Winter Park Chamber Centennial

ART, HISTORY, ENTERTAINMENT AND MORE

CELEBRATING A CENTURY OF SERVICE

Winter Park Chamber marks 100 years of community-building.

The Winter Park Chamber of Commerce turns 100 years old in 2023, and will spend the year celebrating a century of promoting economic vitality in the City of Culture and Heritage. Festivities will include an array of events, the centerpiece of which will be the FunHundred! Immersive Entertainment Experience at Mead Botanical Garden.

The three-month-long FunHundred! display — with Full Sail University as the presenting sponsor — will open with a ribbon-cutting on Saturday, February 4, at a time that had not been announced at press time.

Complementing the chamber celebration, the Winter Park History Museum is opening a new exhibition, Retailing Our Story: 100 Years of Winter Park Bistros, Boutiques and Businesses on Wednesday, January 25.

But first, here’s a look at what the chamber has in store, beginning with the FunHundred! Immersive Entertainment Experience — which not only celebrates the organization’s centennial but also involves the community in the outdoor exhibition’s creation.

There’ll be six “garden zones” throughout the city’s cherished 47-acres greenspace, each of which will represent an aspect of growth and commerce and will

The Winter Park Chamber of Commerce’s centennial festivities will include an array of events, the centerpiece of which will be the FunHundred! Immersive Entertainment Experience at Mead Botanical Garden. You’ll be welcomed by an array of stand-up “100” icons (above) sponsored by various local businesses and see six “garden zones,” among them one containing sculptures of indigenous animals made mostly from found objects (below). The images shown were digitally created.

The Winter Park History Museum’s upcoming exhibition, Retailing Our Story: 100 Years of Winter Park Bistros, Boutiques and Businesses, will take a nostalgic look at local commerce by spotlighting such fondly remembered businesses as Cottrell’s, an old-school five-and-dime store on Park Avenue.

FUNHUNDRED! IMMERSIVE ENTERTAINMENT EXPERIENCE

Presenting Sponsor

Full

Sail University Century Sponsors

AdventHealth

Cypress Bank & Trust Gardens at DePugh Massey Services

Orlando Health

Welbourne Nursery

Winter Park History Museum

Celebration Sponsors

Artisan Kitchen & Bath Gallery

Brasfield & Gorrie

City of Winter Park (In-Kind)

DBG Promotions

Elizabeth Morse Genius Foundation

Florida Blue

The Joe & Sarah Galloway Foundation

Winderweedle, Haines, Ward & Woodman

Winter Park Health Foundation

In-Kind Sponsors

AOA

LunDev Custom Homes

Leadership Winter Park Class 33 Waste Pro

CENTENNIAL HOST COMMITTEE

Charlene

Rick Baldwin

James Barnes, Jr.

Justin Birmele

Alan Chambers

Michelle del Valle

Craig DeLongy

Paul Dietruch

Gloria Eby

Betsy Gwinn

Terry Hadley

Cynthia Hasenau

Ena Heller

Garry Jones

Bridget Keefe

Allan Keen

Tracy Klingler

Lance Koenig

Andrea Massey-Farrell

Hotaling Chair

Kelly McFall

Genean McKinnon

Tom McMacken

David A. Odahowski

Victoria O’Day

Latonya Pelt

Alyssa Porrello

Pragasen Ramiah

Jana Ricci

Angela Robinson

Rachel Simmons

Sam Stark

Michelle Strenth

Theresa Swanson

Paul Twyford

Laura Walda

Harold Ward III

Emily Williams

be filled with representative pieces of art crafted from recyclable materials and found objects.

The Garden of Opportunity, for example, will salute the railroading industry — the city’s original train depot, near today’s SunRail station in Central Park, was built in 1882 — through colorfully painted train cars made from repurposed dumpsters laden with flowers.

In the Garden of Dreams, an existing picnic pavilion will be festooned with citrus fruit (orange-painted tennis balls) and ribbons on which visitors can write their visions for the future. Seating areas will be fashioned from creatively arranged and decorated logs, while riotously colored rocks will hug the bases of trees.

The Garden of Knowledge will be filled with books in various vessels, including everything from born-again newspaper distribution racks to vibrantly hued microwave ovens and house-shaped little free libraries with pitched roofs. There’ll even be “stick libraries” for dogs.

The Garden of Community will encompass dog houses — to be auctioned o later — that will represent iconic buildings such as a city hall, a school, a bank and much more. And the Garden of Discovery — expected to be perhaps the most intriguing of the displays — will feature sculptures of indigenous animals made mostly from found objects.

The Garden of Prosperity, symbolically connecting past and future, will encompass the wooden bridge spanning a tributary of Howell Creek. The bridge will be lined with plaques that describe important events in the city’s history and will conclude with large mirrors that will reflect the faces of the community — namely, us.

At the entrance to the garden will be 40 large “100” icons that were purchased and customized by local businesses. The 100s, which debuted at the chamber’s Best of Winter Park event in November of last year, can already be seen around the city in prominent locations.

“We’re excited about every facet of our yearlong celebration, but FunHundred! will be the most beautiful, creative and joyous experience,” says chamber President and CEO Betsy Gardner Eckbert.

And locals will have skin in the game, Eckbert adds, since much of the installation will be built by community volunteers and students ranging from preschool to college during volunteer workdays. (Check the chamber’s website for volunteer opportunities.)

Other centennial activities will include a scavenger hunt using the chamber’s own app as well

as an anniversary-themed Cheers to You banquet on Wednesday, January 25. A celebration of past chamber board chairs and longtime members is slated for later in the year.

“I’ve seen these ambitious plans come together and watched the excitement grow as the festivities approach,” says Charlene Hotaling, senior vice president at Seacoast Bank and chair of the Centennial Host Committee. “We thank the chamber for all it has done and will continue to contribute to our community.”

Mead Botanical Garden is located at 1300 South Denning Drive. For the most up-to-date information about centennial activities, call 407-644-8281 or visit winterpark.org.

RETAILING OUR HISTORY

Dovetailing nicely with the Chamber’s anniversary is the Winter Park History Museum’s upcoming exhibition Retailing Our Story: 100 Years of Winter Park Bistros, Boutiques and Businesses, which will have been open for several weeks prior to the chamber’s FunHundred! debut.

The exhibition will take a lighter look at commerce by showcasing past businesses that have become symbols of nostalgia for longtime locals who remember shopping at Cottrell’s, seeing a movie at the Colony Theater, and grabbing co ee and dessert at East India Ice Cream Company.

In fact, the first real business in Winter Park — the Pioneer Store — supplied all the necessities for living in a frontier town and provided meeting space where citizens gathered to vote on incorporation.

An homage to the Colony and the Pioneer Store will anchor Retailing Our Story, and a series of shops will be re-created using awnings and, when possible, original signage.

Among the first to be saluted will be the Proctor Shops, which specialized in women’s clothing, Harper’s Tavern, a watering hole where everybody knew your name, and the Golden Cricket, a quirky gift emporium on Park Avenue.

New stores and merchandise will rotate into the spaces throughout the exhibition period. And there’ll also be a children’s play area featuring games popular in the last 100 years.

The Winter Park History Museum is located at 200 West New England Avenue in the old freight depot for the Atlantic Coast Line. For more information, call 407-647-2330 or visit wphistory.org.

—Randy Noles