Sara Whitner of Fort Reid
150,000! That’s the best-guess estimate of the current number
of Metro-Orlando hotel rooms, second only, so they say, to Las Vegas, NV.
Scattered from Sanford in the north to Kissimmee in the south, central Florida’s
hospitality industry is indeed massive. And of all these many rooms, have you
ever wondered: “where were the first hotel rooms?” Fact is, there’s no better
time to find the answer to this question than during Women’s History Month! Two
women established the first-ever free standing hotel south of Lake Monroe – or
to define more specifically today – Metro Disney World!
Sarah Jane
(Church) Whitner (1820-1881)
Portrait courtesy Whitner-Chase families of Sanford,
FL
Fact is, if you are even a tad-bit curious about where the
first central Florida hotel rooms might have been located, or what exactly that
first hotel has to do with Women’s History Month, you cannot say that you don’t
like history.
One or two boarding houses (aka Airbnb’s of today), existed
prior to 1869. The first-ever “free standing hotel” hotel was constructed in
Orange County at the small want-to-be town of FORT REID, a village founded
circa 1856 about a mile east of Sanford, FL of today. Two decades had to pass
before Sanford would come on the scene, and two more before the town of Sanford
swallowed up the village of Fort Reid.
Neither Lake, Osceola nor Seminole Counties existed when the
first hotel opened at Fort Reid (County lines of today need to be completely
ignored to appreciate the first days of central Florida). Fort Reid’s hotel was
truly historic in its day, for it was designed, conceived and managed by two
women during a time in history when females were discouraged from entering the
business world.
Central Florida’s hospitality industry was founded in 1869 by
two extraordinary women! Few 19th century central Florida
occurrences are as easy to prove as the statement you just now read. But rather
than take my word for it, read the following quote from a deed recorded in
Orange County on the 26th day of November, 1869: “Benjamin F. Whitner, as Trustee for his wife
Sarah J. Whitner and for Mary Ellen Randolph, wife of William M. Randolph of
New Orleans in the State of Louisiana, have formed a co-partnership for the
purpose of creating, furnishing and conducting on the premises hereinafter
described a Hotel to be known as the Alaha Chaco or Orange House Hotel.”
The agreement went on to specify the hotel’s location, a 43
acre parcel known then as “Woodruff Place.” Historic Woodruff Place, together with the survey
points mentioned in the deed, places the 43 acre orange grove and hotel at what
is today the south side of 25th St. at Mellonville Avenue. The 1838
Fort Mellon to Fort Gatlin Road is today Mellonville Avenue. The Orange House property bordered Mellonville
Avenue to the east, Sanford & Indian River Railroad’s track on the west
(still existing today), and the present day Orlando-Sanford Airport on the south.
When the Orange House Hotel opened in 1869, the main
north-south artery for most points south of Lake Monroe was a dirt trail,
Mellonville Avenue, which reached all the way south to Orlando, where it became
Main Street through the village, and then continued south to Fort Gatlin and
Kissimmee.
“ALAHA CHACO Hotel:” said a headline of a Florida Peninsular
newspaper article dated March 5, 1870, played host to a group of individuals
planning to build a railroad from Mellonville to Tampa, an idea whose time had
not yet come as of 1870. Fort Reid was to be a major Orange County town in
1870, but Henry Sanford’s nearby town would soon mean that the Orange House
Hotel was located on the wrong road to
Orlando.
A second road south to Orlando would move further west, to
pass through new towns of Longwood and Snowville (Altamonte). As a result,
fewer and fewer travelers passed through Mellonville and Fort Reid. Alaha
Chaco’s pending fate was reported in a Will Wallace Harney article of
September, 1876: “Orange House at Fort
Reid, a large, commodious hotel built by the late Judge Randolph, was sold in
settlement of the estate.”
Historians have written a lot through the years about Mary
Ellen (Pitts) Randolph, wife of the celebrated lawyer from New Orleans, William
M. Randolph, and of the Orange House Hotel for which William Randolph is said
to have built. But my blog today will spotlight Mary’s partner, Sarah Jane
(Church) Whitner, a lady who tended to stay below the media’s radar, yet a
remarkable frontierswomen worthy of mention.
Before I get others in an uproar, I should clarify: The
property upon which the hotel was built was acquired by Matthew R. Marks,
William M. Randolph, and Benjamin F. Whitner. The wives of Randolph and Whitner
established the hotel on that property.
ABOUT
SARAH:
“His
daughters were famous for their beauty and their kindness,” says a
family history of the daughters of Dr. Alonzo & Sarah Jane (Tripp) Church. And
one of their beautiful daughters, Sarah Jane (Church), was born October 21,
1820 at Athens, GA. At the time of Sarah’s birth her father, Reverend Dr.
Alonzo Church, was President of Franklin College (now University of Georgia).
Daughter Sarah married Benjamin F. Whitner II on the 7th
of January, 1840 at Athens, GA. Two years later, Benjamin Whitner II arrived at
central Florida to begin mapping a total of 540 square miles of Mosquito
County, land that is today South Orange County. While Benjamin was in central
Florida surveying, Sarah was living on the old Whitner homestead at Madison,
Florida. But during the 1850s, her husband also began to buy land in Orange
County.
Then came the Civil War and a touching sympathy letter written
by Sarah (Church) Whitner. Dated May 27, 1864 at “Prairie Acre,” Florida, her
letter was addressed to Mary Martha (Smith) Reid at Richmond, Virginia. In her
letter, Sarah extended her heartfelt condolences for the loss of Mary’s son,
Raymond J. Reid, who died May 7th of injuries he had incurred in the
war.
Benjamin F. Whitner III served alongside Mary Reid’s son in
Virginia. Sara’s son had enlisted in Florida’s 8th Infantry, one
Florida unit that suffered terribly during the war. (As stated in my book,
CitrusLAND: Curse of Florida’s Paradise, “At
least 5,000 Florida soldiers were dead by the spring of 1865 as a result of
campaigning.”)
Mary Martha Reid had been a Floridian, but she went to
Virginia to be near her son, a Florida Infantryman in the Civil War. Mary was
instrumental in founding a Florida hospital at Virginia for treating and caring
for the sons of Florida wounded in the War. A widow, Mary Martha Reid had been
married to Territorial Governor Robert R. Reid, the very man Fort Reid of
Orange County, now Seminole County, had been named for.
Nearly a year after Sarah (Church) Whitner wrote that letter
of sympathy to Mary Reid in Virginia, her son Benjamin III, was captured at
Virginia’s Sailors Creek, remaining a prisoner until War’s end.
Sarah's son, Benjamin F. Whitner III, was allowed to return
home to Florida in May of 1865. By May 1870, Sarah Jane (Church) Whitner was
co-managing the Orange House Hotel at Fort Reid, the town built around the
1840s fortress Reid, an Army encampment named for the husband of Mary Martha
Reid. (Orlando, FL of 1870 was still a 4 acre courthouse village, surrounded by
113 acres owned by Robert R. Reid, half-brother of the then deceased son of
Mary Martha Reid.)
Sarah (Church) Whitner laid to rest her husband of 41 years in
1881. At the time of his death, Surveyor Benjamin F. Whitner was a resident of
Silver Lake, southeast of Fort Reid. Sarah survived her husband by nine years,
being laid to rest beside her husband on December 13, 1890.
Orange House Hotel had been closed near 15 years by the time
of Sarah’s death, but the 43 acre historic orange grove was still worked by the
Randolph family. The land served too as the personal residence of Benjamin M.
& Fannie (Randolph) Robinson. Florida’s great freeze of 1894-94 wiped out
the nearly 50 year old grove. Fire soon after destroyed the quarter-century old
abandoned hotel. Fort Reid’s history became disarrayed, with historians
convinced the place was Fort Reed. The real history of Fort Reid blurred.
1890 Fort Reid (Reed). Orange House was at
top, residence in 1890 of B. M. Robinson; B. F. Whitner III residence at bottom
near Silver Lake. (1887 SFRR Brochure: “The
Orange House, now the residence of B. M. Robinson, stands on the site,
surrounded by a noble orange grove. The building was constructed in 1870 and
was the first hotel south of Palatka.”)
Sarah Jane (Church) Whitner however had accomplished what was
likely the one thing most important of all to her – a proud central Florida
family that endured the test of time. And while they may think of themselves as
Sanford folk, the real Church-Whitner central Florida heritage is centered on a
fortress, rescued by a soldier who stayed, built a town named for the fortress,
and watched as a new neighbor from the Panhandle built the first free standing
hotel in all of today’s Orange, Osceola and Seminole Counties.
Whitner’s Silver Lake
is one of 303 historic lakes profiled in my latest book, as is nearby Lake Onoro – or some today might argue
– Lake Onora!
ORLANDO LAKES: Homesteaders & Namesakes, an encyclopedia
of central Florida lakes. From Eustis to Sanford and Kissimmee, all roads of long,
long ago led to Orlando!
Now available at Winter Garden Heritage Foundation and
Amazon.com. I invite you to check out ORLANDO LAKES: Homesteaders &
Namesakes. You can do so simply by clicking on the convenient link below:
NEXT
FRIDAY: The Extraordinary Lavinia of Orlando
CitrusLANDFL
is celebrating central Florida’s amazing women during
WOMEN’S
HISTORY MONTH
Want to
know more?
CitrusLAND:
Curse of Florida’s Paradise (2016)
First
Road to Orlando (2015)
Beyond
Gatlin: A History of South Orange County (2017)
