
Vice-Mayor Scott Maxwell smaxwell@lakeworth.org
Commissioner Christopher McVoy cmcvoy@lakeworth.org
Commissioner Andy Amoroso aamoroso@lakeworth.org
Commissioner Suzanne Mulvehill smulvehill@lakeworth.org

Or you can attend the Lake Worth Shuffleboard Building Community Meeting on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 6:00 PM

Shuffleboard at its peak of popularity in St. Pete

A recent St. Pete Shuffle on a Friday Night in November

Join the Save Our Shuffleboard page on Facebook

Intentions for 2012

2012-01-01T16:03:00.001-05:00

My first priority for 2012 is to get caught up with my travels at the end of 2011. I explored a wonderful shrine near Lake Wales in the middle of an orange grove, ate at one of Florida's most famous restaurants and visited some of the state's oldest homes. Look for posts on St. Anne's Shrine, Chalet Suzanne, Villa Zorayda and the Dow Museum in the near future.

Most of my posts focus on places in Central and North Central Florida. I hope to be able to add some blogs from other areas of the state next year, specifically South Florida and the panhandle. While I made a foray into Ft. Lauderdale and Palm Beach last year, I never made to "Florida's Great Northwest" and both parts of our state are rich with material for Visual Ephemera.

As I mentioned in my last post, there has been some buzz created by the "Save Our Shuffleboard" Facebook group I started to document (and somehow preserve) Florida's disappearing shuffleboard courts. I'm hoping to generate some attention for the game and its potential to attract new shufflers in 2012. Otherwise this fun pasttime that was an integral part of Florida's leisure heritage will eventually disappear. They seem to be on to something in St. Pete, I'm just not sure how to make that happen in other parts of the state.

Also mentioned in my last post was my renewed fascination with Florida's springs and the state's threatened waterways. I recently saw more dried up lakes in North Florida and it saddens me deeply to see our natural resources disappear and livelyhoods dependent on that water disappear. I hope to get into more of our springs to see what kind of shape they are in, document threatened lakes and spend more time overall on the water.

Little Lake Johnson in Gold Head Branch State Park

The final sunset of 2011 from my kayak on Lake Hourglass

My project related to Ponce de Leon and the Fountain of Youth will continue and come into fruition this year. I'm very excited about this and look forward to sharing more as things get firmed up.

This funny bearded guy has been showing up on my travels lately

And finally just a few self observations. I'm aware as my interests have evolved, so has this blog. I've realized I don't like writing about history as much as I do researching it and taking photographs of historical places. As a result Visual Ephemera has become more of a photo blog. It is my hope that a picture is worth a thousand words and that in today's society that is enough to encourage my viewers to see these places themselves. I also realize that I've begun to focus more on historic architecture and less on the quirky, campy stuff in Florida. That too reflects my growth and the fact that much of the great mid-century Florida kitsch is vanishing from our landscape, while the older 19th and early 20th century history is better preserved and more easily accessible. And I have grown in my appreciation of it.

I've also realized that it is the relationships, both in person and via the Internet, that keep me motivated and focused and I want to make a renewed commitment to meeting more of the interesting people who care about our state. if you are a regular viewer of this blog, thank you, and I hope this in some way changes your perspective on the way you see Florida. There's still a lot of great stuff out there, and I am committed to trying to shine a light on it.

I still love the kitsch

But I find great beauty and energy in older, more subtle spaces as well

2011: The Review

2011-12-31T10:36:00.003-05:00

In comparing my intentions for 2011 with the reality of the past year, I feel satisfied with how much I accomplished. I wrote posts for most of the excursions I took at the end of 2010, with the exception of the Nehrling House and Vilano Beach, which may be 2012 posts.

I made great progress on my Ponce de Leon project, although I rarely blogged about it. Much of my in-state travel was inspired by quest for the Fountain of Youth. Look for more on that subject next year. While I didn't get to Tallahassee or the panhandle, I did make it to Flagler College and Ponce Inlet.

My trip to SW Florida for a February wedding was fruitful and I got to see Everglades Wonder Garden, Warm Mineral Springs and the Koreshan Unity State Park. I attended Hukilau in June, re-connecting with my friends Jeff and Kelly from Vintage Roadside and met the legendary underwater performer Medusirena Marina. On the way back we stopped at Henry Flagler's opulent Palm Beach home Whitehall.

A visit to Everglades Wonder Gardens allowed me to indulge
in my obsession with taxidermy

Jeff from Vintage Roadside

It's not every day you get your photo taken with a real live mermaid

In addition to blogs spawned from my 2011 goals, I also:

Found a connection to Florida's past at the Animal Kingdom bird show
Explored downtown Ocala
Stopped at the Desert Inn in Yeehaw Junction
Discovered more of Waldo Sexton's work in Vero Beach
Visited Gamble Place in Port Orange
Re-visited some old faves in Daytona, Kissimmee and Treasure Island
Checked out more houses built by artist Sam Stoltz
Documented some of Florida's threatened springs
Met the legendary Willa McGuire Cook and toured the Orange City Historic District
Inventoried Cracker architecture in Orange and Osceola County museums
Attended my first archaeological dig
Met Liz Dane Cook, who performed at De Leon Springs with her elephant, Queenie
Dined at the legendary Yearling Restaurant in Gainesville
Talked with some of my favorite Florida authors like Lu Vickers and Bill Belleville
Documented my friend Dawn Schreiner's fabulous show in Maitland

Overall it was a year of connection for me. I started an Old Florida group on Facebook, and have developed a following over 600 devoted to remembering and preserving the sunshine state's past. Through social networking I've met several like-minded folks with similar interests and enjoyed a sense of camaraderie in my mission. My Ponce de Leon project has led me to my own exploration of Florida's springs and the issues of water in our state and I feel drawn to documenting and creating more awareness of that critical issue. I believe this state is at a critical crossroads and the decisions we make now will determine whether Florida will be a state worth living in.

Some updates about past posts:

I connected with one of the new owners of the Pine Green Sam Stoltz house and he is writing his own blog about living there.
Dr. Bob Knight and staff of the H.T. Odum Florida Springs Institute will be making a presentation to the members of the Elks Club at Glen Springs regarding refurbishing the spring
I created an Old Florida slide show for use during the Osceola Pioneer Village's Pioneer Day
A preservation-oriented mayor was elected in Orange City, perhaps paving the way for the preservation of that city's historic district
Jeff, Kelly and Marina who gave the excellent presentation at Hukilau on Aquarama, are giving an expanded presentation on mid-century mermaids across the US at Modernism Week in Palm Springs this year. Best of luck guys!
Everglades Wonder Gardens appears to be off the market, pending the health of its owner
Legoland opened on the site of the granddaddy of all Florida attractions, Cypress Gardens, and has been drawing huge crowds
I was contacted by a journalist from the Wall Street Journal pitching a story about shuffleboard in Florida (I'll keep you posted on future developments)
A new book has been published about the artist Joy Postle

I feel like my blog helped connect people and places in 2011 – for some it was an opportunity to remember places lost, for others it was learning about new places to explore. It feels great when someone visits a place I blog about. If we don't visit these places from Florida's past, they won't continue to exist. My mission remains the same, and this year I felt like maybe I might be making a wee bit of an impact. Tune in tomorrow to see my intentions for 2012.

The legendary Willa Cook at Cypress Gardens (image from Lu Vickers)

I found out after swimming in Wekiva Springs, that an immediate shower is encouraged
after exposure to the water, due to the poor water quality

I experienced a youthful euphoria swimming at Warm Mineral Springs

One of my favorite images of the year from Rock Springs

I was able to photograph several of Sam Stoltz's homes this year

Watch out Marina!

I found a new appreciation for Florida's Cracker architecture this year

Blues musician Willie Green performed feet away from our table
at the Yearling Restaurant in Cross Creek

An old favorite in great shape

It will be interesting to see what the future holds for Glen Springs
and all of Florida for that matter...

Polk County Citrus Monument on the Old Tampa Highway

2011-12-29T10:22:00.001-05:00

According to us-highways.com, this stretch of road between Osceola and Polk Counties was once "part of the Lee-Jackson Highway, Dixie Highway, and Central Florida Highway (Old Florida Route 2) and later US 92 and US 17 northeast of Loughman, Florida. The mostly brick road, now labeled the Old Tampa Highway, stretches from CR 532 to US 17-92, just a few miles south of I-4. At the start there is a "no dumping" sign, and just beyond that someone had dumped a load of trash. Otherwise this short stretch of road offers scenic glimpse of a old rural Florida highway.

About midway down the road's length is a large concrete marker, marking the county line between Polk and Osceola Counties. "Imperial" Polk County erected 3 of these markers in 1930, the other two are on US 92 between Lakeland and Plant City and on US 98 northwest of Lakeland. In 1997 the Polk County Tax Collector incorporated the marker into its official seal. Ironically the seal has portrays a"Western sun shines the light of knowledge onto the perfect side of the highway monument", "to demonstrate the Tax Collector's relationship and commitment to education." However, on the side of the marker that faces the road, "Citrus" is misspelled "Citurs." The original purpose of these markers, according to the County Tax Collector's website was to "welcome visitors into Polk County and promote tourism and citrus."

Any frequent reader of this blog, knows that I tend to make numerous typos, (thank God for spell check.) I'm just glad my typos are not set in stone!

Christmas, Florida

2011-12-23T07:40:00.002-05:00

Ever since I moved to Central Florida over twenty years ago, I've wanted to mail my Christmas cards from the tiny post office in the East Orange County town of Christmas. Christmas got it's name from Fort Christmas, a Seminole War outpost that was built on December 25, 1837. The original fort is long gone but there is a re-creation of it in a great county park that was built during the US Bicentennial in 1976.

As you arrive into the rural Yuletide town, its hard to miss a holiday display on the corner of Highway 50 and Fort Christmas Road. There is a large permanent Christmas tree, a concrete Santa and sled, a manger, a shrine and other assorted Christmas memorabilia. Apparently there was a small museum at one time but the building looks like it has been closed for a while and the floorboards on the wood porch are starting to rot. But the collection of Christmas paraphernalia around the property is pure holiday kitsch and makes for a great photography stop.

The Ft. Christmas Historical Museum is a located on a good sized county park, and on this day it was very well used. There is a collection of Cracker Florida houses and buildings relocated from their original locations in Central Florida, in addition to the replica of the fort. All the houses are completely furnished in period furnishings, and it is a fascinating look back into the days when living in Florida was attempted only by the hardiest of folks.

There is a simplicity and efficiency of these Cracker houses that I find very appealing. The ingenuity used in their creation and the use of natural materials give the buildings a soul that is often lacking in many modern homes. I admire the connection the homes have to their environment and the Florida landscape. As Mrs. Ephemera and I consider renovating our home, I'd love to borrow some of that spirit as we proceed. Only with air-conditioning and indoor plumbing!

Pine Green - a hidden jewel in downtown Orlando

2011-12-14T07:37:00.004-05:00

Central Florida is largely a land of homogeneous houses and bland commercial buildings. It's often difficult to find mom and pop businesses to patronize as the transient population of this ever growing region seems to frequent chains and franchises exclusively. Perhaps that is why I am so drawn to the homes built by Sam Stoltz in the early 20th century. Each one is a custom creation by a talented artisan with quirky eccentricities and a high level of craftsmanship. They are windows into a time when Central Florida was known more as an escape for northern winters than for its theme parks. I recently had the opportunity to explore another fantastic Stoltz creation near downtown Orlando, as it transitioned to new owners.

The home on Livingston Street was built for Mr. and Mrs. Horne as a winter cottage, until Mildred Horne moved in year round. An accomplished gardener, Mrs. Horne lived there until she moved into a retirement home, (she's the one who nicknamed the home Pine Green), and since then the home has only had one other owner. So it's in good condition with a few pristine rooms, exactly as they were created by Stoltz.

The house is built of Cypress with a custom multi-colored stain and flourishes of Stoltz rockwork around entryways and on the monumental fireplace/fountain. His trademark pecky cypress ceiling can be found in the living room, and walls in one of the bedrooms and bathroom still show colorful Stoltz's touch. Two perpendicular walls surrounding the bathtub have a quintessential Stoltz flamingo fresco and are masterpieces with expressive splash techniques, years before Jackson Pollock.

The feeling I got from this small house was that of a lodge out West. There aren't many surviving old wood structures in Central Florida and the use of rough hewn timbers and large rocks reminded me of the architecture one might see in the National Parks. Behind a wall of colorful Crotons, this amazing oasis is hidden from downtown commuters. The size of the rooms is small by today's standards, and the home's new owners must have appreciated it as a piece of art, not for its livability. Let's hope they are good stewards of what is becoming a rarer commodity in Central Florida: originality.

Custom made light fixture made with Whiskey bottle

Flamingo decoration on the detached garage

Original light fixture

Hand-tinted photograph shows the way the home was originally furnished

The drip technique was used on several of the Stoltz homes I've seen

Gainesville Gargoyles

2011-12-03T17:02:00.003-05:00

I worked in the Chemistry Department for over four years when I attended the University of Florida, in the middle of what is now known as the University of Florida Historic District. I'm not sure if it was a historic district then, and sadly if it was I never noticed. I visited the district recently driven by quest for all things Ponce de Leon related, after seeing a photo of a frieze with Florida's European discoverer at the Matheson Museum.

Spanish Discovery of Florida Freize - Sledd Hall

While I really looked closely at the Gothic architecture for the first time, I was really blown away by the carved details on the buildings. How I walked by these every day and was oblivious, is a mystery to me, but I think the truth is as I've gotten older, I've grown more interested in architecture and the environment around me. I like to think I notice more. So for me it was a fresh discovery and I had a wonderful time documenting just a portion of the carvings in this one section of campus.

Bay Window of the Reading Room- Fletcher Hall

Carving from Bay Window of the Reading Room- Fletcher Hall

Detail of Gator from the Reading Room Bay Window - Fletcher Hall

I'm not sure what this supposed to be - a crab maybe?

Reading Student - Sledd Hall

Chemistry Student- Sledd Hall

Fraternity Member giving the thumbs down- Sledd Hall

Football Player- Sledd Hall

Sledd Hall seemed to have the largest amount of intricate carving and by far the most ornate was the Mucozo Tower. The UF website describes it this way:

"Sledd Hall, designed by University Architect Rudolph Weaver, was built in 1929 and links to Fletcher and Thomas Halls. Sculptural figures along the cornice depict the all male student population of the period engaged in a variety of activities. Plaques with seals of great universities of the world suggested the University's goals for academic achievement. Courtyard entrances to the individual suites are enhanced with figures representing creatures from the sea and the local region. A sculptural frieze depicts the Spanish discovery of Florida and reflects the Spanish heritage of the state. Another sculptural relief depicts students with architectural tools and sporting equipment. An outstanding feature of the building was the Mucozo Tower South entrance to the dormitory courtyard. The sculptural features recognize the friendship of Chief Mucozo and Spanish explorer Juan Ortiz. The tower also included a trunk depository, where students' luggage was loaded on a dumb waiter to the storage level below. Sledd Hall was named for the first UF president, Dr. Andrew Sledd."

A couple more:

Buckman Hall "Anguished Scholar"

Corbel at the University Auditorium

It's in the water - three conversations

2011-12-01T19:39:00.004-05:00

I had a great Thanksgiving weekend – I ate to over-capacity, visited with relatives, had fun taking pictures and had three interesting conversations about water. The discussions, on different days with separate people all seemingly had different subjects yet shared the same thread: Florida's water quality has been significantly compromised and the prognosis for the future is not good unless we make some changes.

Conversation 1

Location: Oviedo, FL

Topic: Lake Hourglass

Living on a small lake near the heart of Orlando has changed me by making more aware of the natural environment I live in and the delicate balance of nature in an urban setting. I have always wanted to know more about my lake, but couldn't find much information. That changed on Thanksgiving because a relative of my wife's cousin's husband actually grew up on our little lake. She told us of swimming in the lake all year long and even water skiing (tough to imagine due to the lakes small size.) The lake was much clearer then, you could see the bottom from the deeper water and you could even feel cold water from seeps in the aquifer, according to our new source. There was a small fish camp, (used as tiny houses today), and when water hyacinths took over the lake our new friend's father painstakingly removed them by hand, all by himself! The water quality went south when the city allowed street drainage to flow into the lake. Later, to combat a growing aquatic weed problem Blue Tilapia were introduced to try to control the spread and today they overwhelm the lake, crowding out native species. The lake she described bore little resemblance to the lake we live on now. Although we love our lake dearly, I've never seen anyone swim in it.

The abundant Tilapia make for easy meals for the Osprey

______________________________________________

Conversation 2

Location: The Elks Lodge, Gainesville, Florida

Topic: The pool at Glen Springs

I was thrilled to get a glimpse into Glen Springs last month but was only able to photograph it with my cellphone camera. Because of that blog, I got in touch with Linda Califf, an Elks Club member who has taken on the challenge of preserving the pool around the spring. She has also researched the history of the spring and the pool, and is actively seeking donations to assist with the site's preservation. Linda and two other Lodge members rotate cleaning the pool every day, unclogging the drainage between the sections and making sure the water flows unimpeded into the creek below. As she toured myself and three others around the pool, she related how far the pool had come, from being entirely covered with algae to being relatively clean in about four months! Almost single-handedly she has improved the water quality and the over all aesthetics of one of Gainesville's most under appreciated cultural resources.

Some history of the springs as published in Linda's brochure on the spring:

The property surrounding the springs was purchased in 1924 by Cicero Addison Pound (the high school I attended was on land donated by Mr. Pound)
The pool itself was probably designed by Guy Chandler Fulton, an Architect to the Board of Control from 1945 until 1956
The pool was probably constructed in 1940
The pool stopped being used for swimming in the mid-1970s

Fall leaves make keeping the Glen Springs pool even more labor intensive

The structure of the former diving board remains intact

Despite this litter on the bottom, Linda and her fellow Elks
have done a remarkable job cleaning up the spring

If you'd like to help with the preservation of the Glen Springs pool,
email Linda at lindacaliff@att.net

______________________________________________

Conversation 3

Location: Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings State Park, Cross Creek

Topic: Orange Lake

Two days after Thanksgiving, Mrs. Ephemera and I stopped by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings State Park, as she had never been there before. Walking through the grounds I noticed a path headed in the direction of the lake, which has a boat ramp in another area of the park. I asked an employee of the park, if the path did in fact go to the lake and she informed us that the lake was entirely dry. I had noticed that Cross Creek, which connects Orange Lake and Lake Lochloosa, was dried up, but had not imagined the 13,000 acre Orange Lake would be dry as well. She told us that the well that Rawlings used back in the 1920s and '30s was only 8 feet deep. To reach water today, the same well would have to go down well over 100 feet deep. In addition to a severe drought, over-taxing the Floridan Aquifer (the water stored in subterranean limestone caverns below the state) had led to drastically reduced water levels. She said she had seen vintage images of nearby Silver Glen Springs where the boil over the spring was so strong that it actually shot up above the surface of the lake, a site I've never witnessed at any of Florida's springs.

Images from the State Archives of Florida show what once North Florida's largest lake

Returning home to Central Florida, the Orlando Sentinel happened to be running a two-part series called "Precious Water" about water issues facing the state. Just today, former Florida Governor/US Senator Bob Graham announced a new Conservation Coalition, committed to preserving the state's precious water resources. As I travel around the state, experiencing the natural, historical and and cultural treasures of the state, I see the biggest threat to their survival being over-development, an issue that is directly correlated to the allocation of our water. How we solve the challenges related to this issue will largely determine if Florida will be a place worth calling home in the future.

Today the Orange Lake boat ramp leads only to weeds

Cross Creek, sans water

Return to Treasure Island

2011-11-22T07:40:00.002-05:00

"The Surf is coming down because it costs too much to upgrade the ailing building, whose space-age, 1950s furniture has never been replaced and whose mid century look was featured in Architectural Digest. A 30-unit hotel-condo is planned to rise in its place. Each unit could cost near $400,000, as opposed to The Surf's rents of $66 a night." - St. Petersburg Times

The Surf Motel closed on Sunday April 18, 2004. I remember reading about the controversy surrounding its demise online, there was even a website created to encourage support for the Surf. The New York Times reported the story, yet the Surf was demolished and a new condo created.

Built in 1956, the Surf was among a number of Googie Motels on Treasure Island near St. Pete Beach. It had been some time since I had visited this small Pinellas County community, and I was eager to see what had survived since the Surf's demise. I felt a huge sense of relief when I saw the towering monolith of the Thunderbird Motel. The T-Bird must be one of the best neon signs in all of Florida and it appears little changed from its mid-century glory days. Nearby other mom-and-pop beach cottages, motels and apartments appear to be hanging in there.

My favorite is the quaint Sea Jay, which also boasts a wonderful neon sign, one of my all time Florida Faves. The whole complex is like a time machine back to the 1950s with Featherstone pink plastic flamingos, well-maintained shuffleboard courts and an elevated swimming pool. I only had time for a brief survey, but I'm buoyed by the prospect that one Florida community has still retained some vintage charm in the face of the overwhelming bland developments that permeate the rest of the state.

Vintage images from the State Archives of Florida

Peering into the Abyss

2011-11-09T07:44:00.003-05:00

After seeing spectacular underwater images of the crystal clear waters of North Florida springs, I became obsessed with taking my own underwater photos. So I purchased a camera on Amazon and patiently waited for a free weekend day where I could cobble enough time together to head to a spring. The closest spring to my downtown Orlando home is Wekiva Spring State Park, so on a rainy Sunday afternoon, Mrs. Ephemera and I raced north on I-4 to make my first attempt at photography in the underwater realm.

Wekiva Springs is surrounded by development. High-end residential housing and commercial properties push right up against the boundaries of the park. When I made a visit to the spring over the summer, I watched from the above the water as tri-atheletes swam laps in the spring's basin. On this rainy November visit the spring wasn't crowded but there were still swimmers enjoying the chilly water.

Donning my newly purchased fins, mask and snorkel I initially thought the water didn't seem to cold. It was a bit cumbersome to try to see the back of the camera through my mask which often filled with water in. Combined with the fact that I am blind as a bat without my glasses, meant that at first I had no idea what I was photographing. Eventually I got the hang of it and could actually line up what I was try to shoot.

As I made my way over to the boil, I noticed that the huge rock walls that formed the canyon from where the water comes out of the aquifer was covered with algae. The surface of the water also had a layer of floating algae that I had navigate through as I snorkeled along the surface. The recreational swimmers, without masks, seemed oblivious to the green goo, but I was struck by the contrast between this spring and the pristine ones in North Florida that inspired this adventure.

At first I was concerned that the algae seemed to be the only life in the spring, but I eventually found some bluegill swimming near the bottom. I approached the boil again, fighting to maintain my position against the water pushing its way through from the earth. Despite the algae, it is an awe-inspiring sight to see the where the edge drops straight down into nothingness. Swimming between the "cliffs" and looking down is a bit frightening as the darkness appears to go on forever.

Eventually I noticed I was shaking too much to hold the camera still. 72 degree water is cold even if the air temperature is an equivalent temperature. I got out and dried off having seen enough. I look forward to going to other springs to see if I have a similar experience (there are over 700 in Florida.)

The advocacy group that works on behalf of the springs and the Wekiva River has this statement on their website: "...the environmental quality of the Wekiva basin continues to be threatened. Loss of habitat, decline in spring flow, increased nutrients in the water (especially nitrates), increased water consumption, wildlife mortality on existing roadways, and proposals for new roadways through the basin are but a few of the issues that demand constant monitoring. The effects of these issues are cumulative." While there was still beauty to the spring, it was clear to my untrained eye that the amount of algae present was not good. The result of my Sunday adventure was a renewed commitment to help raise awareness to help protect these sacred waters. The Friends of the Wekiva will be hearing from me soon.

A cow town, re-created

2011-10-29T12:45:00.003-04:00

I'm fasincinated by Osceola County because it has such extreme contrasts. It's where old Florida cattle country collides with the kingdom of the mouse. In Patrick Smith's epic tale of pioneer Florida, "A Land Remembered", the cattle raising protagonist visits Osceola's largest town Kissimmee often, as it was one of the few towns accessible to cowmen in Florida's interior. The cattle industry is still part a big part of life in Kissimmee but its more and more obscured by the glare of the mouse. It's hard to imagine any town in Florida has had as many demographic changes in the last 40 years.

A Cracker homestead in Kissimmee.

Note the whip held by the gentleman in front. Some assert that the crack of the whips
used by Florida Cowmen is where the term "Cracker" comes from.

A Parade in downtown Kissimmee- the Silver Spurs Rodeo
is an on-going Osceola County tradition.
Images from the Florida State Archives.

One of the best ways to get a glimpse into the Florida Cracker lifestyle of the 1800s is at Osceola County's Pioneer Village and Museum. Located surprisingly close to the tourist corridor on 192, this collection of archival buildings is a breath fresh air from the tacky architecture just blocks away. Two old Cracker houses are closest to the road, the Tyson and Lanier homesteads. The Tyson house has been turned into a general store, complete with artifacts from Narcosee's post office. Next door, the Lanier homestead is set up with actual furnishings of the period and one can get a sense of what it must have been like to live in Florida in the late 1800s. On the Fall day I was there, the weather was perfect and it seemed like a pretty good way to live. But I can't imagine what it would be like in the summer.

Another highlight for me was the one-room schoolroom. Complete with books and desks it's very quaint. Other buildings include a wash house, a smoke house, a blacksmith shop, a citrus parking house and a small museum.

Across the street is the Mary Kendall Nature Preserve, part of the Shingle Creek Regional Park. This 78 acre area has boardwalks and trails that leads to 2 more Cracker structures, the restored Stefee homestead and the Caretaker's house. Both were closed on my visit, but the walk was beautiful and serene and I was happy that this little piece of old Florida had been preserved. Visiting the Preserve and the Pioneer Village made for a memorable afternoon and I left with more insight and appreciation for life in nineteenth century Central Florida.

About a hundred yards from the preserve, lies ground zero for Central Florida tourism.

Kissimmee follow-up

2011-10-25T07:35:00.003-04:00

This weekend I returned to the site of some older posts to see what had changed since my initial observations. First I went to the site of the shuffleboard courts of the Kissimmee All State Tourist Club in downtown Kissimmee. The courts were long gone and a new picnic pavilion is almost completed in its place. Part of a larger plan for a new lakeside park, the shuffleboard complex was booted after decades of good times next to the Monument of States. I was surprised to see the area still closed off about a year and a half after my previous visit, with very little lake access remaining for the public. I'm not sure what happened to the members of the KAST club, but it seems like a rather disappointing situation as the park seems stuck in limbo.

In some cases, the neglect of the lakefront park has yielded beautiful results

Next I drove down 192, the tourist corridor leading to Disney. On my previous visit it was easy to see the effects of the recession and Disney's strategy to keep all of their guests on Disney property in Disney hotels. Boarded up businesses were frequent, ugly scars on this busy Osceola County roadway. This weekend I found even more businesses had fallen by the wayside and was surprised that some that some of them appeared to very recently built. In fact, a year and a half ago I noted a brand new A&W Drive-In across from the former location of Xanadu House of the Future. It appears that the Drive-In was one of the victims of the 192 recession and it too now sits vacant.

I found it fascinating that in some places the natural landscape was consuming man made structures. I pulled over at a closed miniature golf course and found it so overgrown that no part of the course was visible from the road. Next door, the Viking Motel, appearing freshly painted, sat empty as its swimming pool area flooded and and the roadside signage disintegrated. While I feel empathy for the business owners and the their former employees, it is kind of nice to see nature making her own land grab, even if it is only temporary.

This is actually the walkway to the pool area

_____________________________

This sign on U.S. 441, sits in front of an overgrown empty lot, pointing at nothing but sky.

Diggin' West Orange

2011-10-18T15:46:00.002-04:00

"We're spending a lot of money on education, and when you look at the results, it's not great," the governor said. "Do you want to use your tax money to educate more people who can't get jobs in anthropology? I don't."- Florida Governor Rick Scott

I find it very ironic that I would be invited to a dig by an anthropologist the same week that Florida's governor would take a dig at the anthropology profession. A new friend from my Facebook Old Florida page who teaches Anthropology at local college made the invitation and I leapt at the opportunity.

The archeological dig was in the West Orange County community of Oakland, a small town with a big history dating back to the 1860s. The town was incorporated in 1887 after railroad builder Peter Demens accepted Judge James Speer's offer of 200 acres of land along Lake Apopka in exchange for running the railroad line through Oakland. The town boomed between the 1880s and mid 1890s until a freeze wiped out much of the citrus industry that the town relied upon.

One of the town's most colorful residents was Rose Mather-Smith who moved to Florida from Chicago with her husband Charles Frederic Mather-Smith and took the the town by storm with her colorful social gatherings. She and her husband built the West Orange Country Club in 1911 and the club was the social hub of the area for many years. The guest house for the club, now a private residence located next to the Florida Turnpike, was the site of the dig.

A Mather-Smith social gathering, circa 1930 from the Orange County Regional History Center

The Mather-Smith family of Oakland is all dressed up for a parade at Lake Eola in Orlando circa 1911

From the State Archives of Florida

The road to the dig, directly off SR 50, reminded me of the secret road that the Batmobile would always disappear into in the classic '60s TV show. Unless you looked hard, you would never know to turn there. But the house hidden at the end of that road was a wonder of old Florida, engulfed by ancient Live Oaks, palm trees and native plant species. I got a tour of the site from Jason Wenzel, a PhD candidate at UF who was supervising anthropology students from various Central Florida colleges. He explained that this was a Phase 1 archeological survey where holes 50 cm by 50 cm wide were dug at measured intervals around the property. Descending a meter into the ground, the student volunteers learned about use of the landscape from the dirt by matching it to a color guide. During the time when this property was utilized as guest quarters for the club, trash was dumped in a rubbish heap at the edge of the property. Digging through this trash from the past can yield valuable clues to the location's inhabitants – for instance dietary habits can be learned from bones. The presence of bones from indigenous game would show that the guests may have hunted, or finding bones like lamb and other more expensive meat would show that they were affluent. Particularly of interest to Wenzel was glass samples, as he is studying the relationship between alcohol and tourism in the early 20th century. Florida was haven for moonshiners during the Prohibition era, and finding illicit liquor bottles from that time could be very useful.They also found ceramic shards and nails on the site which can tell a good deal about social status and any structures on the site.

Originally guest quarters for the West Orange Country Club,

the site of the dig is now a private residence.

Suburbia encroaching on Old Florida

I was impressed by the knowledge of the two anthropologists at the site, and encouraged that Florida's early 20th century past is considered worthy of study. The whole group was very youthful and enthusiastic and seemed committed to the scientific manner in which they were exploring Florida's past. Although this site was not yielding great archeological treasures, this was the first dig I'd ever seen up close and it was a treat for me. We talked about the Governor's comments and it would be devastating if this was the last generation we train to dig into our state's cultural history. The Executive Director of the Florida Public Archaeology Network responded to the governor's remarks saying "These studies have not only written Florida history, they provide authentic content to a very important and sustainable heritage tourism and historic preservation industry that brings in over $4 billion per year to Florida’s economy." Hopefully he's speaking in language the Governor can understand.

The gates to the former country club are located

on the opposite side of the turnpike from the dig.
Click here to see other historic buildings in West Orange County.

If you'd like to sign the petition about cuts in education to programs like Anthropology in Florida, click here.

Gainesville's Glen Springs

2011-10-08T06:13:00.003-04:00

When I was in high school in Gainesville, the practice field behind the school was in big demand, so much so that pre-season soccer practices had to be held at Glen Springs Elementary a couple miles down the road. So our conditioning was aided by the fact that we had to jog down Glen Springs Road before we could even kick the first ball. I always wondered if there was a spring associated with Glen Springs Road, but never saw any evidence of one.

On a recent trip to my hometown, however, I asked Father Ephemera who was a city planner in Gainesville for years, and he knew just where the springs was located. By this time I'd seen vintage postcards of a Glen Springs swimming pool, so I knew at one point there was a recreational facility. My father knew that the pool was still there, behind the Elks Lodge. And we happened to be driving that way so we stopped to see if we could catch a glimpse of the mysterious waters behind the Lodge.

The spring pool was built in 1924 according to a report by Amy Grossman issued in 2010. Used as a swimming pool until 1970, the facility is unused by the Elks except for when it is stocked with fish for a charity fishing tournament for kids. The area just past the Lodge, where the water from the spring forms a creek is now a city park called Alfred Ring Park.

Girl Scouts, Brownies Beauty Contest and water carnival, 1934.
Photo from UF Digital Collections

Car Sale Promotion at Glen Springs swimming pool.
Photo from UF Digital Collections

Vintage postcard from the Alachua County Historic Trust: Matheson Museum, Inc.

While my father an I were poking around, a member of the Lodge invited us in to take a look and in addition to seeing the spring we got a history of the Elks Lodge in Gainesville. The structure of the pool looks pretty much the same as it does in the vintage images I found later. The water however, except for the "boil", where it first emerges from the aquifer, looks more like greenish-brown lake water than the crystal clear blue-tinted water one normally associates with a Florida spring. According to the Grossman's report, the water flow is significantly reduced from what it used to be and the nitrogen levels are higher. She states: "As the population in Gainesville has grown, the land use has changed from forested to agricultural to residential. This means an increase in the installment and construction of septic tanks and private drinking water wells as well as an increase in use of fertilizer on lawns. All of these changes in the area have adversely affected the spring."

It was thrill for me to finally discover the spring that I had wondered about for years. It is disappointing that it is unavailable to the public, and that the quality and quantity of the water is diminished. But perhaps the spring could one day return to being a recreational spot for Gainevillians. Grossman writes: "There is an opportunity for revenue from this property, similar to the set-up at Gainesville’s other spring, Boulware Spring. Since the spring pool house is still in good shape with the original flooring from the bar in the 1950’s, a porch that was added on in the 1970’s, and the Elks Lodge next door, the property could be rented out for special events, with the spring being the main attraction. Given the chance, many people would pay to have their wedding next to a spring or host one of the numerous conferences and retreats that come to Gainesville."

Indian River Roadside Citrus

2011-10-05T07:48:00.000-04:00

I like to drive the "blue highways" whenever I can to look for survivors of the development machine that constantly destroys or remodels anything old in Florida. I was cruising up US 1 in Brevard County, hoping to find mid-century motels or other commercial buildings from the era of the space race. A couple run-down seedy places survived but the best links to the previous century were examples of roadside citrus stands.

First was Harvey's Groves in Rockledge, a sprawling complex that at one time spanned both sides of the highway. Harvey's first opened as a small roadside stand in 1926. According to the Harvey's websit e, Roy and Blanche Harvey found themselves marooned in Brevard County after their car broke down on the way to Miami. Finding the Indian River area perfect for citrus, the Harveys grew their business by developing award-winning citrus and creating the Florida Gift Fruit Citrus Association.

Harvey's in 1949 from the State Archives of Florida

The Indian River Citrus Distric t is a narrow strip running along the east coast of Florida from Daytona to West Palm Beach. Legal action in the 1930s limited the district to this six county area, as Indian River became a brand associated with premium quality citrus and today 75% of the state's total grapefruit crop originates from the district.

Historic images of Indian River citrus: citrus label, groves and a citrus stand. From the State Archives of Florida

I was pleased to see a great example of programmatic or mimetic architecture from Florida's citrus business in Melbourne. This round orange-shaped building was very likely originally used as a roadside citrus stand. Today, restored by the Melbourne Rotary Club, the iconic building sits on the lot owned by the Disabled American Veterans. Similar structures in California were recently added to the Falling by the Wayside list created by the Society for Commercial Archeology. I know of only one other in Florida near Mt Dora.

Sadly not all survivors form the heydays of Florida citrus are in good shape. The Marion S. Whaley Citrus Packing House in Rockledge, despite being on the National Register of Historic Places, looks to be slowly crumbling into the landscape. Most recently know as the Old Victory Groves Packing House, the large complex built in 1930 is said to be riddled with termites. Like the Bob White Citrus Packing Plant in De Leon Springs, the piece of Florida history will vanish unless action to preserve it takes place soon.

Off the blue highways, on the evil interstates, it is easy to see the contemporary relatives of these citrus stands. Florida Citrus Centers seem to share space with gas stations at all most every exit along 1-75 and I-95. Stocked with all varieties of citrus products from marmalades to candy, these businesses rely heavily on Florida kitsch like fake alligators to lure the roadside visitor into their store. While incredibly tacky, in a way I find it a refreshing adaptation of a grand Florida tradition.

The Cracker home of Laura Riding Jackson

2011-09-28T06:26:00.003-04:00

I must admit I heard about the poet Laura Riding Jackson's House before I heard of her. I saw a photo of her Wabasso Florida home in a book, and sought it out on a trip to Vero in April. I found myself there again this month and was struck by the similarities between her house and her lifestyle and that of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.

Like Rawlings, Riding Jackson was a northerner who chose to live in rural Florida and try her hand in the citrus business. Soon after college at Cornell, Riding Jackson became associated with a group of poets known as "the Fugitives" who were "defenders of formal techniques in poetry and were preoccupied with defending the traditional values of the agrarian South against the effects of urban industrialization." She lived in New York, England and Spain before moving to tiny Wabasso in 1943. With her husband Schuyler Brinckerhoff Jackson she worked on a project called "A Dictionary of Related Meanings" that was published posthumously in 1991. Despite renouncing poetry at one point in her long writing career, she published "more than a dozen volumes of poetry". She also published fiction under the pseudonym Madeleine Vara.

Her home was moved to the current site at the Environmental Learning Center after Riding Jackson sold the property it was situated on towards the end of her life. According to the non-profit Laura Riding Jackson Foundation, the home was "was moved to save it as a focal point for the study of literature, philosophy and history, as an example of a disappearing architectural style, and as a symbol of an older, more environmentally-sensitive way of life."

The house's setting is one of the main differences from Rawling's home - it lacks context sitting in an empty field by itself, while Rawlings house in Cross Creek still sits in its original location. The two-story, 1,400 square foot house seems more compact that Rawlings home, but it shares the same Cracker vibe of simplicity. For me it seemed difficult to get a sense of the home's owner by peering through the windows of the locked house. I wonder if there is a connection between these two well known literary figures beyond their choice to live in Cracker houses in small towns in Florida? It is interesting that after seeing much of the world, they both choose a rural lifestyle.

For me, when I look out the window from my old Florida home and see moss-draped live oaks or a majestic hawk searching for dinner, I feel a connection to my environment. While I don't have the simplicity of small town living, I revel in that feeling of connectedness with the natural world. I know that living on a small lake in Central Florida has changed the way I view the world forever. Perhaps these two writers felt the same way.

Yes And No
by Laura Riding Jackson

Across a continent imaginary
Because it cannot be discovered now
Upon this fully apprehended planet—
No more applicants considered,
Alas, alas—

Ran an animal unzoological,
Without a fate, without a fact,
Its private history intact
Against the travesty
Of an anatomy.

Not visible not invisible,
Removed by dayless night,
Did it ever fly its ground
Out of fancy into light,
Into space to replace
Its unwritable decease?

Ah, the minutes twinkle in and out
And in and out come and go
One by one, none by none,
What we know, what we don't know.

Cloudy Cross Creek

2011-09-17T14:52:00.001-04:00

Mom and Dad Ephemera live a half hour from Cross Creek, and I've wanted to stop by this old Florida town for some time. And since I started an Old Florida Facebook page, I'm always looking for new images from Florida's past.

Cross Creek is home to author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and the town doesn't appear to have changed much since she wrote about it in her novels. My first stop was her house, and on this cloudy day the interior was closed for maintenance. I took that as a good sign for two reasons: 1.) I'll have to visit again when it's open, and 2.) In these days of every tightening state budgets, they can still afford to maintain this wonderful Cracker home (her home is a state park).

Rawlings moved to this rural community in North Central Florida in 1928. On the front porch of this house she wrote her literary classic The Yearling. Today you can see her home and farm much like it was when she was there.

Chicken and ducks wander the citrus grove near Rawlings House

Rawlings barn still houses a tractor and much
of the equipment used to keep up the farm

A yellow 1940 Oldsmobile is parked in the carport

Looking towards the house from the barn

Screen doors and screen porches made living in Florida
in the days before air conditioning tolerable

The garden behind the house

The tenant house was home to the help that worked for Rawlings.
Idella Parker, Rawlings' maid, claimed that fellow Florida writer
Zora Neale Hurston visited Rawlings and stayed in the tenant house.

The front porch of the tenant house

Down the road from Rawlings home is the Yearling Restaurant, a Florida institution I remember fondly from childhood. I recall dining on fried catfish, softshell turtle and frog legs. Oh and delicious hush puppies! Re-opened after being closed for a lengthy period, the parking lot was full on this Labor Day weekend. Another place I'll have to return to for a more in-depth visit.

Further down the road I stopped to photograph the sign for Twin Lakes Fish Camp. Florida's rivers and lakes used to have an abundance of places like this, as sportsmen were drawn to fish and hunt in the state's wilder regions. Today they are rare survivors from a simpler times.

Beyond Cross Creek lies the small town of Evinston, home to the state's oldest post office located in its small general store. The US Postal Service, in retraction mode as the market for "snail mail" continues to shrink, is planning to close the little office, which may be the death of the town. And so it goes for Old Florida in the 21st century.

Quick stop in tiny Citra

2011-09-09T07:36:00.001-04:00

Like Orange City, Citra is a small town with an old US highway going through it, (US 301), that was centered around the growing of citrus. The town's most distinctive feature today is the wonderful Citrus Shop, which has been in business since 1936. My stop last weekend fell during the citrus off season, so I could only take photos of the building and the signs and plan a return trip later in the Fall.

The freeze of 1894 forced many 19th century citrus growers further south.
Image from the State Archives of Florida.

This wonderful Baptist church was built in 1893.

This former bank appears to be in the midst of restoration.

What I enjoy about little towns like Orange City and Citra is that they have in large part escaped the out-of-control growth and bland homogenization that plagues the rest of Florida. There are contemporary structures, but here and there are wonderful historic structures without fanfare or celebration. And the landscape outside of town, especially around Citra, is pure Old Florida. It has a rural feeling with wonderful moss draped live oaks and large palmetto stands instead of strip malls and convenience stores.

Preserving the Orange City Historic District

2011-09-04T08:18:00.000-04:00

The Florida Trust added the Orange City Historic District to its list of most threatened historic sites stating "some of the sites in the district have suffered neglect or hurricane damage and a potential rezoning along the 17/92 corridor in favor of redevelopment could adversely impact the historic district." Until recently, I wasn't even aware that this small Volusia County town near the St. Johns River even had a historic district. The town has a wonderful past that is not apparent to the average motorist speeding down 17-92.

The press release from the trust states: "The Wisconsin Company, a lumber company from Eau Claire Wisconsin, purchased land in 1874 in Southwest Volusia County which later became Orange City. Two members of that company - Dr. Seth French and Hugh H. DeYarman played an important role in the development of the city. Mr. DeYarman would eventually become the first mayor of Orange City and the hotel he established in 1875 – the DeYarman House Inn – is still standing. In 2004, the Orange City Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The district includes over 200 historic buildings and runs along the River of Lakes Heritage Corridor."

De Yarman's hotel, known today as the Heritage Inn, is still open, making it one of the oldest hotels in the state. Dallas Wittgenfeld, a passionate advocate for the historic district, claims that as a "pioneer hotel" the Heritage Inn is the state's oldest hotel, as other properties making claims to be older weren't initially operated commercially. Today the Heritage Inn houses a cafe, barbershop and a free postal museum, in addition to acting as a hotel.

Most Central Floridians pass through Orange City on their way to Blue Springs, as it is packed with manatees during the cooler months, when the aquatic mammals seek the warmth of the 72 degree spring water. I recommend taking a moment to stop by the Heritage Inn and driving around Orange City a little bit, as you might be surprised at what you find. To join the "Save the Orange City Historic District" Facebook page, click here.

The Thursby House, located inside Blue Springs State Park, was built by one of the area's earliest non-native inhabitants and has interesting historical displays inside.

"In 1903 Orange City Water won the Louisiana Expo 'most pure water' and people have been coming to O.C. for their water bottles ever since then." -Dallas Wittgenfeld

"The David P. Graves founder's home is directly across from the Dr. Seth French founding home & grove from before Orange City existed. Wealthy lumber barons from the land of Paul Bunyan in the 1870s built this and even more beautiful homes which are mostly forgotten and under brush in tall grass unpainted, today. " -Dallas Wittgenfeld

Archival images from the State Archives of Florida

A couple of Florida Legends

2011-08-30T17:07:00.002-04:00

When I was a kid growing up in Gainesville, many of my weekends were spent at our family's place on the St. Johns River in tiny Welaka, Florida. On Fridays my dad would come home from work and we'd load up the car and stop for dinner somewhere in Putnam County. One of the places we stopped was Holiday House in East Palatka.

Fast forward to adult life – living in the College Park section of Orlando – one of my favorite Old Florida haunts became the Holiday House Restaurant next to the Ben White Raceway. Seemingly untouched by time, they served food that my grandmother would love, buffet-style, and they had the best desserts anywhere. When the city announced plans to tear down the Holiday House, I wrote letters to the mayor and the newspaper in protest, to no avail.

The sign for the former Ben White Raceway Holiday House

So last year when I heard they were closing the original location in DeLand, I was saddened that a Central Florida institution might go the way of the Dodo. But after six months in limbo, the Holiday House re-emerged on Hwy. 17, further from the Stetson Campus and closer to DeLeon Springs. Jonesing for a slice of monster cake, Mrs. Ephemera made a pilgrimage to DeLand last weekend to fill our bellies.

The new location is a modern building filled with gorgeous artwork created by the owner Willa McGuire Cook. Mrs. Cook is a legend in her own right - she was recruited by Dick Pope Sr. to move to Winter Haven to star in his water ski show at Cypress Gardens. And Mrs. Cook isn't just any skier- she is a three time World Champion, an eight time National Champion and she is credited with creating many of the water ski moves that competitors use today. She was the first person to ever successfully jump off a water ski ramp backwards and she was Esther Williams' ski double in the movie Easy to Love. And the award given to the most outstanding female water skier of the year is named in her honor.

Cypress Gardens publicity photo with Willa Cook, courtesy of Lu Vickers

So in addition to feasting on creamy, delicious mac and cheese and a gigantic slab of salmon, I feed my appetite for Floridiana when I had the opportunity to met Mrs. Cook at her restaurant. She explained to us how she had been lured from Oregon by Mr. Pope and how she was part of the Cypress Gardens ski shows for a decade. A prolific cook since her teen age years, it was her dream to open a restaurant and she opened the first Holiday House in an old house in DeLand in 1959. At one time the Holiday House chain had 17 venues, but Cook and her husband sold the chain. The last one still open is the DeLand location and it is owned and operated by her and her son.

Willa Cook's harness racing painting inspired from the Ben White Raceway - she told us she tried riding the horses once but got a face full of flying mud from the horse's hooves.

Former Florida Citrus Queen Florence Ember

Tommy Bartlett, the man that started world tours and the Wisconsin Dells ski shows

Her artwork decorated many of the Holiday House locations including the one at the Ben White Raceway in Orlando, a spot Mrs. Cook called "one of her favorites." In addition to adding ambiance to the restaurant, her portraits hang in the Water Ski Hall of Fame in Polk County. I was very impressed with her artistic talents and amazed at the fact that at 82 years old, Mrs. Cook seemed as vital and lively as someone half her age. In fact the waitress shared with us that many of the vegetables served in the restaurant were grown in Mrs. Cook's garden.

Ironically, after stuffing myself at the buffet, I didn't have room for dessert, the "goal" of this particular quest. But the opportunity to meet a Florida legend in person was more satisfying than any cake, pie or cobbler.

Although all the comfort style food is outstanding in the buffet,
I am huge fan of Holiday House's desserts

Photo collage from restaurant

The Museum in the Hospital

2011-08-27T21:01:00.001-04:00

The DeLand Memorial Hospital Museum in DeLand Florida is an interesting gathering of collections in a restored 1920s hospital. I saw pictures of some of the ephemera in a friends blog, and it has been on my list every since.

Located in Dreggors Park, the building itself served s a hospital from 1922 to 1948 when the hospital was moved to DeLand Naval Air Station. After a brief stint as a frat house for Stetson University, the building was used by the School Board until it was restored in 1993. It is now on the Historic Register.

The museum is housed in the 2nd and 3rd floor and a docent has to let you in to each exhibit. Our tour started with a tour of a recreation of Former US Ambassador Bert Fish's office. In addition to a fine career in the diplomatic service, Fish was a philanthropist and according to our guide, opened up oil drilling for US companies in Saudi Arabia.

The next gallery was a re-creation of a 1920's operating room with life sized mannequins performing surgery. Next up was the gallery of Ice and Electricity which was mainly comprised of a huge collection of insulators of all shapes and sizes. The small town of DeLand was actually the first city in Florida with an electrical system and the generator was the 3rd or 4th one ever made by Thomas Edison.

There were two large galleries of World War I and World War II memorabilia, each stuffed with great artifacts and models. The tour then led to a re-creation of a 1920s doctors office and then to another building that housed the Hawtense Conrad Elephant Fantasyland.

My overall impression is that I enjoyed looking at these collections amassed by individuals who were obviously very passionate about the objects they accumulated. They all fit together to give a fairly good history of the area in an interesting, visual way. The docent was a colorful character and I recommend making a stop there if you are in the DeLand area.

The State of Springs

2011-08-21T16:05:00.003-04:00

I headed out early this Saturday to visit some of the springs closest to my home. I don't usually do much in-state adventuring during the summer months because: 1.) it's too damn hot and 2.) the light is usually crappy. But I was itching to take some pictures and I was really tired of hearing politicians talking about abandoning "cumbersome" environmental regulations and I wanted to see people enjoying the environment they are so willing to forsake.

Wekiva Springs
The closest spring to my house is Wekiva Springs State Park and I hit I-4 early enough to get there in just about 30 minutes. Wekiva Springs has been a favorite recreational spot for Central Floridians for a very long time: it was originally know as Clay Springs and the Orange County Regional History Center has great images of Victorian Floridians trying to beat the heat there. Home to one of my favorite canoe runs, I hadn't visited the springs themselves in several years.

I got to the park 15 minutes after opening and found a small group of tri-atheletes swimming in the clear blue waters. Otherwise I beat the crowds that usually cover the lawn surrounding the bowl-like swimming area with blankets, coolers and lawn chairs. It was very peaceful briefly, but the folks were streaming in rapidly to make the most of the last Saturday of summer before the public schools started.

Orange County Regional History Center

Rock Springs

Next up was Rock Springs, which I am embarrassed to say, I had never visited before. The entrance to this spring was through Orange County's Kelly Park, and I didn't beat the crowd here. In fact, I'm going to go out on a limb and say it was the most crowded county park I've ever visited. But the facilities seemed to handle it well, and it was refreshing to see all sorts of folks enjoying the natural side of Florida.

Rock Springs was originally owned by planter from Georgia named Joseph Delk who moved there with a few slaves in the 1850s. After he passed away the land was sold to a lumber company and the property eventually made its way to the hands of Dr. Howard Kelly who donated the site to Orange County in 1926. On Saturday, the 248 acre park was a lively place as kids of all ages, (adults too), grabbed inner tubes and walked down to the rocky cliff where the water emerges from the aquifer. From there it's a 25 minute float to "lagoon" areas with sandy beaches. It's kind of like lazy river attraction at a water park, except mother nature provides the current. I can't wait to go back another time and try it out.

Green Springs

Soon I was soon back on the road cutting through Mt. Plymouth to get back to I-4 and cross the St. Johns River to get to Volusia County and my next two springs. Next up was the appropriately named Green Springs, a Volusia County Park, where 19th century visitors "took the waters" in hopes of healing their ailments in the sulphurous spring. Coming by steamboat to the area that was to be known as Enterprise on the north side of the River, guest stayed at the 100 room Brock Hotel, one of Florida's premier destination in the post Civil War era.

Today the hotel is long gone and the park surrounding the spring is only 3 years old. The emerald green waters of the spring don't have a boil like most typical Florida Springs, and I had little desire to "take the waters", yet it is a fascinating historical site and has beautiful, peaceful quality. The shady road along the river leading to the park is gorgeous.

Brock Hotel from the State Archives of Florida

Gemini Springs

My final stop was Gemini Springs, which is a 210 acre Volusia County Park. The spring itself is much smaller compared to the massive boil at Wekiva, but I was pleased to find it magnificently illuminated by serendipitous light rays. I also found evidence of the algae growth that I had seen in abundance further north at DeLeon and Silver Springs, and was not surprised. Both Wekiva and Rock Springs had signs created by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection with the following copy: "The clean, clear waters of Florida's springs provide a variety of recreational uses, including tubing, swimming, canoeing, and nature study. However, the health of our springs is threatened by human activities: Pollution from fertilizers, pesticides, animal wastes, septic tanks, gasoline, industrial wastes, and other contaminates pollute the water in our aquifer – our drinking water – and ultimately pollute the springs. Withdrawal of water from the aquifer for irrigation, drinking and industrial uses can reduce the flow of the spring."

Florida's first human inhabitants found sacredness in these waters. On the Saturday I visited these four Central Florida springs, they were all being enjoyed; I saw people having picnics, swimming, tubing, and exploring. I think these sacred waters are places that connect Floridians to the environment, and that the people of our state would support their preservation for future generations to enjoy.

The Jet Set's Palm Beach hotel

2011-08-13T07:52:00.002-04:00

The Breakers Hotel currently on Palm Beach is actually the third hotel built on the site; the first two wooden hotels burned in fires. The first was built in 1896 by Henry Flagler and burned seven years later during an expansion. A second building re-opened on the site a year later and burned down in 1925, twelve years after Flagler's death. The current hotel was designed by architect Leonard Schultze and opened in 1926. The Breaker's website has an in-depth article about the architecture – if you'd like to learn more click here.

On my visit to the Breakers earlier this summer, we walked from Flagler's home, Whitehall, to the grand hotel, following the golf course down a well-worn trail to the building's impressive front facade. The fantastic interior spaces reminded my quite a bit of Coral Gable's Biltmore Hotel, both in scale and decor. Like the Biltmore, ornate banquet rooms occupy much of the first floor space, and we peaked in to see extravagant, over-the-top weddings being set up in several of the rooms. I even found Ponce De Leon in one of the rooms, as my obsession with finding evidence of Florida's "discoverer" continues.

Feeling a bit out of place in this palace of extreme luxury, Mrs. Ephemera soon departed, driving past the opulent mansions that line the beach in this city full of grand structures. As we turned inland, the song on my satellite radio station played a country song with the appropriate lyrics "we're not the jet set, we're the old Chevrolet set" and we rolled down the road back to Orlando.

Sam Stoltz for Sale

2011-08-01T07:28:00.002-04:00

Plymouthonian No.1, the first of artist/builder Sam Stoltz's Mt. Plymouth homes, is now for sale. The realtor opened the house for me this weekend so I could get a glimpse of it before it hit the market. This is the third home created by the Central Florida builder once hailed as "America's greatest poultry artist" that I've had an opportunity to see, and it was full of his trademark details.

Unlike the other Plymouthonian I've visited, this was not designed in the "Storybook" style but rather the more traditional Mediterranean Revival that was all the rage in the 1920s. The house was built in either 1922 or 1927, depending upon which source you believe, and is located on close to 2 acres in the the small Lake County community between Sanford and Mt. Dora. It's a pretty gorgeous house from the outside and the first thing I noticed when I drove up were large coquina rocks edging the driveway, one of Sam Stoltz's signature elements, as he loved his rocks. Entering through the pecky cypress back door, we were in a Florida Room that was probably originally a back porch. The eye-catching feature of this space was an elaborate fountain in the corner that supported by two pelicans that look just like the one near the fountain in Plymouthonian No. 2.

Adjacent to the Florida Room is a kitchen that connects to a dining room with a two-sided fireplace that goes through to the living room. The hearth has a colorful tile mosaic similar to others I've seen in other Stoltz homes. The living room has a pecky cypress in the ceiling beams, staircase railings, and front door. One of the previous owners, however, painted the ceiling and staircase railings white and they would have to be sandblasted in order to recover the original dark wood tones. It looks to me that the there might have been a medallion or some kind of detail above the fireplace in the living room, but that too has been removed. So while the evidence of Stoltz's artistry is still noticeable in this home, it might take the right owners to bring it back to the full "Stoltzness" as displayed in Plymouthonian No. 2. It takes an imaginative homeowner to live in one these houses – someone who appreciates its eccentricities and embraces living in a "whooping piece of big art" as Martin Cushman recently said about life in a Plymouthonian. It is my hope that that someone with creative vision will buy Plymouthonian No. 1 and the this new owner recognizes the potential of this wonderful house.

Fireplace as viewed from the dining room

Reverse side of fireplace from the living room

Pecky cypress stair railings and ceiling

The view through the pecky cypress front door

Original door hardware

Wonderful coquina and tile front steps

Front facade

Stoltz signature bas relief bird imagery

Colorful details in the bathroom

Fantastic bathroom floor tile

A mature century plant and behind it note the "Romeo and Juliet" pecky cypress balcony

If you are interested in seeing this one-of-a-kind home, contact realtor Terry Ward at 352-638-2556 or email terryward@mymtdoraagent.net

Postscript: Alana Brenner, who's parents own Plymouthonian #1 said this:

"Seems like the perfect house for someone who doesn't have to schlep into downtown too often, an artist like Martin or a writer or a bird lover...There are so many cool birds up there. When we were sprucing up the yard, we were amazed by a baby hawk that was hanging around...it is a lovely place. It just got to be too much for my elderly parents to take care of...
My dad had a garden for a while and also raised small trees which he then donated to Habitat for Humanity for landscaping. I just donated the bulk of them to the City of Orlando's green up program last week so that's why you didn't see them. We have a lot of great memories there...especially at christmas time. It's a beautiful place with candles in the windows and luminaries along the front walk. It's also nice in the fall with the windows open. I think the arched windows in the front are my favorite feature!"

Parkitecture

2011-07-11T20:08:00.002-04:00

I don't normally do packaged tours but for my Mom and Dad's 50th anniversary trip it seemed like the perfect solution. Not only would we get to visit Glacier National Park, we would stay in wonderful historic lodges. I've been a big fan of "parkitecture," the architecture of our National Parks, since I visited the amazing Ahwahnee in Yosemite. Since then I've had lunch at the Yellowstone Lodge, enjoyed dinner at the lodge on the north rim of the Grand Canyon and watched as snowboarders went down Mt. Hood from Oregon's Timberline Lodge. But this tour allowed me the opportunity to actually stay overnight in four of the these wonderful places, something I probably would have never done had I booked the trip on my own.

Glacier National Park was established in northwestern Montana in 1910. Railroad magnate Louis W. Hill, who's Great Northern Railroad passed just below the Park's boundary, saw an opportunity to turn the Park into a destination for his passengers and he built the Glacier Park Lodge in 1913. Located on the Park's eastern boundary, the massive timbers used in the lodge were shipped by flatcar from Washington and Oregon and inspired the Blackfeet Indians to name it "Big Tree Lodge."

The view of the mountains was outstanding from our rooms, but the architecture was just as inspiring. The giant tree trunks acting as columns in the lobby are immense and the scale of the space is enormous. In the early twentieth century, visitors stepping of the train would be met by Blackfeet Indians who set up tee pees on the lawn leading up to the lodge. Today no Native Americans inhabit the lawn but the view from the train platform is sensational.

In 1914 Hill added the Many Glacier Hotel on Swiftcurrent Lake, and over the border in Canada's Waterton National Park he constructed the Prince of Wales Hotel in 1927. The other lodge on the trip was the Lake McDonald Lodge which originated as the Lewis Glacier Hotel built before the creation of the National Park. These three all have the feel of Swiss Chalet hotels with varying degrees of rustic-ness.

After spending our inaugural evening at the Glacier Park Lodge, we headed to Prince of Wales Hotel in Alberta, Canada. Located high on a point protruding into a long glacial lake, the wind howls down the valley and buffets the hotel so that it was blown out of plumb twice during its construction. The most refined of the lodges we visited, it offered a high tea in the afternoon, and was delightful to stay in despite the constant howling of the wind.

Our next stop was Many Glacier which is the midst of a much-needed restoration. The views at each property was outstanding, but Many Glacier was the most breathtaking in my opinion. The bone-chilling winds followed us from Canada and the lobby was packed as few were brave enough to venture out into the elements during our time there. I braved the cold to glimpse an incredible sunrise and was taken enough with the place to consider another visit after the restoration is completed.

Our final stop was the Lake McDonald Lodge, competed in 1914. The lobby is home to many of the specimen's of stuffed large game from the property's days as a hunting lodge before the creation of the park. The west side of the park was much warmer, free from wind and crowded on the holiday weekend I was there. It had a very good restaurant and a cozy bar, however, and it seemed a fitting place to relax for two nights and absorb the incredible natural and man-made wonders of this great National Park.

In addition to having meals overlooking spectacular mountain views and the best rooms in the house in these historic lodges, the tour allowed us to get a more complete picture of the park as a whole, more than I would on my own. And staying at these wonderful properties renewed my desire to seek out historic places in my own state, both rustic and refined, and continue to find survivors of Old Florida in our contemporary state.

Our transportation for the week was in these brightly colored red buses known as Jammers. These restored 1936 vehicles have canvas tops that can be rolled back in good weather for incredible mountain views.

The Gilded Age Home of Henry Flagler

2011-06-25T15:18:00.002-04:00

Henry Flagler was the man who put much of Florida on the map. His Florida East Coast Railroad kept pushing further and further south until he finally stopped at the end of Florida in Key West (and then he passed away shortly afterwards). Along the way he built luxury hotels like St. Augustine's Ponce de Leon and Palm Beach's Royal Poinciana. For his wife he built a 75 room home known as Whitehall in Palm Beach. Today this 1902 Beaux Arts style masterpiece is the Flagler Museum, and visiting it fulfills one of my goals for 2011. While it's not quite as palatial as the Vanderbilt's Biltmore House in North Carolina, I was blown away at the grandeur and opulence of this Guilded Age home.

The immense mansion, located between Flagler's Breakers Resort and Lake Worth, is in unbelievable shape for a building exposed to the Florida elements for over 100 years. In 1925 the property was converted to a hotel and a large addition was added to the rear of the building. In 1959 Flagler's granddaughter purchased the property back and the Flagler Museum opened in 1960.

The motel addition between the main home and Lake Worth no longer stands

Vintage images from the State Archives of Florida

Flash photography inside the museum was prohibited so I was limited in what I could shoot. The space is incredibly ornate and the opulence of the age oozes from every inch of the building.

The bedrooms all had different decor and color schemes. I call this one the "matchy-matchy room" for obvious reasons.

Mrs. Ephemera and I loved the space created for Flagler's train car, completed in 2005. Reminiscent of 19th century train station, the large room is home to the Cafe de Beaux-Arts from Thanksgiving to Easter. As it was June when we visited, it was not open. Darn, we'll just have to come back again!

Finding "LaMo"

2011-06-19T18:28:00.002-04:00

I don't have much experience exploring Ft. Lauderdale, aside from several trips to the Mai Kai and one afternoon on Los Olas, the ritzy shopping boulevard. So my trip Hukilau allowed for just a little more exploring of the area, although I must say in my brief stay it was tough to get a feel for the place. Staying in a large hotel on the beach, I ventured out once on foot and by car a second time as we went to breakfast at a local diner. What I found on my quick walk, I'll call LaMo, for Lauderdale Modern, an homage to the acronym MiMo used to describe Miami Modern architecture.

A short horseshoe-shaped road starting at the Bahia Cabana Motel and ending at the Yankee Clipper, yielded some great mid-century commercial buildings; all of them appeared to be either apartments, condos or motels. I'm not sure how many will survive once the economy recovers and waterfront property values soar again, but the discoveries I made make me want to come back to Ft. Lauderdale and dig a little deeper.

These wonderful relief panels are part of the Bahia Cabana Motel. To see the same design in color, click here.

I loved the architectural details on this building

I'm afraid the future of the complex behind these decorative bricks is not bright
as the entire property was deserted behind a chain link fence.

I loved the colors of these plastic panels and tiles on the Blarney Castle Motel

The decoration on this monolithic column is a wonderful mosaic - I love the hanging stairwells too!

I'm curious about what might be under the paint at the Sea Beach Plaza –
might these two figures be made of mosaic tile as well?

This festive kiosk was in the parking lot of our hotel -
while it is not vintage, it was full of character!

While certainly not "LaMo", this taxidermy shop I stumbled across had plenty of vintage charm.

Finally Lester's Diner seemed like a great unpretentious spot for a good Ft. Lauderdale breakfast

Tiki Heads and Mermaid Tales

2011-06-15T19:54:00.007-04:00

Back in the days before the world wide web, (how did we function?), my brother and I were such tiki heads that we searched both coasts of Florida looking for Tiki Gardens never realizing it had closed a decade earlier. He had an enormous tiki bar in his Daytona Beach apartment and brought back real tikis from both Hawaii and Tahiti. Had the Hukilau been going on back then, we would have thought we had died and gone to heaven. The tiki scene was just beginning to blossom when my brother and I turned our interests elsewhere, and since then tiki culture has really taken off. Even downtown Orlando has a contemporary South Pacific themed bar called the Monkey Bar decorated with images from tiki artists like Shag.

Hukilau 2011 group shot

Hukilau has been going on for a decade or so in Ft. Lauderdale, and after seeing pictures of it last year, I wanted to go. There are bands, programs, room crawls, rum competitions, seminars and lots of great stuff for sale. While heavy partying is a thing of the past for me, the real draw was an opportunity to see a presentation about a short-lived roadside attraction called Aquarama by my friends Jeff and Kelly from Vintage Roadside.

When Jeff and Kelly create a shirt based on a mom-and-pop mid-century roadside business, they do painstaking research to learn about the history of the place. They have three Florida designs: Casper's Alligator and Ostrich Farm near St. Augustine, the Atomic Tunnel from Daytona and Tiki Gardens from Indian Rocks Beach. When researching the roots of Aquarama, a mermaid themed attraction from the Lake of the Ozarks region of Missouri, they were able to make a deep connection with the owner's son, Marc Johl. And that opened up the floodgates to a treasure trove of information and one really great story.

Vintage postcard showing the entrance to Aquarama

The tale begins with Marc's father Wally Johl, a 1940s crooner who for a time sang in nightclubs in the Miami area and even launched his own club from a former gas station. Wally later created Aquarama in Missouri and with the help of Barbara, a Weeki Wachee trained mermaid, the attraction flourished in the mid-sixties. In addition to dozens of rare images, Jeff and Kelly presented rare film footage, audio recordings and even the actual costumes from this fascinating bit of roadside history. They have tracked down most of the "Aquamaids" and "Aqualads" and gleaned amazing stories about what it was like to work at Aquarama. For example, all the blond Aquamaids' hair tuned green from prolonged periods in the chlorinated water. And the underwater props – large clam shells – were actually cast from an iconic shell oil gas station sign. Those same fiberglass shells are all that remain from the attraction at the Aquarama site today.

The depth and thoroughness of the presentation shows Jeff and Kelly's commitment to keeping memories of this delicious bit of Americana from falling into oblivion and as a result of their work, a reunion of the former employees is planned for next year. They have made the presentation previously at the West coast's large tiki gathering, Tiki Oasis in San Diego and have plans to give it at a conference next year. At both Tiki Oasis and Hukilau their talk was capped off with a Q&A from a live mermaid, none other than Marina herself. Marina described how her aquatic talents began when she learned to free dive at the age of three in the Caribbean. As an adult after seeing the mermaids perform at Weeki Wachee, she saw a way to combine her love of the water with her passion for dance, (she was a performer at the Mai Kai), and that's when she began to develop her underwater artistry now seen at the Wreck Bar.

After the presentation folks lined up to see the Aquarama costumes and talk to Marina. The energetic crowd surrounding the presenters was a testament to the success of the program. A bit of mid-century mermaid magic was just passed to the next generation.

Always a good sport, Jeff shows off the Aquamaid costumes

A mermaid tail from Aquarama contrasted with one of Marina's early tails

Your truly with Marina

Mermaids, the Wreck Bar & the Yankee Clipper

2011-06-14T07:41:00.002-04:00

After World War II, Florida experienced one of those growth spurts it's famous for, as many GI's moved their families south to the Sunshine State. One of those vets was George W. "Bob" Gill, who built six properties in Ft. Lauderdale including the Yankee Clipper Hotel, an enormous beachside building that looks like an oceanliner washed up on the shore. Well kinda.

Vintage postcards show the Yankee Clipper during it heydays

The Clipper as it appears today

The 1956 structure, which today is part of the Sheraton Hotel chain, was the first in the area to host a large scale Polynesian revue, according to the hotel's mermaid-in-residence, Medusirena Marina. When the shows stopped in the 1960s, many of the performers moved onto Ft. Lauderale's legendary Mai Kai, according to Marina. Fortunately, the Yankee Clipper's Wreck Bar, a lounge created to look like an old Spanish Galleon, endured.

When I first learned of the Wreck Bar, I heard that there was a chance of it going the way of the Dodo during the hotel's renovations a couple years ago. But that didn't happen and if the crowds squeezing into the tiny bar during Hukilau are any indication, the future of this dark little bar looks bright. The tikiphiles were all there to see the show, for the Wreck Bar is one of only a handful of surviving "porthole" bars with windows into a swimming pool just behind the bar. And in this pool, live mermaids put on acrobatic, alluring shows like you used to see in movies like "Where the Boys Are".

Marina is the star of the show, and this half fish/half human performer is responsible for the resurrection of this lost art, and she is truly an artist, combining "aquatic theatre, dance and spectacle." She has a "pod" of aquatic performers, and for the performance I witnessed it included three mermaids, three pearl divers, a pilot (or boat captain) and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Obviously they were pulling out all the stops for this large, appreciative audience.

Marina in red surrounded by her pod

By the time Mrs. Ephemera and I got to the Wreck Bar, it was too full for two more, so we went topside and enjoyed being "backstage" throughout the bulk of the show. Marina was like a circus ringmaster directing her pod and I was amazed at how long they could all hold their breaths underwater (no Newt Perry breathing apparatus for these mermaids!) I squeezed into the bar towards the end of the performance and captured a few below-the-surface images, but the sheer volume of appreciative fans made it tough to get into position.

Beauty and the Beast

In the tiki community, Marina is a widely known, and I have enjoyed her entertaining Facebook posts for about a year. So it was an honor to meet her and hear her speak about her craft the next day. Stay tuned for part 2.

Urban nature

2011-06-06T18:15:00.001-04:00

I love the flora and fauna of Florida, especially the fact that despite living in one of the most populated areas of the state, I don't have to go far to see some pretty cool wildlife. In fact, sometimes it comes to me. Such was the case on Memorial Day when a pair of Barred Owls hung out in our backyard all day long, from dusk to dawn. The duo made other birds very uncomfortable, but I enjoyed having them around and encouraged them to take all the fruit rats they could eat...

This owl still has down around his face and appears to be a juvenile.

I also found a treasure trove of great aquatic plants, literally in the shadow of Interstate 4. Lake Ivanhoe, which is bisected by I-4 just north of downtown Orlando, has large stands of waterlilies and lotus plants in full bloom. I talked my friend into a kayaking adventure just so I could get close enough to see these remarkable flowers, which are visually fascinating in every stage of their life. Their geometric seedpods look like they are from a science fiction movie, their leaves hold shimmery drops of water like liquid Mercury and even the dead blossoms had their own subtle beauty.

Recently the state legislature voted to remove most of the environmental protections that had maintained and protected much of the undeveloped areas of Florida. Throughout our state's history, Florida's land has been viewed as an exploitable asset that made fortunes for builders and developers. While I'm constantly in awe of the beauty of our natural features we have here, I am also concerned that we might develop so much of the state, that no wild areas will be left. And the my inspiring brushes with the natural world could become things of the past.

A momma Moorhen warns me not to get any closer