MOUNT DORA Season 2 - The First Mount Dorans - Part 3

 

Part 3: The Grandview Hotel, Mount Dora

 

Grandview Hotel circa 1920, Florida Memory Project

 

Mount Dora’s Grandview Hotel and Grandview Street have nothing more in common than a grand vista which each enjoyed when the lakeside town of Mount Dora was founded. Trees in an all- grownup city currently block the view of three lakes once said to be visible from Grandview Street, whereas the site of the one-time Grandview Hotel, despite its absence, continuers to afford a splendid view of charming Lake Dora.

Excerpts from Chapter 17, Page 168 of my NEW MOUNT DORA book

New to the Cronin family of central Florida history books.

Book now available! See details below.

“Its history as a leading-hostelry dates to the founding of the city.” Such was the assessment made by Mount Dora Topic in an August 1, 1929, article reporting on a ‘Big Cash Sale” of a local Mount Dora Hotel. The hotel was the Grandview, first known as Bruce House Hotel when the facility first opened its doors to receiving guests in the early 1880s.

A parking lot today, Grandview Hotel once graced the corner of 5^th Avenue and McDonald Street. For years, the hotel remained popular with snowbirds and tourists alike, due in large part to its splendid Lake Dora view and proximity to Mount Dora Yacht Club. The Bruce House was built on three town lots facing McDonald Street, but by 1929, and operating under the name Grandview Hotel, the hotel’s property extended down the hill to the lakeshore.

Byron & Carrie Bruce of Lorain County, Ohio purchased the hilltop lots overlooking Lake Dora from John & Annie Donnelly on May 13, 1884. Identified as Block 4 of the original town of Mount Dora, the Bruce House Hotel was listed in the Orange County Gazetteer of 1887. Sanborn Insurance surveys of 1912 and 1920 identify the hotel first as Bruce House, and then, as you can see on the exhibit below, as the Grandview Hotel. 

1912 Bruce House (left), and 1920 Grandview Hotel (right)

Sold for cash in 1929 to Northern investors, two months before the Stock Market crash of 1929, the Grandview Hotel purchase, said Mount Dora Topic, came about because of the “outstanding desirability of Mount Dora as a tourist resort.”

The same article mentioned completion of the new “Federal Road” would serve the Grandview Hotel well. The Federal Road, currently Old U S 441, or Fashionable 5th Avenue as I like to call it, rerouted traffic arriving from Tavares and points North. Prior to this rerouting, vehicles arrived in Mount Dora via Tavares Road (11^th Avenue of today). Traffic then drove south on Donnelly Street into the city. 

Connecting Lakeshore Drive with 5^th Avenue meant vehicles instead arrived in downtown Mount Dora via 5^th Avenue, passing by the Grandview Hotel on their way into town.

Continued below.

MOUNT DORA

The Lure. The Founding. The Founders.

BUY IT NOW AT AMAZON

Click on Book Cover above to buy at Amazon

OR: Buy a signed copy November 1, 2021, at the Official Book Launch;

OR: Buy it now, then bring your book on November 1 for signing.

The Green Room, Mount Dora Community Center

November 1, 2021, 5:30 to 7:30 PM

Details of my November 1 book launch to follow 

Baker Street in historic downtown Mount Dora

 

Grandview Hotel continued:

The Grandview Hotel survived the founder’s 1917 death. An Ohio native, Byron Bruce died at Mount Dora and was buried at Pine Forest. His wife Carrie, also an Ohio native, had preceded Byron in 1913. In the 1900 census, both Byron and Carrie were listed as Hotel Operators. In 1910, both are listed as managers of “Bruce House” Hotel, but by 1919, the hotel’s name had changed to Grandview Hotel.

Renovations were reported underway in 1967 that were to cost more than $40,000. “Four old buildings will be torn down, reported Mount Dora Topic, “and a new dining room structure will be erected at the east side of the Grandview, according to Lt. Col. & Mrs. Charles Lewis, owners.” The new building, it was reported, “will have the old “New England” look in keeping with the beautification project of downtown Mount Dora.

Questions and/or comments, email: MountDora@CroninBooks.com

Mostly a gravel parking lot today, the historic Grandview, a hotel begun in the early 1880s as the Bruce House Hotel, was one of three original hotels in operation by 1883, two years after the town’s founding. Guests first arrived at the hotel aboard steamboats on Lake Dora, coming south to escape the harsh northern winters.

Among regular winter guests of the Grandview was a gentleman from East Liverpool, Ohio - one of several East Liverpool snowbirds to adopt Mount Dora as a winter retreat. This particular resident of East Liverpool however decided to acquire property across 5th Avenue and build a winter cottage. His name was Thompson, and our next installment will resume with the story of his Thompson House. The problem is though, discussing the Thompson House is like starting in the middle of history. Chapter 28, on page 238 of Mount Dora, explains - and I will try to do so in abbreviated form September 15th, in my next installment of this First Mount Dorans series.

We are getting ever closer to Lake Dora's shore, as well as the conclusion of this series. On September 15th is The Thompson House; followed October 1st with Gould's Lake Dora.