National Register of Historic Places

As we were doing research for the website on the Winter Park Golf Course and Country Club, we came across the fact that the Golf Course and its Clubhouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1999. To me, this was a pretty amazing fact and accomplishment, considering that the United States is such a big country with so many places to be considered for that list.
Out of personal interest, I visited the website of the National Register to see what other places are on the list for Orange Country, Fl. To my surprise almost all the places we are doing our projects on could be found on there.
The Women's Club was added in 1995, and the Edward Hill Brewer House had been on there since 1982. Additionally, all the project topics involving Rollins were found on there. Knowles Chapel is a part of the register since 1997, considered historically significant for its architecture. The Annie Russell Theater was added to the list a year later, historically important for its architecture and the founding person - Annie Russel. I also came across a building called the Parsonage. This building relates to Rollins in the sense that its owner and builder was an important person in Rollins history: Dr. Edward Payson Hooker, a reverend and Rollins first President. I thought it was very interesting to see what an important part Rollins and Winter Park play in Orange county history.

Title??

Our met on Thursday at the Winter Park Historical Center and formulated our web page. I feel like we don't have enough information though to make it more interesting. We have tried several ways of getting information and it all seems to come to a dead end road. In a way it makes it even more interesting to find out more information on the Gentile Brother's Company. Either way, I was able to contact the CEO of the current Gentile Brother's Company in Cincinnati and it seems as if he has some information regarding the history of their company. Once I receive the documents I will be able to have more, hopefully, interesting information so that our group can put it on the web page. :-)

Finding a Story that Works

This digital history project is a learning experience for me as well as the students. You can't always chose the absolute perfect subjects. When you assign something, you are hoping that there is enough information readily available that the students will not be so frustrated they can't go on. For the most part, in an effort to reflect a variety of perspectives I strove to assign locations that touched the community in different ways. I think it working, but you never know. Let's hope we don't have anyone drop over the web-page project. On the other hand, phase II will be harder on one level (working alone) and easier (free to chose from a greater variety of material). At the same time the intellectual process will be more demanding. Whether of not this was good idea--history will be the judge. At some level, finding out what people don't know about offers a education for me. An urban college like Rollins arguable should have resources and projects linked to the wider community. Those links should in turn create the opportunity for students and professors to create interesting projects that benefit both. I think this project qualifies, or at least I hope.

Cattle on the Course

My research led me to an interesting discovery about the original Winter Park Country Club. In the opening years of the course maintenance struggled with roaming cattle that occupied many of the holes. The cattle distracted golfers and angered community leaders eventually leading to the construction of a fence that blocked the open fields from the course. One would think maintenance wouldn't advocate animals on the course after the struggle with the cattle, but sheep were next. Keeping the grass short enough for play in the early 20th century was a struggle and costly, this was until there was a great idea. Maintenance and greens keepers let dozens of sheep lose on the course to eat the grass, thus providing a cheap way to keep the grass short for its members. This radical technique made its way to Golf Illustrated which featured the Winter Park Country Club for its interesting grass keeping. The sheep eventually proved to be more of any annoyance then a help and were run off in the early 1920's.

Today's Projects

Today was really great, getting to peer review and read up on some of the history of Winter Park! the dinky line was interesting b/c even to this day, Winter Park is known, at least to me, for keeping me up some nights b/c of the noisy trains! i found it great that Rollins students named it "the Dinky Line". Also i read about Hannibal Square and how amazingly integrated it strived to become. That is very important to me to know that Rollins College had a large hand in collaborating to make the Square's library. All in all, an interesting view into the history of beautiful Winter Park.

Winter Park's History is all around us!

At the beginning of the semester I decided to join crew, which entails a mile and a half run to and from the boat house 4 days a week (very tiring!). We have to run down the whole of Interlachen Avenue on our way to the boat house. As I was cycling back to Rollins after practise (due to an injury...not the point) this evening I noticed a sign for the Charles. H. Morse Park - Mr. Charles Morse was the husband of the founder of the Women's Club on January 13th 1915 who also purchased the plot of land that became the Women's Club clubhouse and still is to this day. I had never realized to what extent our present is influenced by the past.

History Project

Today, Hilary, Mikita and I went to the Winter Park Historical Library across from Rollins to try and research more information on the Gentile Brothers. We thought we would find more information over there since thats what we were told at the Archive center back at Rollins but in fact they only had a few things. Its getting a little frustrating because there is really little information on them, which makes this project so much harder. What I did learn though is that the Gentile Brother's Company was a very successful citrus company in Central Florida. They were located strategically next to the railroad which helped them advance economically. Also, the Gentile Brother's Company is now a successful enterprise located at Cincinnati , Ohio. Though, the company is not directly affiliated to the actual brothers even though it originated from them. We've contacted another archive center in Lakeland and hopefully we will be able to get more information soon enough :-)

The Womens Club

What I found most interesting when researching the Women's Club in the Archives, was the inspiration these women created for others by giving them the confidence to express an opinion and help the community, such as the 700 pounds of Marmalade to the French soldiers during the war (I know I am fascinated with the marmalade - must be a European thing!). It is these women's acts of social, civic, educational and moral welfare that has shaped the Winter Park community into what it is today.

The Palms

This is a picture of the Palms, the house constructed by Edward Hill Brewer in 1891. He actually purchased the land from Rollins College to build his winter home, a nice little retreat from his upstate New York life. This is a very interesting home which has been through many trials and turbulences in it's history. Anthony and i are going to go visit the house, if anyone wants to join.