Our Towns-Orange County

APOPKA

Apopka's roots, literally and figuratively, are in agriculture. However, this booming city of 45,000, located in the northwest corner of Orlando" target="_blank">Orange County, now encompasses some of the region's most exclusive addresses.

Since 1990, Apopka has more than doubled its area by annexing some 11,000 acres, much of it previously rural land. This land grab has often put the city at odds with Orlando" target="_blank">Orange County, especially when it comes to protecting the fragile Wekiva River basin.

Apopka was settled in the 1840s and named after the Timucuan Indian word meaning "big potato" or "potato eating place." Ironically, the farms that still surround the city grow just about everything but potatoes.

Noted as "The Indoor Foliage Capital of the World," Apopka's foliage industry is a multimillion-dollar business. Consequently, downtown boasts a stainless steel sculpture of a Boston fern instead of the expected war hero or early pioneer. Cut flowers, blooming plants, roses and bulbs are also grown in abundance.

But agriculture is rapidly vanishing as dozens of muck farms, created when Lake Apopka was diked during World War II, are purchased by the state and shut down in an effort to restore the polluted body of water to a pristine state.

Just west of Apopka is the agricultural town of Zellwood, home of the annual Zellwood Corn Festival. The event, held each May for more than 30 years, draws thousands to hear country music and nosh on what is widely regarded as the sweetest sweet corn grown anywhere.

Perhaps a corn-heavy diet is the secret behind the success of the Apopka Little League, winners of the Little League World Series in 1999 and perennial contenders, and the longevity of Apopka's octogenarian mayor, John Land, who has held office for more than 50 years.

A Masonic Lodge, organized in 1857, was the center of activity during the early years. The original building at Alabama Avenue and U.S. Hwy. 441 is still in use and has been designated a state historical site.

COLLEGE PARK

Retirees so dominated Orlando's College Park in the early 1970s that there was talk of closing Princeton Elementary, a well-regarded school that had stood since the neighborhood was platted in the 1920s.

Longtime resident Bill Jennings remembers being unable to buy baby aspirin for his infant son at the local drugstore because the manager wouldn't stock a product for which there was so little demand.

But that was then. This is now. "My wife and I were watching the Easter egg hunt the other day, and we both commented on how the younger folks are moving back," Jennings says.

Although the demographics may be changing, much about this beloved Orlando neighborhood has remained the same. The 80-year-old commercial district along Edgewater Drive has always been home to an array of delightful mom-and-pop shops and eclectic eateries. The streets have always been quiet and the homes well kept and charming.

"It's not unusual at all when the street's too narrow, and a guy in a car pulls over to let you by, he'll give you a friendly wave," says Kevin Gabriel, owner of a landmark sub shop started 45 years ago by his father.

College Park residents still enjoy a Grower's Market, held in Albert Park every weekend from October through May. And throughout the years, many of Orlando's best-known personalities have called the neighborhood home. Today's roster ranges from the likes of Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer to rock 'n' roll legend Roger McGuinn of The Byrds.

So protective are College Park residents of their neighborhood that they banded together in anger to protest the removal of a circa-1950s sign adorning the local Publix supermarket. The grocery chain quickly dropped its plans and instead restored the old sign to its original Eisenhower-age splendor.

Much of the talk in College Park these days is over The Wellesley, a $48 million, 147-unit condominium and retail project that broke ground last November after developer Jim Kersey razed an office building on Edgewater Drive.

The project will become College Park's first multi-story, mixed-use project. At press time, 90 percent of the 107 condominium units in Phase One had been sold and 40 units in Phase Two were about to come online.

Kersey and his partners, Real Estate Collaborative LLC, are also buying up other parcels along Edgewater, College Park's main drag, for future development.

"College Park businesspeople have always struggled some because there aren't enough people here during the day," says Vicki Vargo, a city commissioner whose district includes the College Park area. "I think this project will help the stores and the restaurants."

Kersey, who lives within a few blocks of The Wellesley and is vice president of the College Park Merchants Association, says he spent two years pondering what kind of project would make financial sense while not impacting the neighborhood's cherished ambience.

"My goal is to polish the apple," Kersey says. "College Park is already a great place to live, but if we can have even more dining choices, more retail choices and more housing choices, then it will improve even more."

But most residential real estate activity in College Park still involves resales. Heather Dean of Sutton and Sutton Realty says College Park homes can still be found for around $200,000. But for that price don't expect anything beyond a circa-1940s fixer-upper with two bedrooms and one bathroom.

"Buyers want Grandma's home with wood floors, a fireplace and crown molding," says Dean. "But they also want granite kitchens and updated bathrooms. That's why it's becoming more common to tear down older homes and build new ones."

EATONVILLE

Eatonville, notable as America's oldest African-American municipality, was incorporated in 1883. But it has been difficult for the historic city to remain viable under the burden of a declining tax base and routine accusations of financial mismanagement among elected officials.

Still, Eatonville has plenty to be proud of. Its most famous former resident is the Harlem Renaissance author and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston. She spent her early years in Eatonville, and wrote fondly about her childhood in books such as Their Eyes Were Watching God and Dust Tracks on a Road.

Today the town's literary heritage is promoted with the Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities, which more than 100,000 people attend every year on the last weekend in January. The Zora Neale Hurston Museum of Fine Arts is the organizer.

And the future is hopeful. A highly rated television movie based on Their Eyes Were Watching God aired in March, bringing national attention to Eatonville. And the city's fortuitous location between Maitland and Winter Park and its attractive land prices finally have begun to attract commercial and industrial investment.

Recently the city got a new focal point with the opening of the Orlando" target="_blank">Orange County library system's newest branch at Zora Neale Hurston Square. The facility has about 25,000 books, CDs and DVDs along with 21 computers. Reflecting the community's heritage, the library's community room will feature a large Hurston display.

GOTHA

If you're not a horticulturist, perhaps you've never heard of Gotha, a tiny rural enclave tucked inconspicuously north of upscale Winderemere.

But if plants are your passion, you may know Gotha as the onetime caladium capitol of the world and home of Henry Nehrling, a turn-of-the-century horticulturist who specialized in growing tropical and subtropical plants.

Nehrling, who moved to Gotha in 1884, established one of the most renowned botanical gardens in the world as well as an experimental agriculture station for the study of exotic strains of bamboo, amaryllis, bromeliad, orchid, ficus and, of course, the caladium, which Nehrling was the first in Florida to grow and sell.

Today his ramshackle house still stands, although its ultimate fate is uncertain as boosters struggle to raise funds for its restoration. But the unincorporated community surrounding it, which Nehrling once described as "a dreamland, with almost untouched evergreen woodlands and hundreds of lakes glittering like mirrors," is starting to grow.

At least five upscale neighborhoods are either under construction or in the planning stages. Still, the county's rural-settlement designation generally prohibits density greater than one home per acre, meaning that new developments will likely be exclusive and expensive.

Nehrling's "dreamland" is still charming. The tree-shaded, one-block commercial district features the wood vernacular, circa-1920 New Life at Zion Lutheran Church. Across the street is funky Yellow Dog Eats, an eclectic restaurant that occupies a circa-1879 structure that had previously been a private home and a general store. The post office still has a community chalkboard out front where notices are posted about civic meetings and potluck suppers.

MAITLAND

Since the 1960s, Maitland has been a quintessential bedroom community. Some of the area's first suburbs were built there to attract young families looking for large lawns and good schools.

In the late 1970s, a sprawling office park called Maitland Center was built near the I-4 interchange, giving the city a distinctive business identity as well. The 190-acre development contains a hotel, 45 office buildings and 400 businesses. More than 12,000 people work there.

Now, Maitland is finally getting the cohesive downtown area it has long lacked. The Uptown Maitland west project will incorporate upscale retail space and 375 luxury condominium units on a parcel in the heart of Maitland, at U.S. Hwy. 17-92 and East George Avenue. .

And last July, voters overwhelmingly approved a property tax increase to fund a new city hall and public safety facility that will anchor a new town center.

Although Maitland can only be described as a thoroughly modern suburb, it has actually been in existence longer than most Central Florida communities.

It was established in 1838 as Fort Maitland, named in honor of Capt. William S. Maitland, a hero of the Second Seminole War. In 1880, the railroad from Sanford arrived, sparking a tourism boom that lasted until freezes in the 1890s scuttled the visitor trade.

In 1937 sculptor André Smith founded the Mayan-themed Maitland Arts Center, which was originally intended to be a compound where artists could live and work. The center, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, features an open-air chapel that has become a popular spot for weddings. Few seem frightened by the prospect of encountering Smith's ghost, which is said to occupy the facility and peer over the shoulders of resident artists as they work.

To help preserve vestiges of its past, city officials have established a historic corridor in the Lake Lily-Lake Catherine area. Along the corridor are roughly a half-dozen homes built in the 1880s through the turn of the century. There are also a handful of historic commercial buildings along Maitland Avenue.

Today Maitland is home to the Enzian Theater, the region's only art-house cinema and setting for the annual Florida Film Festival. The theater was built in 1985 by the late philanthropist John Teidke and is run by Tiedke's daughter-in-law Siegrid.

Two large art festivals are in Maitland: one in October sponsored by the Maitland Rotary Club and one in April sponsored by the Maitland/South Seminole Chamber of Commerce. The Florida Audubon Society was founded in Maitland, and its headquarters, including a bird hospital, remain on Lake Sybellia.

OAKLAND

More than 100 years ago, Oakland was the industrial and social hub of Orlando" target="_blank">Orange County. Today the picturesque town, which lies two miles west of Winter Garden on the southern shores of Lake Apopka, is home to just 1,800 people.

And "town" is how elected officials refer to Oakland, despite the fact that it was incorporated as a city in 1959. Indeed, a designation of "city" does seem a bit incongruous for this rural enclave, where voters have rejected proposals to pave the narrow clay streets for fear that more people might want to drive on them.

Still, change is coming. Oakland's population has nearly tripled over the past three years, and planners say 5,000 people will call themselves Oaklanders by 2010.

Much of the growth has come from new, gated subdivisions on the south side of S.R. 50, where some residents feel little connection to "old" Oakland and its small-town traditions.

However, bringing longtime residents and newcomers together is the Oakland Avenue Charter School, which was built using an $8 million, 30-year bond issue. The idea, say city officials, is to unite the community's disparate elements behind a community institution that benefits everyone.

Among the city's other assets is the 19-mile West Orange Trail, a mecca for hikers and bikers that begins in Oakland and stretches northeast to Apopka along the original Orange Belt and Florida Midland railbeds. More than 50,000 people per month traverse the trail's length.

Oakland is also home to the 93-acre Oakland Nature Preserve, where wildlife abounds and paths and boardwalks line the shores of Lake Apopka.

"Our challenges are many," says town manager Jay Evans. "But our determination is strong. I'm confident that when the dust settles from this wave of the Central Florida growth machine, our residents will be proud to call Oakland home, and will appreciate living in a small town that still has all the charm of Mayberry."

OCOEE

Ocoee remained an isolated citrus town clustered around Starke Lake until the 1980s. Now, with 24,391 residents, it has edged ahead of Winter Park to become the third-largest city in Orlando" target="_blank">Orange County, behind Orlando and Apopka.

The transformation began two decades ago, when devastating freezes destroyed thousands of acres of citrus trees and opened west Orange and south Lake counties for development. Today, Ocoee boasts a 1-million-square-foot regional mall and at least two dozen new subdivisions with homes in all price ranges.

Ocoee's beginnings were inauspicious. In the mid-1850s, a physician named J.D. Starke led a group of slaves into the area and established a camp along the western shores of the lake that now bears his name. Capt. Bluford Sims, who hailed from Ocoee, Tenn., arrived in 1861 and bought 50 acres from Starke. He then platted what would become downtown Ocoee.

Through the years, Ocoee developed into a thriving citrus-producing center. Today, however, housing is the city's hottest commodity. The Florida Turnpike, the East/West Expressway and a new Western Beltway all pass through the city, meaning once remote downtown Orlando is now just a 15-minute commute.

Despite its growth, Ocoee has managed to preserve its past. During the annual Founder's Day Festival, held each October, visitors tour lovely Victorian homes such as the Withers-Maguire House, once a winter refuge for a Confederate general and now a museum.

Also of interest is the circa-1890 Ocoee Christian Church, with its gothic architecture and Belgian-made stained-glass windows, as well as several vintage commercial buildings in the original downtown area.

Commercial growth is booming, especially along the S.R. 50 corridor, where orange groves and cattle pastures once predominated. In Ocoee, those rustic vistas have been replaced by a Wal-Mart SuperCenter, a Best Buy, a Red Roof Inn and dozens of strip centers.

New residential development is focused on the northwest side along the S.R. 429 corridor. A new community center, senior center and high school are slated for the area. The high school is set to open later this year.

WINDERMERE

Nestled among the spring-fed Butler Chain of Lakes, the cozy Town of Windermere, population 2,300, has emerged as the region's new-money address of choice.

"This is where it's at," says longtime Windermere resident Suzi Karr, owner of Suzi Karr Realty. "We're the hot area."

With Lake Butler on the west, Lake Down on the east and Lake Bessie on the southeast, Windermere is a verdant peninsula on which some of Central Florida's priciest real estate sits.

But, although they advertise Windermere addresses, most of the ritzy developments aren't technically in Windermere.

The town itself is just 689 acres, and consists largely of a laid-back retail district with some mom-and-pop stores and a scattering of older homes lining sandy streets. Those streets remain unpaved to discourage traffic and to prevent runoff from damaging the Butler Chain, which consists of eight pristine lakes connected via a canal system.

The lakes attracted one of Windermere's first investors, Joseph Hill Scott, an English clergyman who in 1885 bought 150 acres. Scott's son, Stanley, homesteaded the property and supposedly named it after Lake Windermere in England.

The railroad connected Windermere and Kissimmee in 1889, but freezes in 1894 and 1895 destroyed the town's citrus industry. Little changed until 1910, when a pair of Ohio investors named D.H. Johnson and J. Calvin Palmer bought all the land they could piece together and formed the Windermere Improvement Company for the purpose of developing it.

The pair promoted "Beautiful Lakes of Pure Spring Water," and aimed their marketing at moneyed northerners.

What worked nearly a century ago is working today. The lakes, along with world-class golf courses, stunning scenery and a bucolic ambience, still attract new residents to this west Orlando" target="_blank">Orange County enclave.

Although few who live here want to see the town change significantly, Windermere city officials are making concessions to the growth surrounding it.

The town recently began work on a $3.4 million project to revamp the downtown area, bricking three blocks of Main and Frontage streets, expanding parking lots, replacing stop signs with roundabouts and generally upgrading its appearance.

And developer Kevin Azzouz, who in 2003 purchased much of the property in the business district, has talked about creating a town center, much to the consternation of residents who like downtown's unpretentious combination of shabby and chic.

Consultants are also working with elected officials on an annexation policy, which would give the city control over development outside its current borders. In the past, residents have fought annexation because it would dramatically increase the city's population.

WINTER GARDEN

It was 1857 when Becky Roper Stafford's great-great-grandfather first glimpsed Lake Apopka. W.C. Roper was riding through the backwoods of west Orlando" target="_blank">Orange County on horseback, seeking a place to build a home for his family waiting back in Merriwether County, Ga.

Roper bought 600 acres along the shore, between present-day Winter Garden and Oakland, and returned a year later with his wife and 10 children. The ambitious settler operated a sawmill, gristmill, sugar mill and cotton gin. Later he built a tannery for making shoes, and served as Orlando" target="_blank">Orange County's superintendent of schools from 1873 to 1877.

Fast-forward to the 1920s, when Roper's son Frank planted the area's first orange trees, marking the humble beginnings of an industry that would sustain and define Winter Garden, which had been incorporated in 1903, for the next six decades.

It was a busy time for Winter Garden's three-story Edgewater Hotel, now a bed-and-breakfast, which opened in 1927 with a telegraph office, electric heating and fire sprinkler system. As the only hotel in the western portion of the county for nearly 30 years, the Edgewater emerged as a primary community gathering spot, a place where special events were held and business deals were sealed.

Winter Garden remained an idyllic small town throughout World War II and into the 1950s and 1960s. Far removed from Orlando, which was about to be reshaped by the advent of Disney World, the city remained self-sufficient and unpretentious.

"I grew up with the scent of orange blossoms," says Stafford, whose father Bert was also a prominent local citrus grower. She remembers when Davis' Pharmacy was the place to meet friends for a vanilla Coke and when the Starlite Drive-in attracted weekend crowds of teens and families alike.

"Winter Garden was the quintessential vibrant small town," says Stafford. "We had the distinction of being the only town with two train depots because it was such a busy shipping community with fresh fruit going all over the world."

Fast-forward again to the 1980s, when devastating freezes destroyed thousands of acres of citrus. Roper Growers Cooperative, Heller Brothers and Louis Dreyfus Citrus eventually recovered. But as growers regrouped or retreated, once bustling downtown Winter Garden became a virtual ghost town.

Concurrently, developers began buying up decimated groves for new homes, creating new subdivisions seemingly overnight. But most of the residential growth, and the retail growth that followed, was outside the city, which made Winter Garden proper even more of an anachronism.

Then came a brilliant project called Rails to Trails, through which abandoned railbeds across the country were converted into hiking and biking trails. The popular West Orange Trail passed directly through Winter Garden, thus converting the all-but-forgotten city into an oasis to thousands of ready-to-spend strollers.

"Rails to Trails has been an incredible catalyst," says Stafford, who now works with the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation to help rekindle her hometown memories. "All of a sudden, we had 10,000, then 20,000, now 50,000 people a month coming through downtown Winter Garden."

City officials have made certain that these visitors will be charmed by what they see. In 2001, the tired downtown district underwent a facelift. Brick streets were restored, old buildings were remodeled and Centennial Fountain, saluting the city's citrus-growing heritage, was constructed.

Today locals and outlanders gather at Choctaw Willie's in the reopened Edgewater Hotel for barbecue, collard greens and sweet tea. Across the street, Moon Cricket Café serves eclectic cuisine and an array of micro-brewed beers. Winter Garden Pizza Factory is all about pasta, fresh pies and family fun.

Proprietor-owned shops, like JR's Attic, Downtown Herb Shoppe and Every Little Girl's Dream, are thriving. But you'll still find a wonderfully cluttered hardware store that sells farming supplies, which serves as a reminder that this town quaintness isn't contrived.

And, locals proudly note, Winter Garden features three historical museums open seven days a week. There's the Central Florida Railroad Museum and the Heritage Museum, both housed in restored depots. History buffs may also stroll around the city and view such landmarks as the 1860s-era Beulah Baptist Church.

And redevelopment is on a roll: Stafford is hard at work with the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation to renovate the historic Garden Theater on Plant Street. The old movie house, which will become a 300-seat performing arts center, is set to reopen later this year.

While the old downtown is re-emerging as a force to be reckoned with, several miles south a 147-acre, open-air mall called Winter Garden Village has passed preliminary approval hurdles and could open next year. The mall, to be located between Winter Garden-Vineland Road and the Western Beltway south of S.R. 50, will have a 24-screen movie theater and nearly 1.6 million square feet of retain space, including major department stores.

Also to the south of downtown, along C.R. 535 and S.R. 545, more than 40 communities totaling 25,000 homes are expected to be built where citrus groves once flourished.

The biggest of the new developments is Horizon West, a 38,000-acre master-planned community that has been in the planning stages for a decade. At buildout, its two villages-Bridgewater and Lakeside-will contain nearly 18,000 homes.

The first neighborhood is Independence, located in the Bridgewater village and developed by Transeastern Properties. The 1,342-acre project will encompass 2,415 homes, a 5,300-square-foot clubhouse, two town centers, three schools, two lakes and 600 acres of parks and preservation areas.

Although neighborhoods within Horizon West will have easy access to town centers, expect additional retail and commercial development to follow homebuyers west. Facilitating that growth is construction of the Western Beltway from the Florida Turnpike to the north and U.S. 192 to the south.

The burgeoning area may even get a community college. Valencia Community College is eyeing a 200-acre site on Schofield Road, near C.R. 545 and Horizon West.