by Dorothy Shepherd Smith
Grab your fan
It's summer in Winter Park 1920s style when the Isle of Sicily was known as "Woo Island" and you slept on breeze-conditioned porches.
As our August heat continues unabated, we are taking a look back at Winter Park summers of the 1920s.
The following description of another time is seen through the eyes of Winter Park native, Dorothy Shepherd Smith.
Dorothy graduated Winter Park High School in 1929 and above she is shown wearing the latest fashion: a wool bathing suit, c. 1920s.
During the summers of the 1920s, Winter Park was almost deserted. Owners of the large estates left town, hotels were shuttered, and every Wednesday afternoon the Park Avenue businesses closed their doors to "go fishing."
By the Fourth of July, every family who could possibly leave town headed to Daytona Beach in search of breezier days. The road was a nine-foot wide brick "path" not sufficient for two cars to pass. As cars were forced off the road by passing or oncoming cars, they became stuck in the deep sand drifts. It became a hot, dusty half-day drive to the beach. So when at last you arrived in Daytona, you stayed at least a week, as Mrs. Smith describes, "in one of the white frame cottages strung along the shore."
She continues, "Summer in Winter Park didn't seem as hot as it does now for there were more trees and open spaces and no asphalt roads or parking lots. Wind blew through open cars. Clothes were of natural fibers, mostly cotton. Women and girls wore the minimum and I don't mean shorts or bikinis.
Church was one of the few occasions when men wore coats -- then they looked their best in white linen suits and straw hats. Women wore pongee, voile and crisp organdy dresses, silk stockings, hats and white gloves. During the service, cardboard fans fluttered like butterflies and through open windows, you could hear birds sing.
We accepted the heat of summer and adjusted to it. Dinner was prepared in the cool of the morning and served at noon. Little cooking was done for supper. Business people took time out for a siesta before returning to work for, in the 1920s, most residents lived close to Park Avenue.
In the evening, parents perfumed with citronella sat on front porches while children played in yards. We went to bed on breeze-conditioned, screened, sleeping porches with the smell of jasmine in the air.
Shown here is Dorothy's childhood home on E. New England Avenue, today the location of the Alfond Inn.
Summer was the time for family fun. People picnicked at
Palm, Sanlando and Wekiva Springs and swam in lakes with the alligators. I felt comfortable sharing our nook of Lake Osceola with several gators whose heads, like logs, lay on top of the water. When a head disappeared, I'd swim to shore!
A favorite picnic place for teenagers was wild, uninhabited 'Woo Island,' now known as the Isle of Sicily. A sand trail led to the tip of the island where we roasted wieners, toasted marshmallows, slapped mosquitos, played the
ukulele and sang. Riding home in the moonlight with a favorite beau in a rumble seat, I thought the good old summertime was the very best time of the year."
Mrs. Smith's family members were true Winter Park pioneers. Her great-uncle, Miller Henkel, came to Winter Park in 1883 and was the city's first physician (office visits cost 50 cents; house calls one dollar). Her father Forney W. Shepherd, was a businessman whose general store was the second brick building in Winter Park.
- Courtesy of the Rollins College Archives.
Mrs. Smith was the recipient of a Certificate of Commendation, dated September 8, 1989 from the American Association for State and Local History, for cataloging and indexing historical material for the City of Winter Park. She was selected to receive national recognition as one of 75 individuals cited for outstanding contributions to local history preservation.
-Winter Park Observer November 16, 1989
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