MOUNT DORA: The First Mount Dorans - Finale

 

The First Mount Dorans: Season Finale

GOULD’S LAKESHORE: The Conclusion

Lake Dora, Mount Dora, Florida

What if the naming of Lake Dora had been a love story? Seriously! A legend of Dora Ann Drawdy tells us the lake was named by Dora: “My grandmother gave them meals and did their laundry,” and because of Dora’s kindness, says her family’s legend, “the government surveyors named Lake Dora in her honor.”

But what if historians have merely been repeating something said in error long, long ago? Is it not a historian’s role to do the research so as to determine if a legend is real or not?

 

The legend of Lake Dora’s namesake:

If you have followed my series since Part One on 22 March, you know the subject has been a leisure stroll along Mount Dora’s Fashionable 5^th Avenue. Our westbound walk began at what might at first seem an unlikely starting point. But to fully appreciate the town’s true origin, and to attempt to prove or disprove a legend, the 1,538-foot walk toward Lake Dora’s shore needed to begin at the crossroads of 5^th Avenue and Hawley Street, an intersection better known today as 5^th Avenue and Tremain Street.

Each of nine previous blogs in this series took us closer to the lakeshore. And although we are walking along a modern-day street of downtown Mount Dora, we are in fact tracing the historic footsteps first taken in 1848 by a government surveyor named James M. Gould.

 

Sketch drawn in 1883 of Mount Dora's Fifth Avenue

The sketch above is part of an 1883 exhibit to a deed issued by the founders of Mount Dora. In the upper right corner are the words “Section Corner”. The line left of that section corner, a line running west to the lake’s edge and beneath the words “Section Line”, is today the centerline of Fifth Avenue.

“I began at the northeast corner of Section 31.” That was the exact description penned 173 years ago by Surveyor James M. Gould. While I have no intention of making a land surveyor of you, it is important that you understand Gould’s 1848 note. The very spot Surveyor James Gould stated in 1848 is today the intersection of 5^th Avenue & Tremain Street.

Surveyor James Gould stated in 1848 that after starting at the northeast corner of Section 31, he then began walking “23.30 chains,” the equivalent of 1,537.8 feet, “due west to Lake Dora”. We have been making this identical walk in this series and have now arrived at the shoreline of Lake Dora. I can state the lake’s name because it is an existing name. James Gould wrote the name as well, seemingly as if the name was existing then too.

Historian Walter Sime (1921-2003) made just such a comment long before me! In January 1995, after Walter Sime read the actual notes made in 1848 by James Gould, stated that When Gould arrived at the shore of another lake, Gould noted: “Let’s call it Lake Ellen Hawkins.” Gould did not make any such reference to naming Lake Dora, and concluded, “it may be that Lake Dora had already been named by C. C. Tracy when he surveyed the Township boundaries in 1846.”

James Gould was unaware that Lake Ellen Hawkins had already been named because the lake’s name did not appear on the survey boundaries he had been given. His finished survey maps, the same used later by pioneers seeking homesteads, shows the name Lake Ellen Hawkins crossed out and Lake Eustis penciled above it. Lake Eustis and Griffin were the only two lakes named on the 1830s War Map drawn up by the Army.

Historian Walter Sime expressed uncertainty about the legend of Dora Ann Drawdy. He stated too that the earliest historian to write about the legend was William T. Kennedy (1858-1930). Kennedy wrote his history in 1929, but the earliest recorded discussion of the legend of Dora Ann Drawdy that I found was in 1922 – a history of Mount Dora as written by John P. Donnelly.

The “father of Mount Dora,” Donnelly’s history was read to members of Mount Dora Yacht Club at a “Smoker” in February 1922. The written history was then republished in 1926 and several other times by the Mount Dora Topic newspaper. A nearly identical version appears in “Memories of Mount Dora and Lake County” by David Edgerton, son of Charles Edgerton, a member of the Yacht Club in the 1920s.

David Edgerton’s version however starts out as “my grandparents, Jim and Dora Ann Drawdy.” The only known grandchild to live in Mount Dora was Lewis J. Drawdy. He moved to Mount Dora from Seneca in 1920 and appears the most likely descendant for the source of Edgerton’s version of the legend.

 

Mount Dora was in existence at the time of Dora Ann Drawdy’s death at Umatilla. By the time of Dora’s death, three prominent Lake Dora area pioneers: William P. Henry, Dudley W. Adams, and Annie (McDonald) Stone-Donnelly, all of whom were homesteaders in the 1870s, had died.

Lewis J. Drawdy, born at Seneca, Florida in 1890, was buried in 1942 at Mount Dora’s Pine Forest Cemetery. His obituary read: “Mr. Lewis Jackson Drawdy, 52, member of a pioneer family of this section, was taken by death suddenly. Mr. Drawdy was born in Seneca in 1890, son of Mr. & Mrs. James Albert Drawdy. He was the grandson of Mrs. Dora Ann Drawdy, at whose home the United States engineers stayed while surveying this section of the state, and for whom Lake Dora was named by these engineers. About 21 years ago Lewis moved to Mount Dora. First employed as a local carpenter, he they went into business for himself as a contractor and builder.”

Dora Ann Drawdy died five years before the birth of her grandson Lewis J. Drawdy. As a young boy however, Lewis did get to know his mother’s mother, grandmother Anna (Milton) Turner. Although his grandfather had died in 1867, Lewis likely met his grandfather’s sister, Mrs. Ellen (Turner) Hawkins. His Aunt Ellen Hawkins lived in the Umatilla area until her death in 1925.

Although not the namesake of Lake Ellen Hawkins, the coincidence alone requires a historian to dig deeper before repeating a legend already known to have a timing problem. Dora Ann Drawdy was giving birth to her third child in Georgia, burying her first husband, and marrying a second, while James Gould was surveying central Florida’s Great Lake Region.

What if Lake Dora had already been named when James Gould reached the lakeshore at the west end of Mount Dora’s Fifth Avenue? What if the naming of Lake Dora instead involved a love story?

Finding Dora is Part 2in my latest central Florida history, Mount Dora: The Lure. The Founding. The Founders. Available now at Amazon.com

 

  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 my Official Book Launch.

OR: buy it now and bring your book for signing on November 1^st.

The Green Room, Mount Dora Community Center

A Historic location for the launch of historic book!

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

Baker Street in historic downtown Mount Dora

 

MOUNT DORA: Season 2 - The First Mount Dorans - Part 4

 

Part 4: The Thompson House

The Thompson House, Mount Dora

John Philip Donnelly, the individual I refer to as the ‘Second Mount Doran’, wrote in 1922 of several early Mount Dora pioneers, mentioning each by name in an address to fellow members of Mount Dora’s Yacht Club. “Wrote” is appropriate, for Donnelly declined the invitation to speak to the members and instead offered to write a speech for someone else to read. The presentation was then reprinted in the local newspaper at various times in later years.

The topic of John Donnelly’s ‘paper’ was the history of Mount Dora, but the speech, it was reported, drew numerous laughs when read at the Yacht Club Smoker of February 1922. These many years later, therefore, the challenge for a historian is to separate fact from fiction.  

Mount Dora: The Lure. The Founding. The Founders.

Donnelly began his version of the town’s founding by naming a few early pioneers important to the first days of Mount Dora, individuals such as John A. MacDonald and Alexander St. Clair-Abrams, prior to adding, “and a stumpy, corpulent old gentleman from East Liverpool, Ohio.”

Likely meant to draw a chuckle or two, Donnelly did not name the stumpy old gentleman from East Liverpool, Ohio. So, was he merely poking fun at an old friend in the audience, a Yacht club member perhaps, such as Commodore Thompson? His comment could have been directed at Sandie Porter, the East Liverpool merchant who, in 1881, had purchased the very first Mount Dora town parcel. Porter bought before Mount Dora had even been officially christened Mount Dora.

Perhaps though Donnelly was poking fun at William Gardner, the realtor from East Liverpool who had purchased the long-abandoned Willcox property, the land adjacent to Annie Stone’s historic citrus grove. Gardiner was developing the land near Coliseum Way, where the heirs of Annie Donnelly were likewise attempting to develop homesites. Donnelly may have meant the brother-in-law of William Gardner though, the East Liverpool, Ohio snowbird who assisted in building that magnificent Gardner lakeside home, the stately home that to this day continues to stand guard over Lake Dora.

So many Buckeyes from East Liverpool, Ohio to consider!

The C. C. Thompson Pottery Company, East Liverpool, Ohio

Commodore Thompson, a member during the 1920s of Mount Dora Yacht Club, tops the list of likely candidates in my view. I think Donnelly was poking at a friend, George C. Thompson, an annual Mount Dora winter resident who built the Thompson House on 5^th Avenue. President of an East Liverpool, Ohio company at the time, George Thompson had become the chief operating officer after the death of his father, Cassius C. Thompson, founder of C. C. Thompson Pottery Company. (The significance of pottery in the early 20^th century is easily lost today, but back then, as our Nation was developing, nearly every home in America had pottery dinnerware).

Pottery was a huge industry at the dawn of the 20^th century. C. C. Thompson Pottery Company of East Liverpool, Ohio was a major player in that industry.

Looking east on Simpson's Fashionable 5th Avenue from McDonald Street

Strolling west along Mount Dora’s Fashionable 5^th Avenue, Thompson House, as it is most often called today, is the impressive white residence trimmed in tropical palm green, hiding behind the white concrete block wall having tropical palm green gates. The Thompson House, bult in 1929, is indeed historical, but it was in fact the second home built in Block #58 of Mount Dora.

Another residence, still standing in 1929 when George Cassius Thompson built his home, had at one time occupied that entire city block plus the entire city block to the west.

Lyman Todd of Chicago bought Block 58 at the same time he acquired Block 57. He also bought an additional slice of shoreline of Lake Dora. Lyman Todd built a hilltop home overlooking Lake Dora, complete with its own free-standing bowling alley. Built during the first days of the 1890s, the Lyman Todd home was afforded an unobstructed view of Lake Dora.

One could write an entire chapter about the history of Blocks 57 and 58. And in fact, Chapter 28 of Mount Dora. The Lure. The Founding. The Founders., hot off the presses, does just that!

 

George C. Thompson purchased one-fourth of Block 58 from Miss Easter Armstrong, a Mount Doran who contributed greatly to developing the cultural aspect of the city. Active in the Mount Dora Woman’s Club, Miss Armstrong performed the first play reading by members of the club. Easter Armstrong helped found the Art League, Reading Circle, Book Club, and Garden Club.

The home of Lyman Todd passed to his sister, Mary (Todd) Armstrong, and then to the daughter of Mary Armstrong, Miss Easter Armstrong.

 

The Museum of Ceramics at East Liverpool, Ohio, occupies today the historic 5^th Street home of Cassius C. Thompson. This 5^th Street home was also the birthplace of George C. Thompson, or Commodore Thompson as known to those friends who visited him at his 5^th Avenue residence during each winter in downtown Mount Dora.

 Contents Page of my New Mount Dora Book

MOUNT DORA

The Lure. The Founding. The Founders.

Available NOW at AMAZON

"The new railroad intersects Mrs. Donnelly's grove, running close to the dwelling."

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 for signing on November 1^st.

YOU ARE INVITED to my BOOK LAUNCH

The Green Room, Mount Dora Community Center

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

Baker Street in historic downtown Mount Dora

MountDora@CroninBooks.com

 

 

   

 

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. 

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

The First Mount Dorans

Season 2 - Part 2: Filler up Please!

 

Fifth Avenue (Main Street), Mount Dora Amoco (1935)

Fifth Avenue in downtown Mount Dora is likely the last place one would search for fuel for the family car today, but this hasn’t always been so. There was a time when drivers seeking gas had a choice between three ‘Filling Stations’ downtown on Fifth Avenue alone, another on Fourth, and several others on the outskirts of town.

Directly across Fifth Avenue from Princess Theatre, where this blog last left off, the Smith & Kirkland Amoco opened its doors in October 1935. The building, long-since remodeled, still stands today. Catty-cornered from the Amoco, at Fifth and Alexander Street, Mosteller Brothers Gulf Station had already begun pumping “Good Gulf Gasoline’ a year earlier.

“Simpson’s Fashionable Fifth Avenue,” as I refer to this downtown artery in my upcoming Mount Dora book (75 days to book launch!), quite suddenly became popular during the 1930s with service station operators, and for good reason. Fifth Avenue of Mount Dora had become part of this Nation’s original Interstate Highway System. It’s true! During the Roaring Twenties, popular named national roads such as The Dixie Highway and Lincoln Highway, for which there were many, got a bit out of control. Signs with arrows attached to power poles were often the only directions available for the wandering motorist. And so, in 1927, The Interstate Highway System eliminated named highways and began numbering roads. A fourth “Alternate” for north-south Highway 41 became US 441, and presto, just like that, Mount Dora became a stop on America’s new Interstate Highway System.

Dixie Highway had, prior to this, arrived in Mount Dora via present day Eleventh Avenue, a road that began life as Scott Avenue (maiden name of John Donnelly’s mother), then changed to Tavares Road. Standard Oil Company first opened a ‘Filling Station’ in 1926 at Tenth & Donnelly, saying “it is so arranged as to prove easily accessible from either the Tavares, Eustis, or local streets.” Tourists therefore first arrived at Mount Dora via old Eustis Road (at the Limit Avenue & Donnelly Street intersection today), or via Tavares Road (now Eleventh Avenue at Donnelly).

    The Lure: Coming soon to CroninBooks.com

"The new railroad intersects Mrs. Donnelly's grove, running close to the dwelling."

An announcement in Mount Dora Topic of May 24, 1934, also told of change that had come to the city itself: ‘Mosteller Bros. have taken over the Gulf Service Station on the Federal and State Highway, at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Alexander Street.” Fifth Avenue, which originally terminated in the west at Lake Dora’s edge, was made part of a new lakeshore highway running west to Tavares. This road became US 441 – the “Federal Highway”, which then delivered tourists into Mount Dora via Fifth Avenue.

Brothers Ernest (1903-1952) and Andrew (1896-1958) Mosteller had opened a service garage in 1925 at Fourth and Baker. But the brothers soon realized the place to be in 1934 to pump gas was on the new Federal Highway, aka, US 441, aka, “Simpson’s Fashionable Fifth Avenue.”

Tourists arriving from the north in the 1930s were entertained first by splendid views of Lake Dora as they drove east from Tavares, and then, as they rounded the corner onto Fifth Avenue in their approach to Mount Dora, visitors were greeted next by one the city’s earliest hotels - just before arriving at Mosteller’s Gulf Station or the Smith & Kirkland Amoco, where they could fuel up.

Chances are, if the new arrivals stopped for gas and a recommendation on where to stay the night, they would be directed to the neighboring hotel, the one with that “grand-view’ of Lake Dora. We too are heading there next, when this series returns September 1, 2021.

The Lure. The Founding. The Founders. 

Season One of this First Mount Doran Series began a historic Mount Dora Fifth Avenue walk first taken in 1848 by Surveyor James M. Gould. We began the walk at Tremain Street & 5^th Avenue, and trekked westward toward Lake Dora. We are getting ever closer to the lake’s edge, and ever closer to the launch date of my next book. 300 Plus Pages! Includes Exhibits, and Extensive Bibliography for those who question the history, and a convenient Topic Index to easily locate people, places, and events. 

Want to know more about my book and its availability, email me at MountDora@CroninBooks.com   

MOUNT DORA

The Lure. The Founding. The Founders.

 

By the author of Tavares: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County

Official Book Launch Monday, November 1, 2021

The Green Room, Mount Dora Community Center

Request details at MountDora@CroninBooks.com

MOUNT DORA: Season 2, First Mount Dorans - Part 1

The First Mount Dorans – Season 2

Part One: The Princess Theatres

Mount Dora's Second Princess Theatre, 5th Avenue

Forty-four years after the New Princess Theatre opened its doors on Fabulous Fifth Avenue in downtown Mount Dora, the theatre took one final bow before the doors closed forever in 1973. 

Sold at auction as one complete package, the theatre seats, curtains, equipment, and you name it were packed up and shipped off to the Honduras. Having spent an entire day of January 10, 1929 preparing to show the first movie, workers stayed busy January 25, 1973 packaging the last of the movie theatre’s inventory. Born during the industry's earliest days, the Princess died a result of the fast paced, ever-changing movie industry. The New Princess had first opened on 5th Avenue in the early 20s, but was then destroyed by fire in 1928, and replaced by a Newer, New Princess.

The Princess of Mount Dora being dismantled (1973)

The very first Princess Theatre was located on the east side of Donnelly Street north of Fourth Street, and began showing silent movies in what was then the Town Hall. Original managers Heller & Harding worked to keep the Princess as modern as possible. On December 20, 1920, “Blackbirds, starring Justine Johnstone, one of the five most beautiful women in the world”, became one of the theatre’s earliest hits. Just prior to showing the Blackbirds, the managers had "installed another new machine, making two first-class projectors in our booth. No more stops between reels."

Heller & Harding also "added a larger screen making our pictures much larger and better". 

MOUNT DORA: The Lure. The Founding. The Founders.

By the author of Tavares: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County

Official Book Launch - Monday, November 1, 2021

Request details as MountDora@CroninBooks.com

 

Mount Doran David S. Simpson developed the south side of Fifth Avenue from Dora Ann Drawdy Alley west to Alexander Street in 1920, and in 1925, he sold that entire half-block to an investor from Yonkers, New York. In exchange for $90,000, that investor acquired the buildings containing “the Princess Theatre; City Market; City Bakery; Western Union Telegraph; the Town Clerk’s office and the Chamber of Commerce, with living apartments on the second floor.”

The post-fire Princess had seating for 600 persons with fire exits designed to empty the movie theater in less than a minute. Theatre manager William J. Gorman said the “latest approved type of Phototone is being installed, declared “to give a perfect reproduction of disc records, so well, in fact, that it is as good as if an orchestra or artist were in the auditorium”. (In October of 1931, Mount Dorans were shocked by news of the beloved theatre managers death. William and wife Margaret both died in an auto accident near Schenectady, New York). 

Motion Picture history was made at the Princess Theatre in Mount Dora on February 14, 1929 when, for the first time ever in Lake County, “Talking Movies” appeared on the big screen. “This will be accomplished by means of the Synchrotone", Gorman had said, "one of the latest talking devices, somewhat similar to the Vitaphone”.

And for the record, both movie houses consistently spelled their movie house as “Theatre”.

"Airport" the Movie at Princess Theatre, Mount Dora

Season One of this First Mount Doran Series began the historic Mount Dora Fifth Avenue walk first taken in 1848 by Surveyor James Gould. We began this walk at Tremain Street and 5^th Avenue, and then trekked westward toward Lake Dora. Our walk reached Dora Ann Drawdy Alley by Part Four. A special Mother’s Day edition then took us on a side trip to the crest of a hill overlooking Lake Dora, where a historic citrus grove – one first planted in the 1870s by the mother of Mount Dora, had just then been cleared to make way for a new 2021 housing community.   

Season Two continues our journey to the lake’s edge. The history presented above of two Princess Theatres of Mount Dora is borrowed from my Chapter 26 of soon to be released, Mount Dora: The Lure. The Founding. The Founders.

Next up: August 15^th we cross over to the north side of Fabulous Fifth Avenue to hear the sound of yesteryear, a couple “dings” followed by a check under the hood!

TAVARES: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County, is available now at Amazon or buy a signed copy at my CroninBooks booth at Wooten Park in Tavares, August 28th - 11:00 AM to 3 PM. 

MOUNT DORA: A Special Mother's Day Edition

 

First Mount Dorans - A Mother’s Day Special Blog

 

 

A historic Mount Dora Scenic Overlook – while it lasts that is!

 

Happy Mother’s Day! This Special Edition of The First Mount Dorans is taking an interesting detour today. Rather than walking Mount Dora’s historic 5^th Avenue in downtown (Parts 1 – 4), we will instead take to the car, join my Lake County Drives series, and celebrate Mother’s Day atop a spectacular scenic overlook. But this blog comes with a warning – the overlook will not be visible for long. A wall, I am quite certain, will hide the view very soon.

I only recently happened upon this spot, a place that can only be described as the most historic spot in all of Mount Dora., while researching my upcoming book, Mount Dora, and The First Mount Dorans. A construction site exposed the scenic view – which is why I suspect a wall will soon hide it from view.

Our short and yet historic Mother’s Day drive begins at the corner of 5^th Avenue and Alexander Street in downtown Mount Dora. Depart 5^th Avenue by turning north on Alexander Street, one of the original Mount Dora streets named for Attorney turned town co-founder, John Alexander.

Alexander arrived in Florida about a year after the village of Mount Dora was established. It seems neither his wife, Anna Townsend (Axwater), nor daughter, Lizzie (Alexander) Rhodes, desired to live in Florida full time. Lizzie’s husband however, George A. Rhodes, did serve as Mount Dora’s first Postmaster. We only drive one block on Alexander Street, so, since our drive on this street is brief, so too will the Alexander family biography. (More on this Mount Dora family later this year). For now, after driving one block, make a left (west) at Sixth Avenue.

This November: The First Mount Dorans by Richard Lee Cronin

 

Continue west on Sixth Avenue as we cross McDonald Street, yet another original Mount Dora artery honoring the first of The First Mount Dorans. Recorded history got confused at times as to who really was the first, but her timeline establishes Annie (McDonald) as the real-true Mount Doran. Much more on Annie as this drive continues.

First though, the apartment complex on your right (north) at sixth and McDonald was built in 1968. Prior to that, Hotel Villa Dora was located on this exact spot. Begun in 1887 as a guest house, in 1914 a lady referred to as “Miss Nan Thorne” took over the facility and converted it into a popular hotel. The Hotel Villa Dora was described as situated “on one of the highest spots in Mount Dora commanding a striking view of Lake Dora.” Miss Thorne’s new design included a large picture window in the lounge, an expansive window “overlooking beautiful Lake Dora”.

Gertrude Thorne had served first as the private nurse to Edward & Kate Smith, owners of the house. After Edward’s death, Gertrude purchased the house, managing the hotel until 1925 when she sold to Fred Graves of Massachusetts.

 

Gertrude Thornes Hotel Villa Dora, Mount Dora, Florida

As for our drive, turn right at Helen Street, onto a road named for a person who helped raise our first Mount Doran. Helen McDonald – a relative on the father’s side - stepped in and assisted in raising the McDonald children after the mother, Keziah (Saffel) McDonald, died at the young age of 25. Daughter Annie (McDonald) was then only 8 years old. Helen, it appears, must have made a great stand-in mother for the little girl who later established her very own town, in the wilderness, and named a street in honor of Helen.

After two blocks, slow where EIGHTH Avenue is on your right. Off to the left, where the tall hedge hides a house, try and visualize how Eighth Avenue merged with ‘Coliseum Way’, a circular road that was planned to slope down to the railroad tracks and the shore of Lake Dora.

Having trouble imagining such an intersection? Well, City Council members had trouble as well way back in 1929. At an August 8, 1929 hearing, a petition to eliminate Coliseum Way was read but then tabled “due to a lack of definite information as to the exact location of the street in question”. Apparently, the detailed new survey of 1928 had failed to resolve matters.

The resolution obviously passed eventually because today a house occupies Coliseum Way.

 

1928 Survey showing "Coliseum Way" west (left) of "Helen Street".

 

Proceed north on Helen Street - past Ninth and Tenth Avenues – and then turn left on Eleventh, (Scott Avenue as it was known in 1920). Back in 1920 I would have said continue straight, but once again a house is in our way today. The next crossroad north – Twelfth Avenue – was first known as Lila Avenue.

Lila (Griffeth) Cartledge was a granddaughter of Annie (McDonald) Stone-Donnelly. Born at Mount Dora in December 1894, Lila married Elmer V. Cartledge, one-time President of Bank of Mount Dora. She had one son, Donald V. Cartledge, who became a World War II Veteran.

As we turn onto Eleventh Avenue heading west, look soon after for Annie Street on the right. This was originally a cross street, continuing south to terminate at Coliseum Way. That part of the street south of Eleventh Avenue was abandoned by the City in January 1946.

Annie Griffeth was Annie (McDonald) Stone-Donnelly’s first grandchild, and when this area was originally platted, Annie Street was designed to extend south and connect with Coliseum Way. The citrus grove preceded all development in this area, planted before Mount Dora was established as a town. Now, 140 years later, the historic grove has been cleared to make way for new homes.

 

Aerial of Historic Mount Dora Grove (source: Lake County Property Appraiser)

 

When I recently visited this site, a large Oak tree provided me shade to view Lake Dora from the crest of this one-time grove, a grove that itself is now history. But because the orange trees were cleared, it became possible to experience a view the founder first enjoyed from her homestead in 1870s.

 

Nellie (Stone) Griffeth, the daughter of Annie (McDonald) Stone-Donnelly, was the mother of Annie and Lila Griffeth. Nellie had been 9 years old when with her parents they first saw Lake Dora from this homestead, and merely 11 years old when her father, William Stone, abandoned his family in 1877. A divorce decree one year later gave the homestead to Annie.

Annie and Nellie lived on the homestead another four years before Annie remarried, and prior to her marriage to John P. Donnelly, a village parcel was sold and a deed issued, a deed describing the land as located, “on the homestead of Annie E. Stone”.

Much has been said of the historic Donnelly House on Donnelly Avenue, the residence of John & Annie Donnelly beginning in 1892. But Annie first arrived in 1875, was divorced in 1877, and lived on her homestead, with daughter Nellie, – the original Mount Dora - for four years prior to marrying John Donnelly.

The original village of Mount Dora, in its entirety, was located on the homestead belonging to Annie E. (McDonald) Stone.

A year after Annie and John Donnelly married, a guest wrote of his visit. The year was 1882, and the writer said the home of “Mrs. Donnelly” was built on high ground, “amidst an orange grove of 400 trees high above the water, and the path from house to lake is a perfect little Eden of trees, vines and drooping moss a la nature.”

Annie’s first home of the 1870s is long gone. Her citrus grove of 400 trees is now gone as well. Soon, the roadside view from Eleventh Avenue from Mount Dora’s historic grove will soon be gone too.

 

1920 Sanborn Insurance survey of Annie Stone’s Homestead

 

It is in fact amazing that Annie’s grove survived until now. Homes currently surround acreage long identified on plats as a citrus grove. Sanborn Insurance, in 1920, sketched the town of Mount Dora – or more accurately, the homestead of the then deceased Annie (McDonald) Stone -Donnelly. A red square on that survey, added by me, highlights the grove of 1920. And note too how Annie Street runs along the east side of the grove to connect with Coliseum Way.

As late as the 1920s, John P. Donnelly, together with Annie’s grandchildren, planned to keep alive the memory of Mount Dora’s first mother, Annie (McDonald) Stone-Donnelly. She was truly the “Mother of Mount Dora.”

To every mom out there – as well as to two Annie’s, Lila, and Helen, I wish you a wonderful Mother’s Day. My thanks to each of you for all you do, and all you have done.

 

 

The First Mount Dorans will meet next back on Fifth Avenue, while my Lake County Drives series will return soon to Villa City Road, where two mom’s, Emma and Desire, were likewise memorialized by loving family members. In the meantime, I invite you to check out the scenic overlook while you can, and I will continue my research into, The First Mount Dorans.   

 

AND NOW, A WORD OR TWO FROM MY SPONSOR. ME!

This series is created from research for my next book, MOUNT DORA: The First Mount Dorans. a book planned for release in November, in time for holiday gift giving.

 Add your name now to reserve a signed copy of my book once it is released. PAY NOTHING NOW. Reserve your copy by emailing me at LakeCountyLakes@CroninBooks.com You will receive ONE reply confirming your request, and the next email will not be sent until the book is ready for purchase. You can then decide if you want to proceed with buying it. 

MOUNT DORA: The First Mount Dorans will be a detailed history of the people and events that shaped Lake County's beloved town on Lake Dora, Mount Dora. 

This series also includes research generated while writing my book, Tavares: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County. Specifically, Chapter 26, MOUNT DORA: The Eastern Gateway. This book is available now at Amazon.com

CLICK ON BOOK COVER TO BUY IT AT AMAZON

ABOUT MY TAVARES BOOK 

Lake County, established May 27, 1887, was carved from portions of Orange and Sumter counties. The Legislature had defined borders but allowed the 2,200 plus registered voters to decide where to place the county seat. Four elections and a courthouse battle later, Tavares, on August 10, 1888, finally became the official seat. The selection process lasted 440 days from start to finish.

TAVARES: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake county, is a history of how Florida's Great Lake region transitioned from a wilderness into a vibrant Citrus Belt district. Amazing pioneers dared to dream big - dared to imagine such places as Leesburg, Lady Lake, Mount Dora, Montverde, Eldorado, Eustis, Umatilla, Astor, Clermont, Yalaha and Tavares, to name a few. A section on each place is found in this book.

RATED 5 STARS from Four Amazon verified readers, this is a story of triumph over tragedy; of homesteaders becoming town builders; of steamboats and railroads forging a new homeland, and of remarkable men and women who made it happen. There is even a touch of mystery and intrigue.

The story of the earliest days of settlement of Florida's Lake County, a history you can buy now at Amazon simply by clicking on the book cover above.

Visit my Website at CroninBooks.com