The Lake Documentary Catalog

THE LAKE: A Documentary Exploring the Land and People of Lake Apopka

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The Lake:

A Documentary Exploring the Land and People of Lake Apopka A Florida Traveling Exhibition, 2018-2019

This latest collaboration between Crealdé School of Art and the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation offers a contemporary and historic window into the culture and landscape of Central Florida’s Lake Apopka. Two Crealdé documentary photography instructors guided a master class of students in creating photographs and oral histories that join the paintings of 10 of Florida’s top landscape painters to explore the relationship between Lake Apopka and the diverse people who call the shores of Florida’s third largest lake their home and place of work.

Through visual art and researched history, this comprehensive project and exhibition traces Lake Apopka from the early citrus and tourism industry through the revolutionary mid-century muck farming industry, which included the partial draining of the lake and led to massive environmental destruction and public health issues, to the current efforts of restoration, responsible land and water management and the emerging eco-tourism industry. The exhibition debuted at the Crealdé School of Art and the Hannibal Square Heritage Center in Fall 2017 and was next exhibited in Winter 2018 in Winter Garden at the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation, Winter Garden City Hall, and the Winter Garden branch of the Orange County Library System.

Special thanks to the City of Winter Garden, the Farmworker Association of Florida, the St. Johns River Management District, Friends of Lake Apopka and countless businesses and individuals in the communities surrounding Lake Apopka.

THE TEAM Project Leader & Photography Instructor Peter Schreyer Photography Instructor & Digital Archival Printing Sherri Bunye Project Historians Kay Cappleman, Jim Crescitelli & Cynthia Cardona Lead Painter Tom Sadler Exhibition Design & Installation Barbara Tiffany Project Coordinator Holly Manus Framing Baxter Matthews, Florida Frame House Catalog Design Michelle Benoit FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHERS Peter Schreyer Holly Manus Sherri Bunye Matt Nicholson Laura Barthle Jennifer Pereira Natalie Colon Marsee Perkins Ray Giles Audrey Rudolph Laurie Hagemaier Cynthia Slaughter Jeff Kraus Kucku Varghese FEATURED PAINTERS Tom Sadler Stephen Bach Matthew Cornell Cynthia Edmonds Sally Evans

Martha Lent Peter Pettegrew Morgan Samuel Price Donald Sondag Barbara Tiffany

This project was funded in part by a Cultural Tourism Grant grant from Orange County Arts & Cultural Affairs and an Artists in Communities Grant from United Arts of Central Florida.

A Century of Abuse T

he history of Central Florida’s Lake Apopka is a saga of life, death, and potential rebirth. Not just a story of a local lake, it’s an account having far-reaching national significance, representing America’s quest for prosperity at the expense of land, environment and people.

Few other natural resources so clearly depict the effects of human alteration on nature as Lake Apopka.

After a century of abuse, it is now known as Florida’s most polluted large lake. Originally the state’s thirdlargest freshwater body of water, the lake is much smaller now, though the island of Manhattan would still fit comfortably within its shores.

The Lake: A Documentary Exploring the Land and People of Lake Apopka narrates the saga of the lake using the distinct eyes and voices of two-dozen Central Florida artists and photographers. A joint project of the Crealdé School of Art and the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation, the project strives to tell the story of the lake and document its current status. Through visual interpretation and narration, the exhibit traces the lake’s importance to early pioneers, its reputation as a world-renowned sports fishing paradise, decades of contamination from muck farming, and current efforts to address the environmental destruction and public health issues, manage the land and water responsibly, and create new industry based on eco-tourism.

The Beginning A

cross the centuries, Lake Apopka nourished life in its surrounding regions. An abundance of artifacts found in the area attest to its importance to indigenous people. The first white settlers documented the remains of Seminole Indian villages they found when they arrived in 1858. To these early settlers, the lake provided rich soil excellent for farming, and the means to transport goods to and from their new home. Crops were shipped across the lake on boats, then hauled overland to either Clay Springs or Mellonville (Sanford) where steamboats conveyed the bounty northward on the St. Johns River.

The story of the lake’s decline began when several local farmers formed the Apopka Canal Company in 1879. Their ambitious goal to construct a waterway from Lake Apopka, through the Harris Chain of Lakes, to the Ocklawaha River, and on to the St. Johns, would eliminate the need to haul harvested crops overland.

Digging through the north shore’s muck lands proved more difficult than imagined - it took ten long years to finish the project. When the Apopka-Beauclair Canal opened in 1888, Lake Apopka’s water level dropped a foot, providing the first blow to the lake’s health. Railroads had also arrived by this time, usurping the canal’s importance. Soon, three lines snaked their way around the lake, serving the agricultural towns and rendering the canal obsolete.

With the arrival of rail, the communities around Lake Apopka prospered. The thriving agricultural economy was further boosted by tourism. Twenty-two fish camps ringed the lake, bringing northern travelers seeking sunshine and sport fishing. Nearby towns competed to establish the most deluxe lakefront facilities to lure anglers to what was now known as “the large-mouth bass capital of the world.”

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The Lake Suffers W

ith the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, Lake Apopka entered a new era. Under the Zellwood Drainage and Water Control District Act, 21000 acres of north shore marshland were drained, creating farmland for the war effort and drastically reducing the lake’s size. A levee, along with an elaborate system of pumps and canals, maintained the formerly sodden soil.

With the establishment of large industrial farm operations, the fertile land produced crops in abundance. The use of fertilizer and pesticides swelled production, necessitating an increase in laborers. Migrating families from Deep South states, predominantly African American, added to the local workforce in the gigantic fields.

By 1969, crops produced in the Zellwood District were valued at almost $12 million; by 1992 the harvest had grown to nearly $60 million.

With the dramatic increase in farm production, Lake Apopka suffered. Every summer, the farmland was intentionally flooded with water from the lake in order to oxygenate the soil. When drained a few months later, the backwash carried poisonous chemicals into the water. In time, algae blooms in the phosphate-laden lake created a thick layer of soupy muck, choking out beneficial plant life. Fish died in increasing numbers, and the lake’s alligator population was affected as well. In the 1980s, University of Florida reproductive biologist Dr. Louis Guillette was part of a team studying hormonal irregularities found in Lake Apopka’s alligator population.

THE HUMAN COST

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he $100 million Lake Apopka farmland buyout initiated in 1996 left 2,000 farmworkers without work. This, in itself, was a devastating blow to the Apopka-Zellwood community. Still worse though, was the insidious effects of years of exposure to dangerous chemicals on the health of the unemployed farmworkers.

While in the vast fields, men and women were directly exposed to toxic pesticides. Practices such as crop dusting were among the long list of contamination issues. According to Dale Finley Slongwhite’s book, Fed Up: The High Costs of Cheap Food: “They had absorbed the poison through their skin during planting, harvesting, and packing, and they had ingested it by eating fish from the canals. Many of them lived a short distance from the farms, so even when they left work after hours of crawling down seemingly endless rows, hacking at lettuce with machetes, or running behind mule trains heaving ears of corn onto pallets, they were not safe. Wind carried the poison to them. …The chemicals used in the pesticides were endocrine disruptors, which means they alter the way the hormonal system works…The farmworkers believe that the high incidence in their children and grandchildren of ADHD, eczema, autism, and other diseases is a result of these pesticides fooling the body into reacting as though it had ingested hormones.”

Jeannie Economos of the Farmworker Association of Florida, a group advocating since 1983 for the health and welfare of these farm laborers, states: “It is rare indeed to find anyone who has heard about or even thought about the people who worked in the fields doing the backbreaking labor necessary to feed a nation. Farm work is a job that is necessary to all of us – we all need to eat. It is also a skilled job. But people should not be made to suffer as a result of being an agricultural laborer, a farmworker.”

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They came to the conclusion that endocrine-disrupting chemicals being flushed into the water mimicked the characteristics of hormones, causing alarming physical anomalies in alligators’ reproductive organs. Guillette stated that the American alligator “is an important sentinel species to tell us something about the health of the environment…They’re the ones accumulating contaminants through the whole food chain.”

Further adding to the problem were sewer, citrus processing, and pesticide plants that dumped waste directly into the lake.

By the early 1970s, Lake Apopka was no longer a sports-fishing paradise. It was in deep trouble.

Restoration I

n the 1980s the lake finally began to attract the attention of environmentalists and concerned citizens. An advocacy group known as Friends of Lake Apopka (FOLA) formed in 1991. After years of clamoring by FOLA, Governor Lawton Chiles signed the Lake Apopka Restoration Act, allocating funds to purchase the large farms and restore the wetlands. By 1998, farming along the north shore had ceased.

Restoring Lake Apopka has proved incredibly difficult. The St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD) was charged with the long, complex, costly effort. One of the agency’s first projects was the creation of the Marsh Flow-Way, encompassing 760 acres of wetland grasses that act as a giant kidney. As water flows over this area, the grasses filter out close to 90% of the phosphorous, algae, and suspended sediments. A 2008 SJRWMD report documented that approximately 1.7 times the lake’s volume runs through the Flow-Way every four years.

Other successful projects have included: • the removal of gizzard shad to eliminate the phosphorus and nitrogen contained in the bodies of fish, reducing the recycling of these nutrients in the lake; • the use of soil inversion plows to bury toxic topsoil deep underground; and • the replanting of shoreline vegetation, providing a healthy habitat for fish and wildlife.

While these efforts have proved successful, others have failed.

The highest cost has been on humans - the former farmworkers. Exposed to agricultural chemicals for decades, many of these now unemployed and neglected families continue to suffer from second and thirdgeneration health issues.

The migrating bird population was also hard hit. In 1998 when the former farmland was initially flooded, hundreds of thousands of birds flocked to the small wetland pools, feasting on fish full of organochlorine chemicals; nearly 1000 birds died in a disastrous bird kill. Other natural setbacks in the fight to restore the lake have been storms and droughts that contributed to a worsening water quality.

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espite challenges, the lake is slowly showing signs of recovery. While recent studies indicate improvements in phosphorus concentrations and water transparency, the biggest steps forward have been in the area of public recreation. In 2000, FOLA initiated a study of the potential for recreational and eco-tourism opportunities around the lake in order to draft a master plan. Significant parts of the plan have already been implemented: • The 22-mile multi-use West Orange Trail on the south side of the lake opened in 1994 and is soon to become an integral piece of Florida’s 250-mile Coast-to-Coast Trail; • Nature Preserves at Oakland and Ferndale maintain natural habitats along the lake, providing wildlife protection, hiking paths, and educational opportunities; • The Green Mountain Scenic Byway, a rolling, winding roadway draws cyclists from around the world for competition, training, and touring, along with a scenic overlook and pathways; and • The Lake Apopka North Shore Trail offers hiking and biking paths, and a drive allowing visitors to view wildlife and the more than 350 species of birds that winter in the area. Experienced birders now view the north shore of Lake Apopka as one of the premier birding sites in the southeastern United States.

Perhaps the biggest lesson learned through the story of Lake Apopka is that prevention is far easier than restoration. While differing views of the lake’s viability and steps toward renewal have often ended in conflict, all agree that this valuable natural resource as a vital part of the region and its future. Not only is the lake’s health important to the welfare of people and wildlife, it makes sense financially too. Research indicates that the fastest growing segment of tourism worldwide is outdoor and nature-based. The former agricultural cities and towns circling the lake are now beginning to capitalize on the imminent beneficial aspects of Lake Apopka’s renaissance. A new, diverse population is settling in the region, many of who value its “natural” ambience and are eager to support its preservation.

KUCKU VARGHESE Rooftop Aquaponics Garden Winter Garden, Florida - 2017 Valencia College’s Plant Science and Agricultural Technology program operates the 3,000 square foot garden, created in 2009 by Bert Roper, a citrus industry visionary. The garden consists of 1,500 gallon tanks used to grow tilapia. The fish waste fertilizes the plants and the resultant clean water is pumped back into the tanks, thereby forming a closed system. After Roper’s death, the garden was run by Aquatic Ecosystems and Pentair before the lease was offered to Valencia College by the Roper family. As water and agricultural land become scarce resources, Bert Roper’s vision of the future of urban agriculture endures.

Historical research compiled by the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation

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MATT NICHOLSON Alligator on North Shore Trail Zellwood, Florida – 2017

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An American alligator suns itself near the last operating farm in the St. Johns River Water Management District. During the 1980s, the alligator population in Lake Apopka dropped from an average of 1,500 sightings per night to less than 200. With restoration efforts, the alligator population has climbed, and many can be observed along the hiking paths and when driving along the Lake Apopka Wildlife trail.

PETER SCHREYER Founder of Friends of Lake Apopka, Jim Thomas and his wife, Peg Winter Garden, Florida - 2017 Fourth generation Floridians Jim and Peg Thomas moved as newlyweds to Winter Garden from the Tampa Bay Area in 1969. A retired biologist, Jim enjoyed a long professional career as a passionate educator and environmental consultant. In 1991, he founded the local advocacy group Friends of Lake Apopka (FOLA), whose mission was to eliminate farming along Lake Apopka’s lakeshore and to begin the restoration of the badly polluted water. FOLA was also instrumental in creating the Oakland Nature Preserve in 1999. Jim is currently preparing his extensive personal archive of Lake Apopka to donate to the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation.

RAY GILES Kirby Cucumber Harvest at Long and Scott Farms Mount Dora, Florida - 2017 Long and Scott Farms, established in 1963, has been growing Kirby cucumbers for over 40 years. Kirby cucumbers are known for their thin skin and smaller size of 3-to-6 inches in length. Kirby cucumbers are milder than other types of cucumbers and their thin skin makes them ideal for creating delicious pickles.

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HOLLY MANUS Shear Country Barber Shop, Jones Road Zellwood, Florida – 2017 Licensed barber Barbara Brown opened Shear Country Barber Shop in 2004. Her clients, both men and women, range from 50 to 90 years of age. Inspired by a Norman Rockwell painting, Barbara wanted to create an old fashioned barber shop with a hometown, friendly atmosphere where everyone would feel comfortable. Barbara states that she is not “real hi-tech” and still uses an appointment book and cash register. Men’s haircuts cost $12, and a haircut, blow dry and style for women costs $28.

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MARTHA LENT Grey Heron and Ibis Oil on Canvas, 24 x 20 inches The Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive was the source of inspiration for my painting. I saw an impressive abundance of wildlife, alligators, and many varieties of bird species. The Lake Apopka North Shore is widely known for its bird population and I was pleased to see that the restoration efforts here are providing a healthier environment for fostering the animal repopulation.

I am particularly fond of painting open spaces, Florida marshes, and native birds. The majestic grey heron and quirky ibis are favorite subjects of mine.

Restoration efforts on the north shore of Lake Apopka have attracted an exceptional diversity of bird species to the restored wetlands. Large numbers of migratory shorebirds, wintering waterfowl and resident wading birds can be spotted along the wildlife drive and pedestrian/ bike paths.

SHERRI BUNYE Boathouse at Lakeview Lodge Apartments Winter Garden, Florida – 2017 Nestled on the south shore of Lake Apopka, a short walk from Newton Park, are the Lakeview Lodge Apartments. The small 300-400 square foot duplex-style efficiencies provide picturesque views of the lake. The 5-acre property was formally the Lakeview Fish Camp and the apartments served as fishermen’s cabins.

In 2000, Florida residents Roger and Clem Godin purchased the property. They rent out the former cabins while living seasonally in the adjacent home. The boathouse, built in the 1960s, now serves as storage space.

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KUCKU VARGHESE Farmworker Linda Lee at Home Apopka, Florida – 2017 Linda began working the farms at a very young age. She initially worked on the mule train, and then transitioned to picking produce such as beans, cucumbers, and okra during summers and school holidays. In the late 1960s, Linda was employed by the muck farms and harvested various seasonal crops. A vocation she continued for almost twenty years. As with many former farmworkers, Linda makes frequent hospital visits for the treatment of lupus, arthritis, and fatigue, among other ailments. The high incidence of these diseases among the farmworker community has been attributed to their exposure to pesticides used on the farms. Linda is an active spokesperson advocating for medical care and compensation for the former Lake Apopka farmworkers.

LAURA BARTHLE Orange Bins Astatula, Florida - 2017 Orange bins that once overflowed with ripe fruit now sit empty in a grove off Florida Avenue in Astatula. Because of the catastrophic devastation caused by citrus greening, the future of growing citrus is at risk. Scientists believe that the disease is caused by a fly-borne bacterium, Candidatus liberibacter asiaticus. Scientists have not yet come up with a cure.

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PETER SCHREYER Parents Waiting For School Bus at Local Post Office Ferndale, Florida - 2017 The town of Ferndale is home to fewer than 500 residents who enjoy a rural lifestyle, which for many includes raising horses, cows and chickens. New housing developments and highways being constructed nearby signal future population growth and challenges to the community’s rural heritage. The tiny post office also serves as the daily bus stop for many local school children and their parents.Â

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MATTHEW CORNELL Night Falls Oil on Dibond, 16 x 24 inches This is a farm north of the Lake, located along West Jones Avenue. Farming was so much part a of the region’s history, and I passed numerous places along the road. This particular site caught my eye due to its solitary light. Objects were bathed in a kind of half-light, creating a sense of loneliness and mystery that I have always been attracted to. What I found interesting was that all the equipment had hand-painted numbers on their sides. I could only assume these were for auction purposes; I don’t really know.

I see every way of life, farming included, in a period of change. The evidence is everywhere. We are only here for a short time and then we are gone. Life always moves on.

James W. Jones moved to the Zellwood area in 1909 to develop an area of land described to him as “black gold just waiting for farming prospectors to develop.” When the Lake Apopka marshland soil proved to be too wet and early farming attempts totally failed, he gave up and moved to the south side of the lake. It wasn’t until the 1940s, when a levee and an elaborate system of pumps and canals were installed, that the farming became possible on the former wetlands.

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PETER PETEGREW Shining Light on Lake Apopka Oil on Canvas, 12 x 24 inches When I approached the subject of doing a painting of Lake Apopka, I knew that it must be an image that had both a mysterious quality and the elements of the unknown.

Lake Apopka has a history of more than 100 years of human alteration. As one of Florida’s largest recreational attractions, it was once a beautiful spring-fed lake alive with an abundance of fish. But so much has changed and we are now left with more questions than answers.

Shining Light on Lake Apopka depicts a beam of light touching down upon otherwise dark waters. A storm approaches from the one side, while on the other we have an inviting shoreline. Which will Lake Apopka now be?

Lake Apopka was Florida’s third-largest freshwater lake until 1941, when 21000 acres of north shore wetlands were drained to create farmland. The lake is still recovering from pollution caused by the farms as well as sewer, citrus processing, and pesticide plants that dumped waste directly into the lake.

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NATALIE COLÓN Cyclists on Green Mountain Scenic Byway Lake County, Florida - 2017 The Stair Step is one of many hills in the Apopka area named by locals, part of the tough cycling loops that include the Green Mountain Scenic Byway. Nearby Sugarloaf Mountain is the highest point in Central Florida, located on the hilly ridge that runs through the center of the state. Cyclists come from around the world to take on these challenging hills while enjoying the beautiful vistas seen from the towns of Ferndale and Montverde.

Bryan Davis, owner of Cycling Hub Bicycles in Clermont, is pictured leading a group ride with local cyclists Thomas Kehlenbeck and Zack Howard, Allory Deiss of Wyoming, and Phil Ricketts from Scotland.

DON SONDAG Oakland Water Tower Oil on canvas, 18 x 24 inches The Town of Oakland, located three miles west of Winter Garden, is centered around a small-town square that stands just a couple of blocks up from Lake Apopka. I was set up painting next to the West Orange Trail bike path.

The Town of Oakland, the headquarters of the Orange Belt Railway Company, was an important railroad hub during the late 19th century. The once robust town dramatically diminished in importance after the railroad company went bankrupt, a devastating 1895 freeze wiped out the area’s citrus industry, and downtown buildings burned to the ground. Thereafter, the town became a quiet agricultural community – until the 1980s, when three killer freezes ended the area’s citrus industry and housing developments took the place of orange groves.

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BARBARA TIFFANY Edgewater Hotel Interior Oil on Canvas, 20 x 24 inches Light entering a doorway or window has always been compelling to paint, especially when the walls, floors, and furniture are shiny. Their reflective quality allows me to enhance the color that is being mirrored, thus showing the viewer something they might not have initially observed. This hotel still seems to have a presence that speaks of another, quieter time, keeping at bay the modern hustle that exists beyond its front door.

The Edgewater Hotel was constructed in 1927 to host anglers flocking to Winter Garden to fish for Lake Apopka’s world-renowned large-mouth bass. The hotel’s state-of-the-art amenities, such as the elevator and fire sprinklers, lured tourists and celebrities to the city.

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CYNTHIA B. SLAUGHTER Water Testing of Lake Apopka by Researchers from the St. Johns River Water Management District Montverde, Florida – 2017 Departing from a dock in Montverde, Jim Peterson, Haley Carter, and Paul Ek head out to inspect vegetation growing in Lake Apopka. On this particular outing the team was to check the mapping of beneficial Eel grass, Southern Naid, and Chara. The stubborn presence of hydrilla, an invasive plant that continues to be removed from the lake, is ironically an indication that the water quality is improving, and that restoration efforts are succeeding.

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MATT NICHOLSON Former Crop Duster Runway Zellwood, Florida - 2017 An overgrown paved runway runs north and south parallel to Jewel Foliage Road in Zellwood, at the northern edge of the St. Johns River Water Management District. Crop duster pilots used these fields, located on the farms, to load up with pesticides before dusting or spraying the fields. The planes would start and end their day at nearby Bob White Airport, a grass flying field that is still in operation.

Former farm workers and their advocates assert that the pesticides are linked to many life-threatening illnesses plaguing the community.

JENNIFER PEREIRA Central Florida Motor Sports Park Astatula, Florida - 2017 The Central Florida Motor Sports Park welcomed its first customers in March 2017 during its grand opening celebration. The 10-acre park features a Motocross track, a Mud Bog Pit, RV accommodation, and camping facilities. The location also offers service for the repair and construction of mud trucks.

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Co-owner Jeff Trost stands at left, next to night-time security guard Ryon Wronske, a retired veteran.

LAURIE HAGEMAIER Sunset in Oakland Park Winter Garden, Florida - 2017 This master-planned community of 258 acres is located along the southern shore of Lake Apopka between Winter Garden on the east, and the Town of Oakland to the west. Homes are designed with a nostalgic architectural charm, their front porches encouraging a neighbor-friendly lifestyle. Lake Brim, which is surrounded by mature live oak trees, is situated in the center of this growing community.

Formerly a railroad line, the West Orange Trail passes through Oakland Park, giving residents access to a scenic nature trail enjoyed by walkers, joggers, and bikers.

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MARSEE PERKINS Lake Apopka Marsh Flow-Way Lake County, Florida – 2017 Clay Island is a component of the Lake Apopka Marsh Flow-Way, a massive natural water filtration system created in 2003 by the St. Johns River Water Management District - a conservation project designed to remove phosphorous and suspended materials from the lake. Employing an elaborate system of screw gates, riser boards, and pumps, water is drawn from the lake into four wetland cells that contain various species of marsh grass; the vegetation helps to settle the polluting particles out of the water. The treated water from the cells is collected in a basin and then pumped into the Apopka-Beauclair Canal for return to the lake.

The island features multiuse trails located along berm roads for hikers, bikers, and equestrians. Observation towers placed on Clay Island provide views of Lake Apopka and its wildlife.

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CYNTHIA EDMONDS Lake Apopka at Killarney Court, Phoenix Rising Oil on Canvas, 20 x 24 inches I was inspired by this view of Killarney Court on the southern shore of Lake Apopka.

It evokes old Florida and recalls lazy days of fishing and easy living.

John and Joan, whose boathouse appears in the painting, live just off the northwest corner of Killarney Court. They are good stewards of the lake and land, protecting the massive live oaks and native plants along the lakefront. They are setting a good example for their neighbors and helping to revive the lake. Killarney Court is an oasis in our busy, noisy world.

Killarney Court & Fishing Camp was established circa 1950 on land platted in 1924 as the Troynelle subdivision. The community included docking privileges for sixty-five boat owners along the 1040-foot lakefront. By the mid- 1960s, the fishing camp closed due to the lake’s severe pollution.

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SALLY EVANS A Piece of Paradise, Trailer City Pastel on Board, 11 x 24 inches After surveying several sites on Lake Apopka I felt like Trailer City was the perfect subject matter for my style of expressive painting. I was drawn to the bright “Florida colors” and the big shapes of the trailers. This well-maintained park is a throwback to “Old Florida” and is reminiscent of my 70’s childhood in Boca Raton, Florida. Their perfect view hides the fact that they are sitting on a less than pristine body of water. My hope is the restoration efforts will bring back a paradise lost.

Winter Garden’s Trailer City was built in the 1930s with funds from President Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA). The trailer park and adjacent pool, recreation halls, seawall, boat ramp and marinas attracted fishermen and women from all over the country to Lake Apopka, known then as the “large-mouth bass capital of the world.”

AUDREY RUDOLPH Workers Grade Cucumbers at Long & Scott Farms Mount Dora, Florida – 2017

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Traditionally known for Zellwood Sweet Gourmet Corn, Long & Scott Farms’ main crop is Kirby cucumbers. For more than 40 years, in both spring and fall, they have been planting and harvesting 600 acres of this crop annually. They are then picked by hand, sorted in an on-site packing facility, and sold nationally.

TOM SADLER Pump House Nocturne Oil on Birch Plywood Panel, 24 x 19¼ inches Man’s interference with the natural landscape of Florida is demonstrated in a visually striking manner when one views the pump house on the northeast shoreline of Lake Apopka. Its ominous, box-like shape looms over the once pristine landscape like something alien dropped down from another planet. If it had never been designed and built, would Lake Apopka, one of Florida’s largest lakes, today be teeming with fish and wildlife and the clean waters it possessed in its heyday?

There is tension between the more rigid, geometric, man-made shape of the pump house and other structures that contrasts against the more organic and natural shapes of the palm, other foliage and the small evidence of water. This tension is the essence of what I wanted to portray. We are left to wonder which will win out? I’m optimistic that we learn from the past and that we now realize that man’s interference at this point needs to have nature’s best interest at its heart.

The Zellwood Drainage and Water Control District began construction of the pump house in 1941 when the United States was drawn into World War II. Part of an elaborate system to drain and replace thousands of acres of marsh with farmland, it sits atop a levee that was built to keep water from inundating the farms. The gates, built in the levee, were opened annually to allow for controlled irrigation.

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JEFF KRAUS Empty Citrus Packinghouse at South Lake Apopka Citrus Growers Association Tildenville, Florida -- 2017 A century ago, the South Lake Apopka Citrus Growers Association packinghouse on Tildenville School Road hummed with activity.

Served by two railroad lines, the facility, built in 1910, tended to growers’ needs after the cooperative was formed a year earlier.

With the demise of the citrus industry in the 1980s, the building and its adjacent office was eventually rented out to small businesses.

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STEPHEN BACH Quiet Night – Winter Garden Oil on Canvas, 20 x 24 Inches I grew up near downtown Orlando and often ventured on my bike to the nearby industrial neighborhoods. Many of these warehouses and workshops were places of creativity. Welding arcs flashed from dark doorways as ornamental ironwork was forged, high-speed routers milled windows out of sticks of lumber, and the smell of fiberglass flooded the air as boats were formed over rolling jigs.

This was the most interesting part of town to me.

As the Lake Apopka area has evolved away from citrus groves and commercial vegetable farming, the character of Winter Garden has changed. With gentrification, the creative workshops have moved to further reaches and many buildings have been lost to time. My painting, Quiet Night - Winter Garden, is a look at some of the last of those intown places where things were created and maintained.

The alley where these buildings stand runs between Lakeview Avenue and Boyd Street, half a block north of busy Plant Street in the heart of Winter Garden. The large, white structure was built in 1955 to house McMillan Brothers, an automotive service business. When the city was the heart of the local citrus industry, many warehouses such as this one inhabited the back alleys.

Most are now gone.

MORGAN SAMUEL PRICE Palms in Motion Oil on Panel, 18 x 24 inches Palms in Motion was inspired by a scene on the grounds of Sydonie Mansion, which rests in Zellwood, a town located four miles north of Lake Apopka.

As the afternoon light raced through the tangle of palms, one particular area lit up and I could not take my eyes off the gracefulness of the setting. The afternoon was very hot and humid but once I saw this beauty, I became unaware of Central Florida’s typical late-spring afternoon temperatures.

Designed by famous architect Grosvenor Atterbury and completed in 1904, Sydonie was the winter retreat for James Laughlin, the owner of J&L Steel in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Built in the Mediterranean Revival style, it was designed after the Alhambra Castle in Spain, and included sculpted gardens with rare plants from around the world, citrus groves, a dairy farm, power plant and even a bowling alley. The mansion was at one time considered the most significant residential structure in all of Florida.

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crealde.org Crealdé School of Art, located in Winter Park, Florida, is a community based nonprofit established in 1975.

It features a year-round curriculum of over 125 visual arts classes for students of all ages taught by a faculty of more than 40 professional artists. Crealdé’s main campus offers two galleries and an outdoor sculpture garden.

Crealdé’s second campus, the Hannibal Square Heritage Center, pays tribute through its permanent collection to contributions of Winter Park’s historic African-American community, as well as hosting visiting exhibitions.

A limited number of classes are also held at the Jessie Brock Community Center in Winter Garden.

wghf.org The mission of the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation is to preserve the heritage and architecture of West Orange County, while creating new cultural experiences. Since 1994, the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation has been an integral part of the preservation and revitalization of historic downtown Winter Garden, fostering an understanding of the social, cultural, economic, and environmental transformations that have shaped the area.

The Winter Garden Heritage Foundation continues to accomplish its mission by operating three locations in the heart of Winter Garden: The Heritage Museum, the History Research and Education Center and Visitors’ Center which houses an extensive archive documenting the area’s past, and the Central Florida Railroad Museum which showcases the influence the railroad has had in the development of Florida.

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