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courtesy of the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation
In the 1930s, bass fishing on Lake Apopka attracts people to Winter Garden.
housed soldiers at the hotel during
World War II, and workers completing
site work for Walt Disney World
stayed there in the 1960s.
Gordon Dickerson became
manager in 1948. He recently visited
the hotel and recalled some
of his fondest memories, including
www.SouthwestOrlandoBulletin.com x February 16 - March 1, 2017 x 11
the six weeks that the “It was a love of history and the
Washington Senators town to honor its history,” Lanza
stayed at the hotel during said.
spring training.
The Historic Edgewater
The Edgewater Hotel Hotel’s first floor opened in 2000,
closed in 1968 and fell and after a thorough renovation, the
into disrepair. Walls collapsed.
building began operating again as
Windows were a bed-and-breakfast-style lodging in
boarded up, but still pigeons
2003. The manually operated Otis
nested in the build-
elevator remains in working order. It
ing and left decades was one of the first elevators in the
worth of droppings. community. The person operating the
The current owners purchased
lift must consider weight loads in or-
the property der to slide the elevator to a proper
in 1995 and set about stop at the appropriate floor, a job
fixing it up. Co-owner that takes some practice, so hotel employees,
Mike Lanza and his
not guests, run the elevator.
team removed 72 tons of Guests can enjoy a 1920s experience
debris and then replaced
with today’s comforts, such as
walls with lath board air conditioning and internet access.
and plaster, rather than People from more than 80 countries
sheetrock, to maintain have stayed at the hotel, and it has
historical integrity. The received many honors.
woodwork was restored Just as The Edgewater offers the
as closely as possible to latest amenities in a historic building,
the original. The hotel was decorated Winter Garden’s downtown envelops
with antique-style furniture to give
visitors in the feel and memories
guests a feel of what life may have of an earlier time, when pioneers
been like early in the last century. were settling Central Florida. ª
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