Biking the Orlando Urban Trail

The City of Orlando opened up a new pathway for biking, running and walking called the Orlando Urban Trail, and despite the August heat, I couldn't wait to try it out. Following the course of the Dinky Railroad that used to run from Orlando to Winter Park, the Trail extends from Magnolia Avenue near Lake Ivanhoe, to Mead Gardens in Winter Park. I found a little bit of everything on my exploration of the Trail: nature, culture and history. And while the path's distance of about 2.5 miles is pretty short for cycling, I felt like I got in some good exercise too.

The Trail goes by several of the city's urban lakes including lakes Formosa, Rowena, Sue, Highland and Estelle. From my bike I saw turtles floating, great blue herons fishing and anhingas drying their wings. The city actually created a bridge that goes over Lake Formosa right at the Menello Museum on the edge of Loch Haven Park.

Lake Highland, looking towards downtown Orlando

The bridge crossing Lake Formosa

The Menello Museum's Sculpture Garden

Loch Haven is the home to much of the city's culture including the Menello, Orlando Museum of Art, Science Center and several theaters. I'll have to remember that I can use this path during next year's Fringe Festival when parking becomes challenging at Loch Haven Park. Unfortunately,  just beyond the museum, one must cross 17-92 at a stoplight – one of my few criticisms of the Trail. It would be nice if there was an overpass like Seminole County has for their trail, but realistically I have no idea where they'd put one.

Orlando Museum of Art

After crossing 17-92 and going over Lake Estelle, once one of the city's premier swimming spots and site of the Florida Sanitorium (now Florida Hospital), the Trail dumps you off into a posh Winter Park neighborhood before entering Mead Gardens. There are water fountains at both Mead Gardens and the other end of the trail near Lake Highland. One of my favorite features of the Trail are the two historical markers about the Dinky Railroad and Mills & Nebraska Lumber. In a couple spots, warehouses still back up to the former railroad line and this route's industrial past become apparent. Mills & Nebraska, a lumberyard started in 1933 was built near the railroad line in the days when moving product by train was critical. In the condo craze that swept the city earlier this decade, Mills & Nebraska was demolished to make way for a new development that has never happened. So for now a portion of the trail passes through some rare open space in the heart of the city. On the opposite side are cozy bungalows on one of Orlando's many quaint brick streets.

Beautiful home across from Lake Sue

History of the Dinky Railroad marker

History of Mills & Nebraska Lumber marker

Looking towards former location of Mills & Nebraska Lumber

Overall I say this is a welcome addition to the city's public amenities. Even though the Trail is relatively new, I saw people walking, running and riding bikes on every portion of the pathway. While much of Orlando is challenging to cyclists, opening up paths like this make it safer and more interesting to exercise and be outdoors.

The Trail inside Mead Gardens

Bartram Trail marker within Mead Gardens

Mead Gardens is a great spot for the terminus of the Trail

Lake Highland near the opposite end of the Trail

Historic building near Lake Highland

From a meditation center near the Trail

Mid-century modern matters

The City of Winter Park has some wonderful architecture from the 20th century like Casa Feliz and the Spanish Revival buildings on the Rollins College campus. A fairly affluent community, Winter Park has the means to preserve historic structures so they can be enjoyed by future generations. The city doesn't seem to have much regard, however, for structures built in the mid-twentieth century.

First, they demolished the wonderful Langford Resort Hotel, Central Florida's most glamorous resort for many years. Now in an effort to create more park space, they are considering tearing down the mid-century modern post office built in 1965. The Orlando Sentinel published an article last week about the proposed expansion of Central Park, the city's wonderful stretch of green running most of the length of Park Avenue, parallel to the railroad tracks. The article focuses mainly on the fact that $4 million dollars would need to be raised to expand the park, and "professional fundraising consultants and media relations people" have been hired to make this happen.

The part of the article that got my attention was this: "relocating the New York Avenue post office to the northern edge of the park and moving the postal distribution center out of the downtown core." I got the impression from reading minutes from the Winter Park City Commission meeting in August, that city leaders have embraced the idea of moving the customer service portion of the post office to somewhere else near Park Avenue. As the Postal Service nationwide struggles to remain viable, and post offices are are used less and less, this is not surprising.


The most interesting aspect of this particular post office are the murals on two sides of the building. I don’t know if you would call them mosaics because they appear to be painted rock. The wonderful abstract design is very typical mid-century modern and was created Tampa area artist Joe Testa-Secca. The winner of the Best of Show award at the Winter Park Sidewalk Art Show in ‘65, Testa-Secca also has completed murals on the University of South Florida campus.

This decoration on the Department of Chemistry at USF is described this way" bas relief murals (symbolizing "Man's relationship to man") created by Joe Testa-Secca."

Here is a brief bio of the artist I found online: “Born in 1928, Tampa native and veteran of the Korean Conflict, Joe Testa-Secca earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Tampa, an M.F.A. from the University of Georgia and completed post-graduate work in Fine Arts at the University of Iowa. Joe Testa-Secca is currently working as Professor Emeritus with the University of Tampa. His honors and awards include exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts in NYC, the Delgado Museum, and the U.S. Art in the Embassies Program to name a few, including 35 one-man exhibitions during his entire career. His work has been featured in many permanent collections across the country.”

When I contacted the public relations firm in charge of raising the money, they offered very little information. While I understand that a full service post office may no longer be necessary in Winter Park, (an online comment on the Sentinel’s story said 52% of respondents favored keeping the Post Office), I wonder if they’d consider somehow incorporating the murals into the new park space. They are a wonderful time capsule into the aesthetics of the 1960s and would make a great backdrop or even a focal point for an outdoor area. Overall Central Florida has done a lousy job of preserving resources from that era, and while many don’t appreciate that aesthetic now, perhaps future generations might enjoy it in the same manner we love the architecture of James Gamble Rogers II today.

Rediscovering Mead Gardens

Near Orlando on my 1956 Standard Oil map of attractions is a drawing of an orchid blossom under which a caption reads "Orchid Garden." It is my guess the map refers to Mead Botanical Gardens, a Winter Park landmark that was dedicated in 1940. According to a sign on the property, the Gardens were established when Rollins College Vice President Dr. Edwin Grover and Rollins student John Connery discovered the site in 1937 and convinced the owners of the property to donate the land to create the gardens. One of the landowners was developer Walter Rose, a Florida State Senator who was responsible for the creation of much of the College Park and Orwin Manor developments in Orlando and Winter Park.

1940 Dedication of Mead Gardens

Zarnasee Jungle, Lily Pool, and Island in Mead Botanical Gardens

Grover and Connery desired the site to host the vast orchid collection of renowned botanist Theodore Mead, who passed away in 1936. With the donation of the land and the help of a grant from the WPA, New Deal workers "erected a surrounding palm fence, two gatehouses, greenhouses, a superintendent's building, and developed beautiful floral displays and three miles of nature trails..." In 1953, the Gardens were taken over by the City of Winter Park.



Among the "things to see and enjoy" in the gardens, according to a vintage brochure, are 5,000 orchids, rare plants including the Nepenthe or "Meat Rating plant", trees including the "Fossil Tree" from China and the Sausage Tree, ferns, club mosses, cycads, palms, trails and gardens. The brochure boasts that the gardens has "large plantings of Azaleas, Gardenias, Camellias, Hermerocallis, Caladiums and Roses" and "half mile of winding jungle trail bordering a lovely brook with tiny waterfalls.


Today many of the exotic plants are no longer in existence as the garden fell into disrepair in the late '80s. The highly acclaimed orchids are no where to be found and this time of year the "jungle trail" is mostly underwater. Lake Lillian, a small water body on the property, is almost entirely covered by an invasive plant called primrose willow, but efforts are underway to reclaim the lake's natural beauty. There are new plantings of native species and they seem to be thriving and attracting beautiful butterflies and hummingbirds. On my visit the I saw a bird watching group, photographers and dog walkers all enjoying the gardens. Gardening in the subtropical weather of Florida can be challenging; controlling rapid growth by desirable and undesirable plants require constant attention. Despite severe damage from the hurricanes of 2004, Mead Gardens appears to be on its way back to being the spot that has been revered by Central Floridians for decades.

Bartram Trail Marker

Who's afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

I guess I'm a creature of habit and when I drive my favorite routes to get to my favorite places, I have certain landmarks I always count on seeing. On the back way to Winter Park, I always enjoy seeing the mid-century Winter Park Day Nursery and its large mosaic of Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf. So I was shocked yesterday to find it gone! A quick email to the nursery generated this response:
"Our mosaic was removed last week. And while we are sad that it is gone, it is only a temporary situation. The mosaic was first designed and constructed in 1959 when the building was built. Due to “old age” and weather conditions, in recent years some tiles began to fall off (note bottom left area of photo). We preserved as many of the fallen tiles as possible. With this in mind, we knew that a more permanent solution was needed. Last year, we wrote and were awarded a grant to restore the mosaic. We have a professional who is cataloging the tiles and the mosaic will be finished by the end of the year. We are very excited to see it’s finished product. Thank you for your concern and feel free to stop by at any time to take a tour of the nursery to see the children that inspired our legacy. "

There are very few examples of architecture left from the fifties and sixties in Central Florida; I'm glad that this one is being well-cared for! Like a good fairy tale, this saga appears to have a happy ending.

Central Florida Modern right under my nose

Central Florida is fortunate enough to have at least two former proteges of Frank Lloyd Wright practice architecture in the area, Isabel Roberts and Nils Schweizer. Most of Roberts' surviving commercial structures, created with her partner Ida Ryan, are in St. Cloud. Schweizer's legacy however, stretches into the twenty-first century with notable structures all over Central Florida and an organization called the Nils M. Schweizer Fellows. The Fellows is behind the Central Florida Modern group and have created this great online resource documenting some of our more distinctive pieces of modern architecture.

The site was a valuable resource as I photographed some of Schweizer's work for the Reflections journal. In addition to a home a couple blocks from me, I found familiar buildings I'd never stopped to notice before, had been designed by Schweizer. For instance, the Orlando Chamber of Commerce stands out like an island between I-4, Lake Ivanhoe and Orange Avenue. I taught myself how to rollerblade in the parking lot on weekends, years ago, yet never really took time to observe the building. The first floor space is basically a glass cube that invites the outside in. The details of the building, perpendicular steps and vertical lines, are very reminiscent of the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, at least in my novice opinion, and as I skated by I'd never stopped to notice them before.

Another building I had taken for granted was the Schweizer building right on Park Avenue. Directly across from the Briarpatch Restaurant, this modernist structure is partially hidden by trees now. Having walked by this place dozens of times, I'd never stopped to really look at it before. It's really quite visually interesting.

Other building Schweizer worked on include the expansion of the public library downtown and many churches including Episcopal churches in Maitland and Azalea Park. He is probably best known for the work he did with Frank Lloyd Wright at Florida Southern College. He also did master planning for the Springs subdivision (formerly Sanlando Springs) and Loch Haven Park.


While I admit I still have a lot to learn about architecture, I love discovering that the same buildings I'd taken for granted for years, have hidden beauty I've overlooked due simply to my lack of awareness of them.

Casa Feliz

The greatest surviving masterpiece of Central Florida architect James Gamble Rogers II is considered to be the Barbour House, otherwise known as Casa Feliz. Located at the end of Park Avenue, the home was moved from its lakefront location to save it from demolition. It is available as a rental for private events and open to the public on Sundays. On the National Historic Register, it was created from bricks salvaged from the demoed National Armory. The wonderful property features many JGRII signature elements such as an intentionally distressed whitewash over the bricks, broken arches and hanging balconies. It's easy to get absorbed into the countless architectural details of this place, and the landscaping is tremendous. This 1930s Mediterranean Revival home is a Winter Park treasure and well worth a Sunday excursion.