Remaking Place and Asserting Space: The Land Trust Experience in Winter Park, 1991-2010__Ep 3: The Making of a Theortical Framework

Photos by Kelsey Von Wormer












The Plan for Winter Park








Allison England and I continue our efforts to understand the CLT experience in Winter Park. We can say firmly--there is a complex story related to housing policy and local story. We continue to deepen our understanding of local story. Recently, we took a walking tour around Hannibal Square. As the images can attest, the physical layout of the community tell a story about development on the "other side of the tracks." There are a number of possible avenue we can take to highlight, understand, and explain the Winter Park experience. Incorporating the established literature on race and housing, we can place the local African-American experience within a broader regional perspective. Recently Allison reviewed Andrew Wiese's work and noted the “domestic service employment suburb” that housed “shopkeepers, mechanics, industrial workers, and the servants who made it possible for white residents to "live comfortably in the palatial homes" within whites communities he identified in his research relates easily to the Winter Park experience. In addition, we have considered the work of Gwendolyn Wright and Dolores Hayden to understand the social implications associated with the home. Our analysis has established a strong culture of property ownership for African-Americans and the implications of that culture on perceptions about community continue to shape resident's perceptions, even as broader economic, social, and political changes have worked to marginalize Hannibal Square.

For me, as a historian of urban planning history, I can see how traditional tensions over race and class framed Winter Park's development. As we move forward I think our research will allow us to explore the link between community, policy, and the home. As we currently struggle over the effort to promote middle-class homeownership, the history of this type of policy offers important lessons. Key to this analysis in my opinion is how the assumptions about property and public policy practice at the turn of the century--social control, order, and modernity were refined in significant ways by municipalities throughout the twentieth century. In Florida, the importance of modernity, consumer consumption, and the socialization of space play a crucial part shaping perceptions of the lived experience. Winter Park's story can and will inform our understanding of the American housing experience.

Remaking Place and Asserting Space: The Land Trust Experience in Winter Park, 1991-2010_ Ep. 1

Photo: Kelsey Von Wormer

This summer I'm back working with the Rollins Student-Faculty Collaborative Research Program. My research collaborator is Allison England. Our project, as the blog title suggests is Remaking Place and Asserting Space: The Land Trust Experience in Winter Park, 1991-2010. The goal of this summer project is to create an integrated multimedia article that analyzes the history and impact of the Hannibal Square Community Land Trust (HSCLT) in terms of its own self identified goals and within the context of the affordable housing debate in the United States. Created by the Winter Park Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) in 2004, the first HSCLT homes were completed with the assistance of the Homebuilders Association, the Orlando Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, Orange County Division of Housing and Community Development, SunTrust Bank, and technical assistance from Florida Community Partners to create affordable low incoming housing for Westside Winter Park residents.

The story of the land trust is however, more complex than the simple story of its formation. Housing represent one aspect of the American dream, perhaps the biggest visible aspect of what it means to be American. One long term consequence of the economic downturn is now Americans are questioning the validity of the American dream. Does every American, if they work hard and play right, end up with a home of their own? For some the answer is suppose to be yes and not being able to hold on to their dream home is a blow to their vision of America. This issue is at the core of the ongoing debate about the housing crisis. This is our first week doing research and believe it our not, we spent some time exploring the symbolic nature of the home in the American experience. Going back to colonial era and following the idea all the way to contemporary suburbia. The true is that the physical layout of the American home and the policy governing the American housing market are linked to old ideas about what the American experience is (or what we think it is suppose to be), but those ideas have been open to manipulation by forces as wide-ranging as the writings of Andrew Jackson Downing to the provision of WWII era G.I. Bill. On top of that gender, race, and environmental concerns play a part in the discussion. In discussing things with Allison, I pointed out we don't need to reinvent the wheel. Its a good thing, the wheel is big and its only the two of us to do the whole thing in eight weeks!

On the bright side, I realize I can refer to Andrew Jackson Downing as his era Martha Stewart and someone will instantly understand who he is...I gotta remember that one for class!

Review of Reviews: The African-American Experience

I'm stuck in the midst of the "reviews of reviews" and have everything to do. Still it is a time of reflection and as I consider theory and practice in small ways and big--I see what I have done and can still do. The upside is, it occurs to me, I've done a lot! The downside is, it occurs to me, I haven't done as much as I would like:( Case in point, public history projects, of which I have a few, haven't developed fully into the forms I think necessary to provide the information to the wider community. Not to say things haven't been done, they have, but they need to look and feel better. I was talking to Vidhu Aggrawal about the next issue of her journal SPECS. SPECS is a world class publication done with small budget and staff. By comparison, I could do better. I have been thinking about it. The key is to create some sort of mechanism to standardize content and style. This mechanism (whatever it may be) will allow work done my students and faculty to be presented in clean and organized way. There is plenty to explore and once I get it working I think the public will be interested. For me, Central Florida offers a unique story about Gilded Age and Progressive Era, African-American experience, and Art and Culture in the twentieth century. As the coordinator of the Africa and African-American Studies Program, I am of course interested in getting students and the public exploring that history. The fact that Winter Park was designed with the assumption that African-Americans would live west of the railroad tracks and work in white community as support staff created a unique opportunity for a stable and in some ways, very prosperous black community to develop. I think you can see a strong connection between Hannibal Square in West Winter Park and the other more famous black community in Central Florida, Eatonville. Eatonville is famous because of Zora Neale Hurston, but of course, Zora had a unique relationship with Winter Park through the support provided to her by members of the Rollins College English Department. Indeed, the Olin Library Archive at Rollins has a Zora Neale Hurston collection that highlight the link between the author and the college. Still, a bigger question of autonomy and agency needs to be explored in the Central Florida area. I think the effect of leisure economy and Florida's existence as a frontier space allowed for greater sense of freedom for African-Americans in communities like Hannibal Square and Eatonville. Of course Jim Crow racism existed, the story of Hannibal Square's detachment from the town of Winter Park as way to undermine African-American Republican voters testifies to the power of white supremacy in Florida. Yet, the family history collection on display at the Hannibal Square Heritage Center demonstrates that African-Americans found ways to continue to function and thrive.


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