Scenic Boat Tour- Winter Park

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Perhaps the most beautiful way to see any area is by boat, true of Winter Park, Florida and best done via Scenic Boat Tours. Hidden at the end of Park Avenue, at the end of East Morse Boulevard, the Pontoon fleet's dock would be easy to miss. The street, named for one of the city's scions, Charles Hosmer Morse, an American philanthropist originally from Maine, and namesake of the famous Morse Museum of American Art which houses the world's largest collection of Tiffany glass, is the gateway to Osceola Lake.

The Winter Park chain of lakes contains six lakes (Osceola, Virginia, Mizell, Maitland, Nina, Minnehaha) connected by navigable canals created by Charles Mizell of timber fame who had the canals built to make it possible to ship his product in this more timely and economic way than by freight in the mid-1800s. During our journey, we traversed three lakes and two canals.



The pontoon boats can't have a roof or cover because the water levels on the lakes can be quite high during the wet, summer season, and there isn't enough clearance for the boats to pass under bridges that dot the canals.

Met by our Skipper, Don Brown, he greets us heartily and provides the safety features, including the location of life vests and the importance of following directions. He's been performing this tour for years and is well versed in everything Winter Park from the history to the museums, best things to do on Mondays in Winter Park (the Scenic Boat Tour is the best… all the museums are closed on Mondays), the golf courses, and the hidden treasures.

Heading out on Lake Osceola, Skipper Don wows us with an instant piece of trivia. The Scenic Boat Tours are the oldest, continuous running, attraction in the state of Florida since 1938! They operate seven days a week, 364 days a year (not Christmas). Peppered with jokes, facts, and wry asides, he's a treasure trove of information.

He tells us that Winter Park was established in 1881 by two northerners seeking refuge from the painful winters of their home states. But earlier that century, in the mid-1830s, Chief Osceola was known to camp on these shorelines, so it's named in his honor. It wasn't until 1858 that David Mizell arrived from the Commonwealth of Virginia, bought six acres of land on what he named Lake Virginia and bought six acres where he established a sawmill and started harvesting wood from the areas, creating the canals. For thirty years, the canals were full of timber heading for Mr. Mizell's sawmills.

Before we can move too far along in our journey, though, it's time for the first section of historic shoreline to receive a shout out. On the right side of the lake once stood the Old Seminole Hotel, the grandest hotel in the state of Florida. In 1886, maybe even the United States. It had 250 hotel rooms and a four-story tall observation tower from which you could see both Lake Osceola and Lake Virginia. Most impressive was its front porch, stretching 600 feet (that's two football fields). Host to Presidents Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison, many said that Rollins College and the Old Seminole Hotel brought "luxury to the edge of the Florida frontier."

Sadly, the hotel caught fire in 1902 and burned to the ground. Under-insured, the owners were forced to sell the real estate.

There are three museums on this lake visible from the tour. The first, the Albin Polasek Statue Garden, remains a popular wedding venue. Mr. Polasek, a sculptor who specialized in bronze, moved from Czechoslovakia to Chicago in 1901, then retired to Winter Park in 1960. When he died in 1962, his wife dedicated their home and over 400 pieces of his work in honor of her husband to what is now the Polasek Sculpture Museum and Gardens .

But the story of this museum and its foundation goes further still. When the Capen House, a historic home built on the other side of the lake, was in danger with new owners, the Polasek offered safe haven. The new owners of the land the Capen House stood upon paid for the house to be split in two (called Fred and Ginger after the famous American dance team, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers), rolled down the hill, and floated across Lake Osceola to its current location. It took 45 minutes for the first half, according to our skipper, and 15 minutes for the second. He invited us to check out the YouTube video from 2010 where a drone covered the event. Movement across the lake starts at 1:42.



From there, we enter the Fern Canal. Just an eighth of a mile long, they're about four or five feet deep. We pass one of the oldest oak trees in the region and the fern draped across it is given special mention.



They call this the "Resurrection Fern." When weather is wet and humid, as it is in Florida in September when I attended the tour, the fern is a vibrant green. But when it's dry, after just three days the fern can turn yellow and brown. But it revives with a return to moisture and is, therefore, referred to as the Resurrection Fern.



We exit Fern Canal into Lake Virginia, home to Rollins College and its Knowles Chapel. Rollins College is a highly regarded Liberal Arts College, typically reaching the best in the United States for both academics and campus beauty. Its most famous graduate is Fred Rogers, of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood acclaim. From Latrobe, Pennsylvania, outside Pittsburgh, Fred arrived to attend Rollins Music Conservatory with his grand piano in tow. While the dorms had room for him, they couldn't accommodate the piano, so his parents arrived within the week and purchased a home that still stands on the lake today. Not to worry about them getting enough for their money, though. His younger sister also attended the school and graduated a year after he did. Most importantly, perhaps, and a focus of the college tour, Fred met and married his wife, Joanne here at Rollins.

A pro tip Skipper Don provides is that Rollins College's cafeteria is one of the best places to eat on the lake. While it also has a fine restaurant in The Boat House, the cafeteria is a more casual and less expensive place to pick up a meal. He recommends taking it outside by the Olympic size pool overlooking the lake, especially when the water-skiing team is practicing slaloms or jumps.

In addition to Rollins, another important name for Lake Virginia is Charles Morse. In 1906, he was the largest property owner in Winter Park, including 200 acres on Lake Virginia. He was so pleased with it, he called his daughter, Elizabeth Morse Genius, a famous artist, and son-in-law, Dr. Genius, in Chicago and invited them down. They loved the area so much, they purchased 200 acres, paying just $4/acre in 1921. The first home built on the Lake, we're told, was their home, called Windsong, built in 1929.

The Geniuses daughter, Jeannette, spent happy time with her grandfather in Winter Park, became an interior designer, artist, and philanthropist in her own right and married Hugh McKean who had interned with Tiffany glass. From their collaboration grew the incredible Charles Hosmer Morse collection ultimately housed at their Morse Museum of Modern Art. After a terrible fire devastated the Louis Comfort Tiffany mansion on Long Island, the couple traveled there and rescued full panels of glass that are displayed and loaned out to museums around the world today. So when in Winter Park, plan to visit the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of Modern Art (open Tuesday through Sunday).

A funny but true story Skipper Don shares with us before we leave Lake Virginia revolves around the Winter Park Public Beach area and dock. Remember that this is where Mr. Mizell set up his sawmill. The train came through to his mill, right through campus. But, with the sandy soil, the gauge railways often overloaded with all the students and lumber on the train. The train would tip or derail causing students to get off the train and help put it back on the track. After repeatedly doing this over the years, they nicknamed this section of the track as the "Dinky" Line and, though it was closed in 1960, the name remains on this section of beach and the dock is known as the "Dinky Dock."



We return through the Fern Canal and traverse Lake Osceola, learning more historic facts and spotting stunning and celebrity homes, then enter a mile-long canal to Lake Maitland. Studded with oak, Spanish Moss, pine, and (now protected) cypress. As we exit the canal, Skipper Don points out sections of cypress root system that extend into the lake. Turns out, the roots are protected, too. I'm not certain how you'd be able to prevent them from breaking through your dock or boat garage.

The humorous anecdote of Lake Maitland must be from the Brewer Estate. Located near the canal's entry, Mr. Brewer was an industrialist from Cortlandt, New York. Here's how Skipper Don relays the story:"Mr. Brewer had some health issues he thought the climate here would improve, as opposed to upstate New York. So he bought the property, went back to Cortlandt, and "asked" his wife if she would make the move.

Well, they'd just recently built a new six-bedroom, seven-bathroom, beautiful estate that had its own observation tower. They still had five small children at home. But she said she'd move, she just wanted a couple years to enjoy the house before she did.

Mr. Brewer said, "Honey, I understand, and I thought you might say that. And that's why I built the same exact house for you in Winter Park, Florida. Six-bedroom, 7-bath, with an observation tower on top."

Their front door (1898, the lakeside is always the front of the house) is visible from the lake and the ballrooms right behind it.

They lived there from 1898 to 1940. That is the Brewer estate. He gets credit for Happy Wife, Happy Life."

Throughout the tour, you'll hear of a famous architect, James Gamble Rogers. He designed and built several homes in Winter Park, several on this chain of lakes. All of them are now on the National Historical Registry. One from Lake Maitland is colloquially called "the Windex House." Built in 1958, it has a Bermuda colonial design with fishtail chimney tops. The homeowners had one request: to be able to see the water from any window. They trucked in six loads of sand from Daytona to create a beach and their wish became reality. Every window faces the lake.



One thing you'll sense throughout the tour is the boating community. From the respectful quiet whilst traversing the canals to honor the homeowners, to the cheerful waves as paddleboards and kayaks grant the right of way to the pontoon boats, to the sheer joy when the skipper announces "here comes the air conditioning" and throws the throttle open so we can glory in the sun and the breeze, this is a living, breathing, friendly community ready and willing to open its arms to those of us not fortunate enough to live here.

If you live anywhere near the area, you'll want to become a "frequent floater." It's a lovely way to spend an hour and gather a few jokes, a little history, and maybe some new friends.

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