Central Florida stories
The places we power, and how they got here
Illustrated local histories of the neighborhoods around here — the booms, the freezes, the storms — and why keeping the lights on is part of each one's story.
Laureate Park · Lake Nona
The Neighborhood That Measured Everything It Couldn’t Control. The Story of Laureate Park, Lake Nona
Laureate Park was drawn on a clean sheet of paper next to Orlando's Medical City and built to control every watt a house uses: a fifth less energy per home, solar offered on the roofs, a townhouse wired as a working laboratory for the future of the home, and a strand of fiber to every lot. It mastered how a house spends electricity. It never got a vote on whether the power arrives. An illustrated local history of Laureate Park, Lake Nona, Orlando.
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Independence · Winter Garden
The Neighborhood Sent Out First — Independence, Winter Garden, Florida: A Local History
Before 58,000 neighbors arrived, one neighborhood had to prove anyone would move onto Horizon West's frozen-out orange groves. Independence went first — a brick clock tower and a 512-foot reflecting pond raised as an argument. An illustrated local history, with a present-day note on power resilience from GENERasic.
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Hamlin · Winter Garden
The Town Named After an Orange That Beat the Freeze — Hamlin, Winter Garden, Florida: A Local History
Hamlin grew up on the dead groves of a Florida cold snap — a luxury-cinema, lakefront downtown conjured out of frozen-out citrus land, named for an orange famous for ripening ahead of the cold. An illustrated local history of Hamlin and Horizon West, with a present-day note on power resilience from GENERasic.
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Lake Nona Golf & Country Club · Orlando
When the World's Golfers Moved to a Cow Pasture — Lake Nona Golf & Country Club, Orlando, Florida: A Local History
A brand-new course in the Orlando scrub, a teacher in a straw hat, and the strange years when more major champions lived around one lake than almost anywhere on earth. An illustrated local history of Lake Nona Golf & Country Club, with a present-day note on power resilience from GENERasic.
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Sweetwater Country Club · Apopka
The Town That Grew a Country's Houseplants Under a Roof — Sweetwater Country Club, Apopka, Florida: A Local History
Twice a hard freeze killed Apopka's orange groves. The growers who stayed quit trusting the open sky and moved the whole garden under cover — building the Indoor Foliage Capital of the World on a climate they controlled themselves. An illustrated local history of Apopka and the Sweetwater Country Club area, with a present-day note on power resilience from GENERasic.
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Howey-in-the-Hills · Florida
The Orange Grove That Went to the Supreme Court — Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida: A Local History
A citrus salesman sold Northerners a guaranteed piece of his Florida empire, and sold it so hard that after his death the promise became the test the Supreme Court still uses to decide what counts as an investment. The one thing he couldn't guarantee was the cold. An illustrated local history of Howey-in-the-Hills, Lake County, Florida, with a present-day note on power resilience from GENERasic.
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Markham Woods · Lake Mary
The Town the Rich Road Was Named After — Markham Woods, Lake Mary, Florida: A Local History
Markham Woods Road runs under live oaks past some of the most expensive gated estates north of Orlando. It is named for a place that no longer exists — Markham, a Black turpentine and sawmill town that built the land's first economy out of fire and pine resin, then vanished from the map. An illustrated local history, with a present-day note on power resilience from GENERasic.
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Tuscawilla · Winter Springs
The Town That Spells Its Own Name Two Ways — Tuscawilla, Winter Springs, Florida: A Local History
Drive through Winter Springs and you pass the same old Seminole name spelled two different ways — Tuskawilla with a K, Tuscawilla with a C. A golf developer changed the letter in 1971, a whole city renamed itself after his subdivision, and all of it runs on a grid a hurricane can drop. An illustrated local history, with a present-day note on power resilience from GENERasic.
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Lake Butler Sound · Windermere
When Versailles Came to Lake Butler Sound — Windermere, Florida: A Local History
On a gated shore of the Butler Chain of Lakes, a timeshare billionaire set out to build the largest single-family house in America. He started as the credit boom peaked and stalled when the 2008 crash froze the money. Twenty-two years later the palace still runs on the same wires — and bows to the same storms — as every other house on the lake. An illustrated local history, with a present-day note on power resilience from GENERasic.
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Reunion · Florida
The Town Named Reunion Where Almost Nobody Stays — Reunion, Florida: A Local History
A developer bought 2,300 acres of citrus grove six miles from Disney, got three golf legends who spent their careers trying to beat each other to sign a course apiece, and called the place Reunion. The homes fill and empty with strangers — and the whole thing stays cool and lit only as long as the wire from outside holds. An illustrated local history, with a present-day note on power resilience from GENERasic.
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Bella Collina · Montverde
The Tuscan Hill Town That Nearly Vanished in Four Years — Bella Collina, Montverde, Florida: A Local History
They built a village meant to look six centuries old on Florida's only real hills above Lake Apopka, and sold it as old-world permanence at the exact moment the money was about to disappear. It nearly became a grid of empty streets, came back as one of Central Florida's priciest addresses — and still runs on a wire a storm can drop. An illustrated local history, with a present-day note on power resilience from GENERasic.
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Bay Hill · Orlando
The Ground Too Poor to Grow Oranges — Bay Hill, Orlando, Florida: A Local History
The citrus king of Orange County couldn't use the sandy ground on the Butler Chain of Lakes — too poor for oranges. A golf course took it, and Arnold Palmer made it his paradise. Like every green acre in Florida, it runs on a power line a hurricane can put on the ground. An illustrated local history, with a present-day note on power resilience from GENERasic.
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Keene's Pointe · Windermere
The Groves Froze, and the Fairways Came — Keene's Pointe, Windermere, Florida: A Local History
R. Dolph Keene spent his life out-running the Florida cold for its oranges. The gated golf community on the Butler Chain that now carries his name sits where his frozen-out groves were — and every green acre of it runs on grid power a hurricane can still take. An illustrated local history, with a present-day note on power resilience from GENERasic.
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Alaqua Lakes · Florida
The Paradise That Had Everything but Its Own Power — Alaqua Lakes, Longwood, Florida: A Local History
In the Markham woods west of I-4, a developer laid a Tom Fazio golf course, a string of man-made lakes, and a gated town of custom homes over old Florida pine and citrus land. Every green blade and still pond of it runs on electricity — and twice in thirteen years the county around it went dark for a week. An illustrated local history, with a present-day note on power resilience from GENERasic.
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Avalon Park · Orlando
The Town That Planned Everything but the Power — Avalon Park, Orlando, Florida: A Local History
East of Orlando, a Swiss banker built a whole town from scratch on open cattle land — a place designed so you'd never have to leave it. Avalon Park was only a few years old when three hurricanes crossed Central Florida in six weeks in 2004, and the newest town in the county went as dark as the oldest. An illustrated local history, with a present-day note on power resilience from GENERasic.
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Thornton Park · Orlando
The Summer the Fountain Went Dark — Thornton Park, Orlando, Florida: A Local History
Thornton Park wraps the east shore of Lake Eola, and the fountain in the middle of that lake is the neighborhood's front yard and the symbol of Orlando. Orlando's own electric utility built it and gave it to the city for the centennial in 1957 — a monument made entirely of light and moving water — until a lightning strike in late August 2009 switched it off and it stayed dark for almost two years. An illustrated local history, with a present-day note on power resilience from GENERasic.
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Belle Isle · Florida
The Town That Refused to Lose Its Lakes — Belle Isle, Florida: A Local History
Belle Isle, Florida exists because its residents twice invented a city to stop Orange County from draining the Conway chain of lakes. Half a century later, keeping those lakes alive came down to a federal experiment: on September 9, 1977 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released thousands of sterile Chinese grass carp into Lake Conway to fight an invasion of hydrilla. An illustrated local history, with a present-day note on power resilience from GENERasic.
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Winter Springs · Florida
The Lake Was the Only Road In — Winter Springs, Florida: A Local History
Winter Springs is a landlocked golf-course suburb named after water. But for one short stretch of the 1880s, its shoreline on Lake Jesup was a working steamboat port — the farthest south a boat could unload freight bound for Orlando — until a sunk steamer and an arriving railroad ended the lake trade for good. An illustrated local history of Winter Springs, Florida, with a present-day note on power resilience from GENERasic.
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Oviedo · Florida
The Town That Grew Rich on Water — Oviedo, Florida: A Local History
Oviedo didn't get rich on Florida sunshine. It got rich on water that came up out of the ground on its own — black muck kept permanently wet by flowing artesian wells, which turned a frozen-out citrus town into the self-styled Celery Capital of the World, until a run of cold winters in the 1980s shut the packing houses for good. An illustrated local history of Oviedo, Florida, with a present-day note on power resilience from GENERasic.
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Longwood · Florida
The Man Who Brought Boston to the Pines — Longwood, Florida: A Local History
A Union veteran from Boston named Edward Henck tried to plant a slice of New England in the Florida pinewoods — the name, a railroad, a winter resort hotel for 'tourists and invalids' — then the Great Freeze took it back and sent him home for twenty years. An illustrated local history of Longwood, Florida, with a present-day note on power resilience from GENERasic.
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Mount Dora · Florida
The Winter a President Moved to Mount Dora — Mount Dora, Florida: A Local History
In January 1930, with the Florida land boom already dead and the country sliding into the Depression, a little citrus town on a Florida hill spent a quarter-million dollars enlarging its hotel — and landed a just-former President for a whole winter. The gamble held. An illustrated local history, with a present-day note on power resilience from GENERasic.
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Lake Mary · Florida
The Circus Man Who Built Lake Mary — Lake Mary, Florida: A Local History
Frank Evans ran off with the Bailey circus, made a fortune in dyes and textiles, and spent it turning a citrus railroad stop between Sanford and Orlando into the town of Lake Mary — its stores, its school, and the little hall that's now its museum. An illustrated local history, with a present-day note on power resilience from GENERasic.
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College Park · Orlando
The Colleges That Never Came to College Park — Orlando, Florida: A Local History
In the 1920s an Orlando developer dressed a grid of sandy grove lots in the names of Princeton, Harvard and Yale, and sold the dream of a sure thing — at almost the exact moment the Florida land boom holding it up came apart. How College Park got its college streets and no college, and what actually lasted. An illustrated local history, with a present-day note on power resilience from GENERasic.
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Dr. Phillips · Orlando
The Freeze That Built Dr. Phillips — Dr. Phillips, Orlando, Florida: A Local History
A young doctor lost his first orange grove to the Great Freeze of 1894–95. What Philip Phillips did next — spread his trees across nine Florida counties and put the juice in a can that couldn't spoil — made him the biggest citrus grower in the state and left an Orlando suburb carrying his name. An illustrated local history, with a present-day note on power resilience from GENERasic.
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Heathrow · Florida
The Celery Fortune Under Heathrow — Heathrow, Florida: A Local History
Under the fairways of one of Central Florida's most exclusive gated communities is old celery muck — and the man who turned the farm into the town got rich canning chop suey and giving America the pizza roll. How a peddler's son from the Minnesota Iron Range, a 19th-century freeze, and a borrowed British name made Heathrow, Florida. An illustrated local history.
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Maitland · Florida
The War Artist Who Carved a Lost City Into Maitland — Maitland, Florida: A Local History
A decorated World War I war artist — the man who ran the Army's AEF art program and is credited with designing the Distinguished Service Cross — lost a leg and was going blind when he left the center of the American art world, came to a frost-emptied Florida citrus town, and spent the rest of his life hand-casting a Mayan fantasy out of concrete. It is now a National Historic Landmark and the one piece of old Maitland still standing. An illustrated local history of Maitland, Florida.
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Winter Garden · Florida
The Town That Ran on Cold — Winter Garden, Florida: A Local History
For half a century Winter Garden, Florida called itself the largest citrus shipping point in the world — a town that got rich by manufacturing cold, packing block ice around oranges to rush them north before they rotted. Then came the one cold it could never command: the hard freeze. An illustrated local history of Winter Garden, Florida.
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Celebration · Florida
Walt Disney Planned a City That Would Run Itself. Disney Built Celebration Instead. — A Local History
In October 1966 Walt Disney unveiled EPCOT: a climate-controlled city of 20,000 with its roads, power and plumbing buried underground, built to control its own environment. He died ten weeks later and it was never built. Thirty years on, Disney finally put a real town on that Florida land — Celebration — and when a hurricane crosses the state, it goes dark like any other place. An illustrated local history of Celebration, Florida.
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Lake Nona · Orlando
The Windowless Building That Keeps the City of the Future Alive — The Story of Lake Nona, Orlando
Lake Nona rose out of a Central Florida cow pasture as a self-styled 'city of the future' — a whole district of hospitals that are never allowed to lose power. The building that actually makes that promise good has no windows, a blast-rated shell, eight generators and a quarter-million gallons of diesel buried in the ground. An illustrated local history of Lake Nona, Orlando.
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Baldwin Park · Orlando
The Reactor School Under the Front Porches — The Story of Baldwin Park, Orlando
For twenty-two years the ground under Baldwin Park's front porches was a Navy school that trained sailors to run nuclear reactors — the one kind of power that is never allowed to quit. Then the base closed, and the neighborhood that replaced it went back on the same grid that blinks out every Florida storm. An illustrated local history of Baldwin Park, Orlando.
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Isleworth · Florida
Before the Gates, It Was the Isle of Worth — The Story of Isleworth, Florida
Today Isleworth is the most private address in Central Florida — Tiger Woods, Shaquille O'Neal, a wall and a guard gate. It began as a citrus grove the Chase brothers named the 'Isle of Worth,' because the cold that ruined everyone else seemed to leave it alone. Then one December it didn't. An illustrated local history of Isleworth, Windermere, Florida — and a place that has spent a century trying to out-engineer the weather.
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Winter Park · Florida
The Town That Fired Its Power Company — The Story of Winter Park, Florida
Winter Park's live oaks are the most beautiful thing about it — and for years they were the reason the lights kept going out. So the town took the grid away from the power company and buried it. The story of Winter Park, Florida, and how a canopy town bought its own resilience — an illustrated local history.
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Golden Oak · Orange County
The One Address Inside Disney World That Disney Chose Not to Rule
Disney bought the ground in secret and sealed it inside a government of its own making — then carved one corner back out and handed it to Orange County. The story of the most exclusive address on Walt Disney World.
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Windermere · Orange County
The Town That Wouldn't Pave Its Roads
For a century this town has defended its sand roads and its oak canopy by law — small, shaded, hard to cross on purpose. And what that choice costs when a storm comes.
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