by Beth Kassab | May 11, 2026 | Arts and Culture, News, Zoning and Development
Big Changes Felt on Park Avenue with 'Disruptive' Construction Underway
George’s Cafe owner says the ‘Refresh’ project is hurting business while other sections of the avenue are undergoing a transformation with high-profile closures and new construction for the Rollins art museum and, potentially, a city garage
May 11, 2026
By Beth Kassab
On a recent afternoon, George Paul checked over receipts for the day’s business at George’s Cafe, known for piled-high sandwiches and from-scratch cookies bigger than a fist.
“I lost money today,” said Paul, who has operated the shop in the former Brandywine’s Delicatessen spot on North Park Avenue for six years and, before that, at a location on Lee Road. “And it’s not just today … the sidewalks are torn up. There’s barricades. For our older clientele, it looks hazardous. Our business is down by two-thirds.”
George’s sits in the middle of the first block — from Swoope to Canton avenues — of Park Avenue closed last month as part of the city’s three-year, estimated $8.5 million effort to refurbish underground wires and piping, contain tree roots, upgrade streetlights to a higher-tech model, smooth sidewalks and install other aesthetic changes such as new garbage cans and planters.
Paul said he’s adjusted his hours during the construction to account for fewer patrons.
While city officials see the project, known as the Park Avenue Refresh, as a much-needed antidote for aging infrastructure, merchants are bracing for a temporary dose of pain.
George’s Cafe during construction for the Park Avenue Refresh. (This photo and above photo courtesy of the city of Winter Park.)
“It’s going to impact every business, including ours, at some point, but it’s just one of those things,” said Alan Chambers, co-president of the Park Avenue District and vice president of operations for John Craig Clothier, which operates two stores on the avenue. “We all lived through the major refresh of 30 years ago and it brought tremendous benefits to Park Avenue. When it’s all said and done, it costs us all a little bit of frustration.”
A New Era for the Avenue
Brand Melville opened on Park Avenue in April.
Chambers was referring to the last major series of infrastructure projects on Park, including bricking over paved sections of the road, which started in the mid-1990s when phones didn’t yet have cameras, the O.J. Simpson trial dominated television and the old Winter Park Mall on U.S. Highway 17-92 still stood before it was demolished to make way for Winter Park Village.
Now, the latest refresh project is coinciding with a number of monumental changes that will usher in a new era for the oldest and most celebrated shopping and dining district not just in the city, but across Central Florida.
Park Avenue counted 3 million visitors last year, up from 2.1 million in 2020 and 2.7 million in 2019 before the pandemic. The data is based on consumer tracking software used by the city government that captures unique U.S.-based cellphone signals, meaning some international visitors may not be included in the totals.
Customers check out the newly opened Brandy Melville on Park Avenue on a recent afternoon.
Last month, the opening of Brandy Melville, a popular Gen Z brand known for its minimalist aesthetic and beachy vibe, brought lines of customers waiting to enter. Videos posted to TikTok showed a queue of mostly teen and college-age women wrapping around the corner at Morse Boulevard to check out the store, which has been criticized as discriminatory toward some body types for its policy of selling just one size per style (generally the equivalent of a small).
On a recent weekday, 23-year-old Valentina Orive said she drove 45 minutes to shop there — a short distance compared with the three hours she once drove to visit other locations in South Florida.
“I like the quality of the clothes a lot,” she said, noting the Winter Park store, which replaced the Lily Pulitzer, is larger than the others she has visited, except for one in New York City. “They just have really good basics.”
Love Brandy or hate it, some other merchants took advantage of the foot traffic, Chambers said, with at least one nearby boutique, Through the Looking Glass, offering discounts to customers who showed a Brandy Melville receipt.
Longtime Institutions Face Change
Meanwhile, other institutions along the avenue are calling it quits.
Miller’s Hardware, the longest continuously operating family-owned business there, will shut its doors for good sometime during the second quarter of this year after more than 80 years, setting the stage for redevelopment of the block fronting Fairbanks Avenue.
Stephen Miller, owner and grandson of the founder, said he made the decision for multiple reasons that “took the wind out of my sails.” His son, Clay — whom he anticipated would take over the business — died unexpectedly in 2019 at age 29 and, he said, the business simply doesn’t generate enough revenue compared with what the property is worth.
As for what he will do with the prime piece of real estate, Miller isn’t yet saying.
Miller’s Hardware has been run by the same family for more than 80 years. It plans to close in the coming months.
“The future of the property is to be determined,” he said. “I’m weighing options.”
Miller said he would like to see the current batch of city commissioners consider allowing “more density” as aging buildings are redeveloped.
“The plumbing on Park Avenue kept me in business … that stuff is old,” he said. “The City Commission just needs to let there be more density so they can support rebuilding a lot of places people love.”
Behind the Scaffolding
One spot now undergoing an interior demolition and rebuild is 310 Park Ave. S., where the longtime eatery of the same name closed at the end of 2024.
Dyar McComb of Great American Land Management Inc. declined to be interviewed about the work underway at the building owned by the Holler family through a company called PA Partners LLLP, which owns multiple buildings along the avenue.
Signs beneath the construction scaffolding out front display the logo for Oak & Stone, a concept by Artistry Restaurants, the Winter Park-based group that also operates Boca and The Chapman on Park.
Chambers said some people were surprised by the work on the block between New England and Lyman avenues, but the exterior of the 100-year-old building will remain the same.
Construction scaffolding covers the front of 310 Park Avenue South, a sign of more changes to come on the avenue.
“There wasn’t anything inside that looked historic, and I’m not sure if anything had ever been replaced, so it’s going to be a wonderful change for that building,” he said. “The Hollers are going to do a good job on that. They are tremendous partners in the city and in the district.”
People forget, he noted, that “at one point that entire space was an Olive Garden and then Fat Tuesday.”
That was before the first refresh project three decades ago, when part of the street was still paved rather than brick and no one had even heard of Y2K much less streaming in 4K.
More Changes on the Horizon
With the latest refresh project well underway, even larger changes are afoot beyond shifting storefronts.
City officials are considering building a three-story garage behind City Hall to ease parking frustrations with 120 new public parking spaces on top of the 145 required for city employees and operations.
An architectural rendering shows the exterior of a new Rollins Art Museum.
And Rollins College is constructing a new 30,000-square-foot art museum across from The Alfond Inn, just blocks from Park Avenue, that will also alter the equation for foot traffic and parking.
The museum is set to open in 2028, the same year the third and final phase of the Park Avenue Refresh — from New England to Fairbanks avenues — is scheduled to take place.
George’s Block to Reopen
As for George’s, Paul said he is grateful his catering business is doing well but wishes the city would do more construction work at night or on weekends, when it would be less disruptive to his breakfast-and-lunch cafe.
Clarissa Howard, who is leading the refresh project, said some work related to the stormwater system will be done at night, particularly when workers must close the entire street.
Each block closure, which includes shutting down one lane of traffic with detours, will last about four weeks, she said.
“There’s always going to be disruption with any kind of construction, but we’re not there for months and months at a time,” Howard said. “It’s four weeks and the infrastructure we’re putting in will last four decades.”
She said the stretch in front of George’s is set to reopen this week and the project will continue moving block by block south toward Fairbanks Avenue.
“We’re definitely hurt,” Paul said. “I don’t know … I wish there was a solution to this. I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like when they go down the street.”
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by Beth Kassab | May 8, 2026 | Arts and Culture, City Commission, News, Schools
Family Envisions AI-Driven Alpha School for Second Floor of Blue Bamboo
A sublease agreement will be considered by the City Commission next week as the nonprofit music venue looks to fill space before a rent increase later this year
May 8, 2026
By Beth Kassab
The second floor of the Blue Bamboo Center for the Arts, which leases the former library building from the city, could soon house a location of the private, artificial intelligence-driven Alpha School.
The school was praised last year by the Trump administration as a model for education, and tuition is expected to be about $45,000 a year.
The school would operate through the Love & Life Foundation, a nonprofit that delivers disaster aid and is led by Winter Park residents Matthew and Paige Wideman.
Matthew Wideman said that mission overlaps with the for-profit Alpha School because he views K-12 public education as being in crisis.
“What I would argue is our mission is lifting up the hands of those that are oppressed or impacted, and we look at the education system as a disaster,” Matthew Wideman told the Voice.
He said the school’s innovative approach is one potential solution and that the second floor of the old city library is an ideal setting for a school designed to “empower and prepare children for the world of tomorrow.”
The Alpha model was founded in Austin, Texas, where students spend about two hours a day on core subjects such as math using AI-led modules. Human staff members — known as “guides” rather than teachers — spend the rest of the day helping students develop business, public speaking and other project-based skills.
U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon visited the school last year and said she was “blown away” by the model, according to news reports. Her visit came after President Donald Trump signed an executive order promoting the use of AI in schools.
“They use a more tailored program to find out what the child’s interests and talents and gifts are and help them find that at a young age,” Paige Wideman said. She added that she appreciated the school’s emphasis on “EQ,” or emotional intelligence.
The Widemans, who have five children ranging in age from 2 to 13, said they personally fund their foundation and could potentially provide scholarships for the school, which is known for tuition of about $45,000 a year or, in some cities, more.
Many private schools in Florida accept public vouchers or public education dollars that can be spent at private schools.
But a provision in the draft lease would prohibit the school from accepting vouchers.
“The school shall not have more than 50 students, and will not accept school vouchers funded by the State of Florida for those students’ tuition or expenses,” according to a copy of the lease posted with the City Commission agenda for next Wednesday’s meeting.
The vouchers — commonly known to parents as Step Up for Students scholarships — are at the center of a new lawsuit filed by Florida’s largest teachers union and several parents, including Orange County School Board member Stephanie Vanos, who represents Winter Park and has three children of her own.
The lawsuit alleges the program violates the constitution because the state now sends more than $5 billion in public money to private and charter schools through vouchers while not requiring those schools to follow the same standards as traditional public schools.
Matthew Wideman and Jeff Flowers, who runs Blue Bamboo, said the restriction on vouchers was requested by the city.
City spokeswoman Clarissa Howard said city staff did not advise on the voucher issue or initiate the requirement.
Wideman said his core business is real estate. He holds an ownership interest in Truist Plaza, the downtown Orlando high-rise, among other ventures through The Wideman Company LLC.
He also said his foundation has partnered with Starlink, part of SpaceX, to restore communications after hurricanes and other disasters.
Alpha School also operates a location in Brownsville, Texas, near Elon Musk’s new rocket hub and city known as Starbase. The school also has campuses in five other states, including Florida locations in Palm Beach Gardens and Miami, according to the Alpha website.
Under the draft lease, the Love & Life Foundation would have the right to enter into agreements with third parties such as Alpha to provide operational, management and administrative services for the school.
Wideman said the school would benefit from Blue Bamboo’s performing arts infrastructure and expertise, including its stage, which students could use to practice public speaking and other skills.
Flowers, who helped finance Blue Bamboo for years and took over operations last year after founder Chris Cortez died, said the organization’s performers could serve as music teachers and provide other technical instruction for students.
The lease between Blue Bamboo and the city calls for the second and third floors of the building to be renovated within two years for “arts education, recording studio and local non-profit use.”
Flowers said the sublease is an important part of Blue Bamboo’s financial picture because its lease payment to the city is scheduled to increase from $132,000 a year to $276,000 a year in August.
The proposed lease with Wideman’s foundation calls for annual rent of $198,000 for the second floor, or about $18 per square foot for 11,000 square feet.
Last year, another nonprofit, Central Florida Vocal Arts, walked away from a sublease agreement with Blue Bamboo after becoming dissatisfied with the terms.
Flowers said the building’s third floor remains available for sublease.
He said he has invested both personal funds and Orange County grant money into improvements, including a staircase, a new elevator, a refurbished air-conditioning system and a new fire alarm system. Blue Bamboo received about $900,000 last year through a county grant program funded by the tourist development tax collected on hotel rooms.
Flowers said the venue’s performance calendar is mostly booked through January.
“We’re profitable,” Flowers said. “We’re paying the rent and the utility bill and keeping up with expenses.”
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Update: This story has been updated to include a response from city spokeswoman Clarissa Howard.
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by Beth Kassab | Apr 30, 2026 | Arts and Culture, Historic Preservation, News
Orange Signs Herald May as Historic Preservation Month
Residents display their yard signs each year in support of maintaining what’s left of the pockets in Winter Park where 100-plus year homes are commonplace
May 1, 2026
By Beth Kassab
It’s that time of year when orange yard signs start sprouting up in yards all over Winter Park to mark May as Historic Preservation Month.
The signs are a longstanding tradition among preservationists who want to remind Winter Parkers of the benefits of preserving historic architecture and the eclectic charm that keeps the city at the top of the charts when it comes to home values.
Winter Park’s Historic Register lists more than 120 homes and continues to grow each year.
Historic districts in the city include College Quarter, Virginia Heights East, Interlachen Avenue and the downtown area centered on Park Avenue.
The city encourages those with designated homes or those who live in the districts to display their signs.
People who need a sign can pick one up at Casa Feliz on any Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., said Betsy Owens, executive director of the Casa Feliz Historic Home Museum and a leading preservation advocate in Central Florida.
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by Beth Kassab | Apr 3, 2026 | Arts and Culture, News
Harold Ward III Leaves Long Legacy as a Community Caretaker
Ward died on Monday at age 92
April 3, 2026
By Beth Kassab
Harold Ward III, the well-known lawyer who helped shape modern Winter Park as an advisor to the city’s most prominent philanthropic foundations and institutions, was known for his modest and likable persona mixed with a scholarly command of the law.
Ward died Monday after a brief illness. He was 92.
“Harold was a very humble person and you wouldn’t know he was behind as much as he was behind,” said Doug Woodman, trustee and executive vice president and treasurer of the Elizabeth Morse Genius Foundation and Charles Hosmer Morse Foundation.
Woodman said that until recently Ward, a longtime trustee for the groups, still spent several mornings a week at the foundations’ office on North Park Avenue.
On Friday his desk was neat and tidy just the way he always kept it with a photo of his wife of 66 years Mary Lewis “Libby” Ward, who died in 2024.
“That was the most important thing he had on his desk … he was a really dedicated family man,” Woodman said, recalling how his mother, Louise, and Libby became friends and attended the first annual Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival together.
Harold Ward, center, attended an event for Rollins College, where he chaired the board of trustees multiple times.
Their husbands were both partners at Winderweedle, Haines, Ward and Woodman where Ward eventually became known for his estate planning practice.
He started at the firm in 1960, choosing to return to Winter Park after law school at the University of Chicago and a clerkship with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black and a stint as an attorney for the U.S. Air Force.
It was in the D.C. area where he met Libby, who worked for IBM and held a degree in mathematics from William & Mary.
David Odahowski, president and chief executive of Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation, said the Wards often had Sunday dinner with Justice Black and would drive him on road trips to Florida, where the justice also had relatives.
“Harold and Libby — the two of them could have stayed at the hub of everything, but the tug of Winter Park brought them back,” Odahowski said.
Harold Ward in an undated photo
“When you think about Harold, you think about the movie ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ and Harold was starring as George Bailey,” but in his own story, he said, with Winter Park as his version of the film’s Bedford Falls.
Ward was a founding trustee and incorporating member of the Edyth Bush foundation, which has awarded more than $114 million to support the local arts, education, health care and more.
His roots were intrinsically tied to the founding of Winter Park, where he grew up and attended Winter Park High School where he played the double bell euphonium in the band, according to his daughter Mary Christian.
Charles Hosmer Morse, once the city’s largest landholder who donated the property for Central Park and the first town hall, hired Ward’s grandfather to help run his company.
The younger Ward was a friend of Morse’s granddaughter Jeannette Genius McKean and her husband Rollins College President Hugh McKean.
Jeanette McKean started the Morse and Genius foundations in honor of her grandfather and mother and Ward served terms as chairman of those boards as well as chairman of the trustees of Rollins College. The Morse foundation operates the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art and the Genius foundation provides funds for that endeavor as well as other charitable causes around town.
“In meetings, he was always the guy who asked the question that nobody else thought of,” Woodman recalled.
Harold Ward reads to his grandchildren. (All photos courtesy of the Ward family)
With the loss of Ward comes the loss of “an incredible amount of institutional knowledge.”
But Ward was also far more than his work, Christian said.
She said she remembers her dad being home just about every night by 6 p.m. for dinner with the family and always took time off for summer road trips that the family spent months planning.
“He was a wonderful dad. He would do anything for us and that translated to the kind of person and caretaker he was for the community,” said Christian, who lives in Maitland and also serves as a trustee on the Genius Foundation. “He was just very committed and dutiful … I know he was proud of the things he did, but he didn’t talk about himself in that way.”
Ward was also devoted to First Congregational Church of Winter Park where his family has been members since 1886. The church will hold a service for Ward on May 2 at 11 a.m.
In addition to Christian, Ward is survived by daughter Cathy McNamara and son Tom Ward, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
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by Beth Kassab | Mar 12, 2026 | Arts and Culture, Historic Preservation, News
Demolition clock starts on Merrywood as preservation push builds
One Historic Preservation Board member called it a “defining moment” for Winter Park
March 12, 2026
By Beth Kassab
The clock is ticking on the fate of Merrywood.
The sprawling Winter Park estate — among the largest and most ornate homes designed by architect James Gamble Rogers II — could be demolished in as soon as 90 days unless preservationists can find a buyer willing to save it.
A demolition application has been filed for the property at 1020 Palmer Ave. by owners Cathleen and Raymond Gilmer, siblings who inherited the estate from their parents, who bought the 1939 lakefront home in 1977. The 3.67-acre property overlooks Lake Osceola.
City officials have limited power to stop the demolition because the home is not listed on Winter Park’s Historic Register. But because it appears in the Florida Master Site File, city rules automatically trigger a 90-day delay before a demolition permit can be issued, giving preservationists time to seek alternatives.
That countdown prompted a packed discussion before the city’s Historic Preservation Board this week that drew a who’s who of Winter Park names.
Everyone seemed to have an opinion — from Marc Hagle, known for traveling to space with his wife aboard a Blue Origin suborbital flight and for constructing what is currently the city’s largest home, a 31,000-square-foot residence just a few doors down from Merrywood, to local preservation advocates and the granddaughter of the home’s architect.
“I think, as a community, this is one of those defining moments,” said Margie Bridges, a former city commissioner who now serves on the Historic Preservation Board. “… this is one of those special homes … We have a short time to rally and step up and take care of this in any way that it’s most efficient for the buyer and preserves something special in our community.”
Tara Tedrow, the prospective buyer who has the property under contract, facilitated the demolition permit and is also asking the city to amend its comprehensive plan to allow the lakefront property to be split into two lots.
Under that scenario, she said, she would attempt to find a buyer interested in restoring Merrywood while her family could build a new home on the other portion of the property.
A Planning & Zoning Board hearing on the request was delayed at Tedrow’s request until June.
In the meantime, she said filing the demolition application was intended to start a conversation about saving the home.
“The purpose was to get folks here and to have folks talk about this so that we could at least open a 90-day window to get some creative solutions to see if there is something that can be done to preserve the house,” Tedrow told the board.
Toward the end of the meeting she added: “I want to be clear: we’re not tearing the house down on Day 91. My husband and I have no intention of actually demo-ing the house ourselves.”
Betsy Owens, executive director of preservation advocacy group Friends of Casa Feliz, said she is working to help Tedrow tap a network of preservationists and reach potential buyers for Merrywood in Florida and across the country.
Owens, the granddaughter of the home’s architect who recently walked through the property, said the structure is significant for its “remarkable level of craftsmanship” in masonry, plaster, wood and tile that would be “nearly impossible to replicate.”
The front door of the home at 1020 Palmer Avenue.
“Merrywood contributes to the historic character of our community, helping to tell the architectural story of what makes Winter Park such a distinctive and economically prosperous place,” she said. “Together with our cherished tree canopy and chain of lakes, our beautifully designed historic homes are the goose that laid the golden egg in Winter Park … Once a building is gone, it’s gone forever. Preservation is not about nostalgia. It’s about stewardship of the cultural resources that define a community.”
She noted past examples of the community rallying to save homes threatened with demolition such as Casa Feliz, which was moved to sit on the Winter Park Nine, and the Capen House, which was floated across the lake to find a permanent home as an event space next to the Polasek Museum.
Christy Knobloch, executive director of the Winter Park History Museum, said preserving real pieces of the past is just as important as preserving archives.
“It’s hard to tell the stories of what it was in a photograph,” she said.
Other speakers noted the potentially high costs of restoring such a home and questioned whether such a buyer exists.
“I think we all love the house,” said John Skolfield, chairman of the Historic Preservation Board. “Most of us find the house very attractive and we want to find a way to preserve it. But these are big dollars, and these are not my decisions. These are the people with the big dollars who can purchase a property like this.”
Hagle, the one-time astronaut who recently completed years of construction at 926 Palmer Ave. after tearing down an older home there, said he has mixed feelings about saving the house but opposes the idea of splitting the lot.
“We just had a party at our house this last weekend — I apologize for the noise if y’all heard that,” he said. “But we had people from all over the world for a fundraiser at the house, and they all commented how gorgeous the city of Winter park is. And that’s who we are … Unfortunately, we’re in a difficult situation because it’s not fair to the homeowner to be burdened with having to save a house that was built in the 1920s that is difficult to repair.”
Aimee Spencer, a former member of the Historic Preservation Board, said she is weary of the narrative that maintaining an old home is too costly.
“I implore this board to begin to help dismantle the myth that preservation of our historic resources is cost prohibitive,” Spencer said. “It is disingenuous to continue the comparison of high quality restoration and rehabilitation to the type of new construction that generally plagues this city. Certainly there are high quality new builds, but on a whole, the comparison is that of apples to steak. True masterpieces are few and far between in Central Florida, and certainly we have already lost many. This remains an attempt at an end run around to produce two empty parcels. Lot splits are not a right in the city of Winter Park, but rather at the discretion if value is added to the city.”
The 90-day demolition delay is expected to expire around the end of May. The Planning & Zoning Board is scheduled to consider the comprehensive plan amendment that could allow the lot split in June.
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by Beth Kassab | Feb 7, 2026 | Arts and Culture, City Commission, Historic Preservation, News
Lot Split Request Puts Future of Gamble Rogers Estate in Question
Lakefront lot splits are against Winter Park policy. But the prospective owner of the largest lot on the city’s esteemed chain of lakes says the alternative could be worse — a residence so large it dwarfs the Library & Events Center
Feb. 7, 2026
By Beth Kassab
The fate of 1020 Palmer Avenue — a once-grand home and among the largest and most ornate ever designed by James Gamble Rogers II (think velvet-covered handrails) and known in recent years as “Merrywood” — appears to hinge on whether a unicorn buyer emerges to save the property.
Such a feat would take not only millions of dollars, but also approval from city officials to break one of Winter Park’s cardinal development rules: No lakefront lot splits allowed.
Tara Tedrow, the prospective buyer who has the property under contract, is asking for an exception to that rule to allow the 3.67-acre lot — the largest property on the picturesque Winter Park Chain of Lakes — to be divided into two lots on Lake Osceola. Each lot, she said, would be at least 150 feet wide and 1.5 acres or larger.
Zillow estimates the property at $12.1 million while other estimates, such as Redfin, list it at $6.4 million.
Tedrow, a land-use attorney at Lowndes who also used to practice cannabis law there, could then potentially sell the lot with the existing home and build a new home for her family on the newly created lakefront lot. The exception would be written in such a way that it would apply only to her lot and no others, according to city staff, because the lot Tedrow wants to purchase is the only one large enough.
The name “Merrywood” at the start of the driveway at 1020 Palmer Avenue.
While she told the Planning & Zoning Board earlier this week that she believes the currently vacant home is beyond repair, she said she is open to talking with buyers interested in restoring the 7,000-square-foot structure, which dates back to 1940.
She also met with Betsy Owens, granddaughter of Gamble Rogers and leader of the Casa Feliz Historic Home Museum — a Gamble Rogers home and now a popular event space that was famously moved from Interlachen Avenue to just off the ninth fairway of the Winter Park Nine 25 years ago after it was threatened with demolition.
“I’m certain if I’m not in the picture, that the house will get torn down,” Tedrow told the P&Z board earlier this week of the Palmer Avenue home.
The house at 1020 Palmer Avenue is not on the city’s historic register because the longtime owners chose to keep it off. It could be destroyed with a simple demolition permit. However, the property is listed on the Florida Master Site File, a state database of historical and cultural resources, which means the city’s Historic Preservation Board could delay a demolition request for 90 days to allow time to consider alternatives or ways to preserve pieces of the home.
The P&Z board voted 4–2 on Tuesday to grant Tedrow’s request to delay the hearing on the lot split until June — so far, there is no demolition request — to give her time to see whether anyone comes forward who may be interested in restoring the property.
“We appreciate the opportunity to present this case to the city and to hear from our neighbors and members of the historic preservation community,” Tedrow told the Voice. “Having grown up in Winter Park, I appreciate just how unique and beautiful the city is. As I am expecting my third baby in three years, I want more than ever to move back to Winter Park.”
Alex Stringfellow, Bill Segal, David Bornstein, and Charles Steinberg voted in favor of granting the continuance.
Jason Johnson, chairman of the P&Z board, and board member Michael Dick voted against continuing the hearing on the lot split. Both expressed skepticism that a lot split — which would require a change to the comprehensive plan that governs how the city will develop in coming years — should be granted.
The rule states that a property owner cannot divide a lakefront parcel into two and build a house on each one. Such splits would increase density and development along the shorelines of the city’s lakes and decrease the diversity of lot sizes central to the city’s unique character.
The only exception in the plan — which does not apply in this case — is when there is a lakefront lot with a house that is historically designated and older than 1950, and the lot split does not create a new lakefront lot, said Planning & Zoning Director Allison McGillis. In such a case, which occurred last year with another Gamble Rogers house on North Park Avenue, one lot remained on the lakefront while the newly created lot was not on the water.
A view of the home from Palmer Avenue.
McGillis told the board she has heard from residents in the area who have concerns about a potential lot split.
“I’ve gotten questions about the fate of the house,” she said. “Most people I’ve talked with want to preserve the Gamble Rogers house because there are not many of them left.”
While splitting the lot does not guarantee that the home would be preserved, Tedrow said a potentially worse outcome could be on the horizon if a lot split is not granted.
Because of the size of the lot, a buyer could demolish the old home and would be entitled to build a new house as large as 56,000 square feet.
“The largest home in the city has a gross floor area of over 36,000 square feet — this 3.67-acre property is legally entitled to have a home 55% larger,” Tedrow told the Voice in an email. “To further put this into perspective, the city’s new library and event space total around 50,000 square feet. The home that could be built at 1020 Palmer Avenue under today’s Comprehensive Plan would be larger than both buildings combined on the city’s library campus and would dwarf every home in Winter Park.”
Such a house would also dwarf the home of Marc and Sharon Hagle, who spent years constructing the largest residence in Winter Park — the one Tedrow mentioned that is 36,000 square feet — just a few doors down Palmer Avenue.
“I think there are some buyers out there who might do that,” she told P&Z members. “I’m not that buyer. So maybe we flip this to somebody else …”
Owens, who also attended the meeting, said she appreciates that Tedrow came to Casa Feliz and is considering ways to find a buyer who might be willing to restore the home.
“We appreciate her willingness to work with us,” Owens said.
The property was most recently the home of Dr. Raymond Gilmer, an orthopedic surgeon who died in 2020 at age 90, and his wife, Sarah, who purchased it in 1977.
The home is now vacant and owned by the couple’s children. Tedrow said the family decided to keep the property off the historic register in case the land would be worth more with the potential for demolition.
A close-up of the front entrance to the property.
There is no publicly available list price because Tedrow offered a contract on the property before it hit the MLS.
She said the price of the existing house would depend on the exact configuration of a potential lot split, if approved, and other factors.
The house was featured as one of about a dozen properties in a 2004 book celebrating the architecture of Gamble Rogers in Winter Park by Patrick and Debra McClane.
“The initial series of interior spaces is unusual for a residence and more closely resembles a hotel or theater entry in that a lobby is provided, which is flanked by a coat room and a powder room,” reads the section on the property, referred to as the Plant House for its original owner. “Stepping up from the lobby, one then enters a large entrance hall nearly 45 feet in length. Triple arched openings on the south wall of the hall — with a fixed window in the center and double-leaf, multiplane doors on the sides — lead to the loggia and then the sunken patio, with Lake Osceola beyond.”
The house boasted features such as “floor buttons” in the dining areas that rang to wait staff in the kitchen, as well as “ornate wrought-iron railings and balusters [that] lined the staircase, and a velvet-covered handrail … provided on the interior wall.”
Jack Rogers, architect and son of Gamble Rogers, told the Voice last year that there are fewer than 10 true examples of his father’s work left in Winter Park as more are torn down every year.
“There’s probably 15 or 20 left, and eight or 10 are absolutely precious, and we seem to be losing them at the rate of one or two a year,” Rogers said. “We still have several wonderful examples.”
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Update: The original version of this story noted cannabis law as a part of Tedrow’s law practice. She no longer practices in that area.
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