Our Towns

Yes, the elaborate tourist attractions garner the international attention. But all present-day visitors to Orlando need to do is look out the airplane window to see what originally drew settlers to Central Florida-all those lakes.

Indeed, the Orlando area's lakes-as well as its rivers and streams-

have played an integral part in the development of the region dating back to the 1800s, when early settlers arrived here via steamboat after traversed the northern-flowing St. Johns River from Jacksonville.

Today, those shimmering bodies of water-some huge, some tiny and many interconnected by man-made canals or natural tributaries-provide some of the choicest real estate in all of Florida. Whether it's the Butler-Tibet Chain of Lakes in south Orlando, home to pro athletes and golfing legends, or aptly named Orlando" target="_blank">Lake County, with more than 1,900 named bodies of water, Central Florida is a water-worshipper's mecca.

While most lakes are rimmed with homes and towering cypress trees, others are dedicated to public recreation-waterskiing and wakeboarding, kayaking and competitive rowing-and many offer surprisingly good fishing.

Certainly, the key to savoring Orlando beyond the theme parks is simple: look for the lakes. While Florida's largest landlocked city might fall short when it comes to gorgeous beaches (but hey, it's only an hour's drive to the Atlantic) it's long on freshwater attractions.

NAMED BY THE BARD?

At the heart of Orlando sits Lake Eola Park, a 20-acre urban escape that, along with the neighborhoods around it, symbolizes what has come to be known as "The City Beautiful."

At one end of the lake is a monument honoring one Orlando Reeves, a soldier said to have been killed by Seminole Indians while guarding nearby Fort Gatlin during the Second Seminole War. During the city's centennial celebration in 1975, however, researchers scoured War Department records and found no record of Reeves.

Others have speculated that Judge James Gamble Speer, an early pioneer, was responsible for the city's moniker. Speer, an aficionado of Shakespeare, may have borrowed the name "Orlando" from a character in As You Like It.

We're pulling for Speer, since the Shakespeare connection dovetails nicely with one of the city's stellar events, the Orlando-University of Central Florida Shakespeare Festival which, for six weeks each spring, takes to the stage in the park's 950-seat amphitheater.

Then, no sooner has the curtain dropped on the Bard than the giddy Orlando International Fringe Festival launches its annual 10-day run. Modeled after a similar alternative theater-fest in Edinburgh, Scotland, the Fringe presents the sublime, the ridiculous and everything in-between using both state-of-the-art venues in Loch Haven Park, a cultural focal point that also houses the Orlando Museum of Art and the Orlando Science Center.

More up-tempo pursuits lie within easy walking distance. The one-mile footpath around Lake Eola skirts past Thornton Park, a newly gentrified neighborhood boasting some of the city's best restaurants.

Downtown's main drag, Orange Avenue, runs just two blocks west of Lake Eola and, after the bankers and attorneys check out for the day, it's home to a kinetic nightclub scene.

While it's inescapably true that some of these clubs have served as Petri dishes for a number of homogenized pop acts-'N-Sync and the Backstreet Boys are among the groups that were launched in Orlando-a typical night serves up surprisingly diverse entertainment options.

And that's just Orlando proper. The Orlando MSA actually encompasses 1.7 million people in Orange, Seminole, Osceola and Lake counties. And, like Orlando, the dozens of municipalities encompassing the metro area boast charms all their own.

You'll find picture-postcard villages where tree-shaded streets are lined with antique shops and Victorian homes, farm towns where citrus packing plants still crate and ship delicious oranges, and modern mixed-use developments built around resort-style amenities.

The region is urban and rural, wealthy and middle-class, bustling and laid-back, traditional and edgy, conservative and liberal, sophisticated and naïve. But for all its contradictions, it's unmistakably family-friendly and unabashedly welcoming to newcomers.

THE BOOM CONTINUES

Given all that, it's no surprise that the four-county area is growing so rapidly. In fact, growth is now pushing outward, toward areas once considered to be on the periphery.

For example, to the northeast, Volusia County, home to world-famous Daytona Beach, is a growth hotspot. And to the southwest, once-sleepy Polk County is rapidly sprouting subdivisions where orange groves once thrived.

How hot is the region's housing market? While triple-whammy hurricanes put the brakes on building during much of August and September, the four-county area was still expected to notch almost 26,000 housing starts in 2004, slightly exceeding 2003's record pace, according to Orlando-based Fishkind & Associates, a research firm that tracks Florida's economic trends. And interest rates, while rising, remain relatively low. Although mortgage bankers had predicted the average rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate loan would reach at least 6.5 percent by the end of 2004, the rate was still hovering at slightly less than 6 percent at press time. Most industry experts say rates would have to surpass 7 percent to put a noticeable damper on buyers' attitudes.

Demand clearly isn't a problem, but supply is. For builders, many of whom are now faced with backlogs, such basics as concrete and shingles are in short supply while the labor is increasingly tight. For realtors, the number of existing homes on the market at any given time has fallen to as few as 4,100, about half the number typically available during the late 1990s.

Clearly, the laws of supply and demand dictate higher home prices on the horizon, which is as compelling an argument as any to buy now. But with so much activity going on in so many places, where should a newcomer look?

We can get you started. Following is a county-by-county primer, in which you'll find everything from new master-planned developments to funky historic districts. County profiles are divided by municipality and, in some cases, by distinct unincorporated areas.

Undoubtedly, there's a neighborhood, and a home, perfect for you and your family.

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 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 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 in November after developer Jim Kersey razed an office building on Edgewater Drive. A one-bedroom Wellesley unit goes for $300,000 while larger units are in the $1 million-plus range. By December, the project was 84 percent sold out, according to its sales office.

Perhaps a project like Kersey's wouldn't be particularly noteworthy in downtown Orlando, which is awash in new multifamily construction. But it's big news in College Park, where there are currently few condominiums and no buildings taller than three stories.

Yet, despite the neighborhood's reflexive aversion to change, the buzz about The Wellesley is generally favorable.

"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."

The Wellesley's first phase will include 20,000 square feet of retail space on the first floor. SunTrust, which occupies the building The Wellesley will replace, isn't going anywhere; the bank will be one of Kersey's first tenants.

But most residential real estate activity 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. The city's fortuitous location between Maitland and Winter Park and its attractive land prices finally have begun to attract commercial and industrial investment.

Developer Charles Clayton, a major Central Florida landowner and builder of several well-established subdivisions, has taken a particular interest in Eatonville's well being, offering to donate money for a new fire station and to help the city put its financial house in order.

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.

Gotha's first major new development, Weatherstone, was an instant success despite, or perhaps because of, its rural surroundings. Worthington Park followed while Gotha Estates and Gotha Reserve are slated to begin construction this year. Rick Dye of Bel-Aire Homes has several residential lots just outside the quaint downtown area.

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.

Still, Maitland has never had a recognizable and cohesive downtown. Thus, the city council is pushing a $74 million plan to redevelop the commercial area around U.S. Hwy. 17-92 and Horatio Avenue as an 18-acre town center with shops, apartments and government buildings surrounding a 1.5-acre village green. A Publix shopping center has already opened just east of the intersection.

The town center concept got a huge boost last July, when voters overwhelmingly approved a property tax increase to fund a new city hall and public safety facility. Those buildings will anchor the revitalization, which will be a joint effort between the city and a private developer.

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 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 build 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 paved 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.

DOWNTOWN ORLANDO

For information about Downtown Orlando, please see the Neighborhoods department in this issue.

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 last year 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.

"Winter Garden has reinvented itself," says MaryAnne Swickerath, editor of the West Orange Times, established in 1904. Swickerath has covered the city for a quarter-century, and says she delights in its new joie de vivre. "There's a new spirit," she notes. "There are a lot of new residents with a lot of new pride."

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.

"The progress made in the last five years has taken Winter Garden back to being the booming community it once was," says Stafford.

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, Includeing 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.

Prices in Americana-themed Independence will range from $170,000 townhomes and condominiums to $2.2 million single-family homes with lake frontage. The first 30 lakefront lots were released for sale last May while 600 more lots went on the market two months later.

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 Florida's 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.

WINTER PARK

Once a haven for artists, writers and some of the most influential families in the country, Winter Park was promoted in the late 1800s as a refuge for "the cultured and wealthy." Those early boosters would almost certainly be pleased to see how it all turned out.

Today, the city is home to 70 parks and nearly as many oak trees (20,000) as residents (24,090). Its eight square miles encompass lovely old homes, an upscale shopping district, a prestigious liberal arts college, a plethora of galleries and museums and street signs that admonish motorists to "drive with extraordinary care."

The heart of Winter Park is Park Avenue, stretching 10 blocks and boasting more than 100 shops, from upscale national retailers to one-of-a-kind boutiques. "The Avenue," as locals call it, is a European-inspired thoroughfare featuring hidden courtyards, sidewalk cafés and charming Central Park facing the storefronts.

But the grand old street isn't resting on its laurels. A mixed-use retail complex at the site of the old Jacobson's department store, located at Park Avenue and Morse Boulevard, is under construction. And the renovation of the Bank of America building, at the intersection of Park Avenue and New England Avenue, was completed in 2004.

In addition, the downtown shopping district has begun to spread west on New England Avenue as developer Dan Bellows builds posh apartments and retail stores in previously blighted areas.

On the south end of Park Avenue is the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art, showcasing the world's largest collection of Tiffany glass. Each Christmas, a set of priceless, holiday-themed Tiffany windows are moved to Central Park, where they're displayed as part of the city's seasonal festivities.

Several blocks farther west is Winter Park Village, a red-hot retail and entertainment center on U.S. Hwy. 17-92. New condominiums are available in the Village, which attracts a generally younger crowd than Park Avenue and has emerged as one of Central Florida's most popular see-and-be-seen destinations.

Year-round the city is alive with festivals and special events, from the Sidewalk Art Festival, drawing more than 250,000 guests each spring, to the Exotic Car Show and assorted celebrations in Central Park.

On the shores of Lake Virginia, beautiful Rollins College, the oldest institution of higher education in Florida and one of the top-rated private liberal arts colleges in the country, is home to the Cornell Fine Arts Museum and the internationally renowned Bach Festival Choir.

Incongruous as it may sound, Winter Park also hosts a Farmers Market on Saturday mornings, where visitors can buy everything from fresh produce to houseplants and crafts.

Although the city was essentially built out decades ago, several infill projects offer new homes in older neighborhoods. The largest new single-family home development is Windsong, carved from heavily forested, lakefront property once owned by the estate of philanthropists Hugh McKean and his wife Jeanette Genius McKean.

But it's high-end condominiums that account for most new residential construction in Winter Park. The former Sprint building on New York Avenue will be converted to luxury multi-level condominiums over the next year, and along Pennsylvania Avenue, 1100 Pennsylvania broke ground in November and Casa Jardin started its second phase. Both developments are offering units starting at $700,000.

To see Winter Park as it should be seen, shell out five bucks and take a guided tour along the Winter Park Chain of Lakes. Scenic Boat Tours, headquartered at Dinky Dock near Rollins College, has been cruising these canals since 1938, offering regular folks a chance to peek into the backyards of the rich and occasionally famous.

SEMINOLE COUNTY

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS

Although Altamonte Springs was incorporated in 1920, its population totaled only 5,000 as recently as 1970. But that was before developers turned this erstwhile whistlestop into a thriving suburb.

Today, Altamonte Springs, population 42,300, is known primarily for the Altamonte Mall, the area's first regional mall, built in 1974, and for the presence of virtually every chain eatery in the world.

Many of the city's subdivisions can be found along Palm Springs Drive, Maitland Avenue and Montgomery Road, not far from the mall. Some of the older developments are nestled around hidden lakes that seem far removed from the hustle and bustle.

Multifamily housing also is plentiful, with no less than 30 apartment developments located within the city limits, primarily along Semoran Boulevard, also known as S.R. 436.

Apartment living, plus the convenience of shopping and entertainment venues, has made Altamonte Springs popular among young adults.

But because no city wants its identity tied entirely to a mall, local officials are focusing on a 25-acre Altamonte Town Center, which would shift the focus toward adjacent Crane's Roost Park and its 40-acre, manmade lake.

The park already hosts community events, such as the city's huge Fourth of July celebration. And the lake, a converted borrow pit created during construction of the mall, is ringed by walkways and office buildings.

Plans call for an additional 1 million square feet of restaurants, stores, offices, condominiums and apartments, linked to nearby neighborhoods via a pedestrian bridge straddling busy S.R. 436.

CASSELBERRY

Founded by World War I veteran Hibbard Casselberry, who in 1926 bought 3,000 acres to grow ferns, Casselberry emerged as a suburban residential community after World War II.

By the time it was incorporated in 1965, Casselberry encompassed a number of family oriented subdivisions and a budding business district near the intersection of S.R. 436 and U.S. Hwy. 17-92.

In the decades that followed, the city continued to grow-the population today stands at more than 22,000-but it became almost indistinguishable from surrounding unincorporated areas.

Finally, however, this quintessential bedroom community is set to reclaim its distinctive identity. A new City Center, slated for 14.7 acres on Triplet Lake Drive, will contain a community center as well as a restaurant, small shops and possibly townhomes.

In addition, the park just north of City Hall is being revamped and expanded to include an amphitheater on Lake Concord. The new and improved facility will host the city's biannual jazz fest as well as a chili cook-off, art shows and other special events.

Casselberry's renaissance is also being bolstered by the redevelopment of the old Seminole Greyhound Park property off Seminola Boulevard. Legacy Park, which will contain 400 homes as well as commercial and retail space, is set to break ground later this year with Centex Homes as the primary builder.

Casselberry has 15 parks, more than two dozen lakes and a municipal golf course within its city limits.

LAKE MARY

Lake Mary is one of Central Florida's hottest growth areas, thanks in large part to the dogged persistence of Jeno Paulucci, a blustery, self-made millionaire who made his first fortune selling frozen Chinese food and a second one selling frozen pizza.

The city today sits at the epicenter of Florida's High Tech Corridor, which follows I-4 from Tampa through Seminole County and northeast to Daytona Beach and Melbourne.

Along the route, government and industry have joined forces to attract leading-edge companies in such fields as telecommunications, medical technology and microelectronics.

In Lake Mary, population 14,000, dozens of such companies have set up shop in several sprawling business centers that have combined to create a Central Florida version of Silicon Valley.

But it all started as an isolated railroad station known as Bents, the surname of a local grove owner. In 1900, industry arrived in Bents when Planters Manufacturing Company built a factory to produce starches, dextrines, farina and tapioca.

The facility closed in 1910, however, and Bents-later renamed Lake Mary for the wife of a local pastor-seemed destined to remain an out-of-the-way country town.

That was the case for another half-century, until construction of I-4 and a successful campaign by community boosters to get a Lake Mary interchange tacked onto the project.

The resulting tracts of easily accessible land caught the eye of Paulucci, founder of Chun King, who in the late 1970s announced plans to build a luxurious residential development and business hub called Heathrow.

Few thought the audacious Paulucci would be successful, and the project floundered at first. But then the plainspoken old salesman quieted naysayers by persuading the American Automobile Association to relocate from suburban Washington, D.C., to his Heathrow Business Center.

The AAA coup, at that time Central Florida's most important corporate relocation in decades, jump-started Heathrow and opened the door for all the business and residential development that followed.

Of course, all those high-paid techies who now call Lake Mary home require upscale housing, which is easily found through an array of gated golf-course communities loaded with swim and tennis clubs, private lakes and jogging trails through nature preserves.

Lake Mary officials are using a $100,000 federal grant to advance plans to redevelop the old downtown area to better reflect the city's prosperous image. Plans call for a combination of government, commercial and residential space in Italian Mediterranean-style buildings along with landscaping improvements on Country Club and Crystal Lake drives. The existing park will be improved and a fountain added, along with a band shell and an amphitheater.

Yet another Lake Mary town center has been proposed for Colonial Town Park, a 175-acre mixed-use development at a new I-4 interchange.

LONGWOOD

Of all Seminole County's municipalities, Longwood, population 13,700, has the most history to preserve-and has done the best job of preserving it. But it's still a modern place, with a plethora of exclusive country club communities, office parks and shopping centers.

In 1873 a New Englander named Edward Henck homesteaded a tract of land that he named Longwood, after a Boston suburb he had helped to plan.

Henck was also the town's first postmaster and its first mayor. And in what may have been his spare time, Henck co-founded the South Florida Railroad and built a line connecting Sanford and Orlando. That venture enabled Longwood to boom as a citrus- and lumber-shipping center as well as a winter resort destination.

But as crucial as Henck was to Longwood's development, it was a carpenter named Josiah Clouser, a Henck employee, whose legacy is most visible. Clouser, a Pennsylvanian, constructed most of the buildings still standing in Longwood's remarkable historic district.

The district is a two-block area on Warren and Church avenues near the intersection of C.R. 427 and C.R. 434. Clauser's restored homes, including a "temporary" cottage he assembled from scrap lumber, are of particular interest.

Also notable is the so-called "Inside-Outside House," thought to be one of the first prefabricated homes in the United States. Built in Boston and assembled in Longwood in 1872, the structure is so named because the wall studs are visible on its exterior.

The Queen-Anne-styled Bradley-McIntyre House and the wood-frame vernacular-style Longwood Hotel, both of which Clouser helped to build, are also located in the historic district, as is the circa-1881 Christ Episcopal Church.

Popular annual events include the Longwood Arts and Crafts Festival, held the weekend before Thanksgiving, and the Founders Day Spring Arts and Crafts Festival, held in March.

On the outskirts of the city toward neighboring Apopka in Orlando" target="_blank">Orange County is Wekiva Springs State Park. And on General Hutchinson Avenue is Big Tree State Park, home of "The Senator," said to be the oldest and largest cypress tree in the state.

OVIEDO

While Oviedo might be one of Central Florida's oldest communities-it was first settled some 140 years ago-this Seminole County boomtown knows how to embrace newcomers. Just ask Tom Walters. The retired U.S. Air Force colonel, a resident for just four years, is now the mayor.

"I think that speaks volumes about just how friendly and welcoming a place Oviedo really is," says Walters, who flew combat missions during the Vietnam War. "It has this very distinct sense of its pioneer roots, but at the same time it's a community that's growing by leaps and bounds. It's staged for great things to come."

Indeed, few Central Florida municipalities have witnessed the kind of growth that Oviedo has seen in recent years. The town's population is closing in on 30,000-more than a tenfold increase since 1980.

Oviedo's growth was a long time coming. The area's first settlers, who put down stakes near Lake Jesup in the 1860s, called it Solary's Wharf. In 1883, postmaster Andrew Aulin dubbed it Oviedo, supposedly after seeing a Spanish town of the same name on a map. Then, after the railroad arrived in 1886, the town became a major shipping point for both celery and citrus. Among the early settlers was Andrew Duda Sr., who made his fortune growing celery and founded A. Duda and Sons, today one of the world's largest growers of sod.

Longtime locals point to 1964 as perhaps the most significant year in Oviedo's history. That's when a desolate 1,145-acre tract in rural northeast Orlando" target="_blank">Orange County, about seven miles east of the city, was selected as the site for Florida Technological University (now the University of Central Florida).

FTU, as it was then known, opened in 1968, prompting Oviedo-born developer Ben Ward to build the city's first new subdivision, Mead Manor, to attract professors and other university employees.

Initially, the carpetbagging Ph.D.'s and the wary farmers made an unlikely combination. But they were united by their desire to maintain Oviedo's small-town ambience and to cling to its agricultural heritage.

Eventually, the academicians became ingrained in community life-running for and winning city council offices, serving on community boards, initiating cultural and educational programs and researching local history.

Oviedo's first large-scale residential project was the 2,200-acre Alafaya Woods subdivision, which broke ground in the mid-1980s. Other developments followed in rapid succession, fueled in part by mushrooming growth at UCF. Today, with more than 45,000 students, it's the second-largest state university in Florida.

Environmentalists were quick to raise the alarm, saying the sprawling new communities posed a threat not only to the area's fragile groundwater supply but to the future well-being of the Econlockhatchee River Basin. While developers made numerous concessions, including more stringent setback requirements and buffer zones along riverbanks, there are still the occasional squabbles between environmentalists and homebuilders that typify life in Florida.

But even with tighter building guidelines, Oviedo has registered an average of 550 new-home starts per year over the past six years.

The biggest worry among many longtime residents these days is that Oviedo's sleepy old downtown might go the way of the long-gone orange groves and celery fields.

For those just passing through downtown and are forced to stop at the gnarly intersection where state roads 419, 426 and 434 crisscross, there's not a lot to catch the eye: the Town House restaurant, a huge Baptist church and a two-block row of fading cinderblock buildings housing an assortment of mom-and-pop businesses.

Take the time to wander the side streets, however, and an altogether different picture of Oviedo emerges, one of gracious old homes, rolling grass lawns and moss-shrouded oak trees. Indeed, the Oviedo Historical Trail lists no few than 85 sites, including the home of pioneer postmaster George Browne, built in 1885, and the James Wilson House, built in 1938 on Lake Charm Circle.

But change is afoot in the form of Oviedo Place, a.k.a. the "new downtown," which will spring up in what is now a tangerine grove just north of Mitchell Hammock Road.

Oviedo voters approved a $9.3 million bond issue in 2003 to help fund the 50-plus-acre development, which will include restaurants, stores, offices, apartments, townhomes, single-family homes, a public garden and an outdoor amphitheater along a manmade lake. Bike and pedestrian trails will connect Oviedo Place to the "old downtown" along a one-mile corridor.

Another big draw for relocators are the Oviedo area's public schools. Oviedo High School, Lawton Chiles Middle School, Jackson Heights Middle School and Lawton Elementary School all received A's when the state Department of Education handed out grades last summer. A second school for grades 9-12, Haggerty High School, is scheduled to open for the 2005-2006 school year.

"People love the school system. It's a big reason why people move here from other areas," says Mary Jane McNaught, sales director for Crosswinds Communities.

Its Sanctuary community, on S.R. 419 east of downtown Oviedo, will have 750 homes at buildout, ranging in price from the low $300s to the mid-$400s. The community, which broke ground three years ago, has proved so popular that it held a lottery in October for its last 100 homesites.

Sales at Kenmure, at Red Bug Road and Brooks Lane, have also been brisk, according to Leah Turner of Ryland Homes. Kenmure's model home center opened in August, and has since sold more than 100 of its162 homesites. Homes are priced from $280,000.

SANFORD

Located on the shores of Lake Monroe, Sanford once rivaled Orlando as the region's largest city. A major distribution center for vegetables and citrus, it was known as "The Celery Capital of the World."

But agriculture is no longer king in Sanford, population 38,300. Today it's the Seminole County seat, making county government the leading employer.

And, after years of stagnation, Sanford is also a city on the rise, thanks to a burgeoning airport-one of the fastest growing in the U.S.-and a downtown redevelopment project.

Sanford's first permanent settlement was Camp Monroe, a fort on the south bank of Lake Monroe built in 1836 to protect settlers from Indians. A year later, Capt. Charles Mellon was killed during an Indian attack, so the garrison was renamed in his honor.

The community that grew up around the fort became known as Mellonville, and in 1845 was named the county seat of what was then Orlando" target="_blank">Orange County. (Seminole County was carved out in 1913.)

Because Lake Monroe provided easy access to the St. Johns River for shipping to other Florida markets, citrus growing developed as a major industry.

In 1870, Gen. Henry S. Sanford, former minister to Belgium, purchased approximately 12,500 acres and laid out a town, which he named for himself, just west of Fort Mellon.

Ten years later, ground was broken for the South Florida Railroad connecting Mellonville, Lake Mary, Longwood and Altamonte Springs with Jacksonville, the state's most important port city. It seemed that big things were in store in 1883, when Mellonville was absorbed by Sanford.

However, late in the decade a fire destroyed numerous buildings, and residents were hit with a yellow-fever epidemic. Those disasters, on top of freezes that ravaged the citrus crops, caused Sanford's population to dip from 5,000 to 2,000. Vegetables, especially cold-resistant celery, later became the city's most important cash crop.

Seminole County's suburban growth in the 1960s and '70s mostly passed Sanford by, and the once-beautiful city became a bit shabby. Today, however, Sanford is enjoying a resurgence that is in part tied to rising air travel at the Orlando-Sanford International Airport. The facility has a two-story international terminal, a separate domestic terminal, a U.S. Customs Office and three paved runways.

Another significant development was Seminole Towne Center Mall, a major employer and lure to the city, and the redevelopment of downtown's historic district.

Work is complete on the $11 million Sanford Riverwalk, which includes sidewalks and bike trails along Lake Monroe between Mellonville and French avenues. Also downtown, a $15 million retail condominium project is under way west of City Hall. One of the most important downtown attractions is the Helen Stairs Theater, a renovated movie house that hos