Winter Park

By Jim Norris, Claire Strom, Danielle Johnson and Sydney Marshall

Winter Park is a unique community in central Florida. Its old-world charm and walkable downtown have drawn visitors from around the country and the world since the town's foundation in the 1880s. Residents and visitors alike enjoy the city's world-class cultural offerings, including the largest collection of Tiffany glass in the Morse Museum, the music of the Bach Festival Society, and theatrical performances at the Annie Russell Theatre. Winter Park citizens have been actively involved in world events, serving in wars, protesting wars, and sending relief to those in need. The wealth of the community, in conjunction with the presence of Rollins College, has attracted visits from many prominent people, from Spiro Agnew to Maya Angelou.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Jun 22, 2015
• ISBN: 9781439651964

Jim Norris

Jim Norris is an associate professor of history at North Dakota State University. He is the author of After the Year Eighty: The Demise of Franciscan Power in Spanish New Mexico.

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INTRODUCTION

During the past half century, Winter Park, Florida, has reflected most of the changes felt throughout Florida and the rest of the United States. The rapid growth in Florida’s population spurred by the space program, the location of Disney and other theme parks, and the burgeoning retirement centers of the Sunshine State was mirrored in Winter Park. The population more than doubled after 1960.

A central, nationwide development after 1960 occurred in commercial retail, especially the proliferation of shopping centers. The Winter Park Mall opened in 1964 and continued to lure shoppers for over three decades. In 1999, Winter Park Village opened on the same site. These shopping meccas led to significant change on Park Avenue, historically the city’s commercial center. Longtime favorite retail institutions such as the Proctor Shops and Leedy’s fell victim to the shopping center. The Colony Theatre closed when it could not compete with mall multiplexes. Conversely, the women friendly nearby Miller’s Hardware survived and thrives today.

Park Avenue, however, reclaimed its centrality to the community. In 1998, the city began the Enhancement Project on Park Avenue, a two-year development and renovation enterprise that included new lighting, landscaping, and public seating areas. The thoroughfare itself was bricked anew. In 2000, the café ordinances allowed sidewalk tables and outdoor alcohol consumption for the first time. Today, more than 40 restaurants, cafés, and drinking establishments are on Park Avenue and its side streets.

The Central Park space has continued to draw people to Park Avenue as well. Hosting such events as Christmas in the Park and the Olde Fashion Fourth of July Celebration, the public green is often thronged with people. Indeed, the Winter Park Art Festival there has become one of the largest such festivals in the nation. Begun with only 90 artists in 1960, today more than 600 artists vie for a place to exhibit their work.

The train station, now an Amtrak facility, remains adjacent to Central Park, but the nearby freight warehouse—now defunct—offers another reason to visit downtown Winter Park. The farmers’ market opened for the first time in 1979 and quickly became a weekly social and cultural mainstay in residents’ and visitors’ plans. The market became so popular that the area was expanded and renovated in 1995. More than 5,000 people visit the market each weekend.

Winter Park was witness to other social and cultural developments during the second half of the 20th century. While the African American citizens in the Hannibal Square area had suffered the same segregation endemic to the South and other areas of the country, Winter Park moved to integrate fairly rapidly in the 1960s. The high school enrolled its first African American student in 1963; the rest of its schools were integrated by 1968. The police department hired its first African American officer in 1966; the remainder of city departments followed soon thereafter. The Hannibal Square Public Library merged with the Winter Park Library in 1968.

A leading agent in the area’s social and cultural change (it had integrated its student body shortly after World War II), Rollins College continued to be a significant institution in Winter Park. Like the community, the student body more than doubled. Important changes happened for women during the postwar era, and Rollins College embodied those shifts. In 2000, the student body had a majority enrollment of female students, and the college’s president was a woman. Likewise, the campus was a venue for protest against the Vietnam War, apartheid in South Africa, and other controversial events. It played host to visiting world political figures such as Great Britain’s Margaret Thatcher, Israel’s Yitzhak Rabin, and very recently, Pres. Barack Obama. The Winter with the Writers program annually brings poets and novelists such as Maya Angelou (now deceased). The yearly Bach Society Festival is now the third oldest event of its kind in the nation. To be sure, other educational institutions such as Winter Park High School and Trinity Preparatory lend their activities to the ambience of the community