The Craft Shack Studio
218 West Church Avenue
Longwood, FL 32750
(407) 448-1375
craftshacklongwood@gmail.com
Debbie Helton, Owner
www.thecraftshackstudio.com/
Located in the CLOUSER COTTAGE
a simple pioneer house of vertical board-and-batten siding nailed to interior paneling w/o structural stud framing.
“Joseph Clouser was enticed by an advertisement in his Pennsylvania newspaper. The proposed Longwood Hotel was in need of a master carpenter. When Clouser and his family arrived in Longwood, they were provided with a flea-infested house that Mrs. Clouser deemed unsuitable….Josiah gathered salvaged lumber and built the cottage in 1881. The family resided here for two years until Clouser built a more suitable House…Clouser’s great grandsons Fred and Bitline renovated the house for use as a gift shop (mid-1980s). The glass enclosure was once an open porch…” Guide to Florida Historical Walking Tours by Roberta Sandler
“Longwood, Florida is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In its early days, the town was one of the stops on the South Florida Railroad…Longwood quietly boast of a unique history. As early as the 1880s, approximately 1,000 residents lived here, their lives centered around citrus and lumber industries.
HAUNT HUNTER’S GUIDE TO FLORIDA
BY Joyce Elson Moore
The Bradlee-McIntyre House
Now a museum opened four times a month–check the Facebook address below
is a Victorian Cottage Style house. It is now located
in Longwood, Florida
after being moved there from Altamonte Springs
The Bradlee-McIntyre House was originally built in Altamonte Springs in 1885 by Boston architect Nathaniel Bradlee as his winter home, it is an elaborate example of Queen Anne Style. One of the few remaining examples of a luxurious winter cottage in Central Florida, it is listed on the National Register of Historical Places. The house was moved to Longwood in 1973.
The house was used as the model for the mansion in Patricia Muse’s EIGHT CANDLES GLOWING (New York: Ballantine Books, 1976), a novel set in the Florida Keys.
Formerly there was false history about the house: “The so-called Grant House was supposed to have been built by General Ulysses S. Grant and used while he wrote his memoirs. This apocryphal story may have been started by the (former) owner who wanted to sell the 12-room, three story-building….”
THE BOOK LOVER’S GUIDE TO FLORIDA
Kevin M. McCarthy, Editor
The earliest settlers to the Longwood area arrived in the early 1870s. John Neill Searcy came from Tennessee in March 1873, and Edward Warren Henck arrived from Boston in November of the same year. Both came by steamboat up the St. Johns River to Sanford and were soon granted Longwood homesteads. A small community had begun to develop. Mr. Henck found the Hartley Family homesteading at Fairy Lake (which is now the Columbus Harbor neighborhood) when he first arrived. “There were no other inhabitants in what is now the corporation of Longwood.”, Henck wrote in a brief history of his early days in Florida for historian William Fremont Blackman’s History of Orange County, Florida, published in 1927.
Wikipedia: Longwood, Florida
Cottage Gift Shop
141 W Church Ave
Longwood, FL 32750
(407) 834-7220
Store Hours
Monday-Saturday:
10:00 am-5:00 pm
A family owned and operated gift shop since 1995. From baby gifts to, Chamillia Jewelry, Vera Bradley, fragrances for the home (candles, diffusers), shoes (Lindsay Phillips & OKAb) and Bridal items…tiaras, jewelry, veils and more.
Located in the Historic Inside Outside House
This house is an early example of prefab buildings in the US. “Built in Boston area by Captain W. Pierce, a sea captain around the year 1870. The framing structure was placed outside the exterior siding, forming panels which were then bolted together in ship-lap style….” and that is the origin of the name.
the origin of Boston and how it ended up in Florida: “In 1873, the unusual structure was disassembled and shipped to Jacksonville and from there to Sanford on a barge. Mules carried it twenty miles to Altamonte Springs.” Where it was re-assembled and used by Federal soldiers (think occupying post Civil War) until the builder–a sea captain retired to Florida where he resided in the 2nd story with his wife and cat Brutus while using the downstairs for his woodworking shop.
Many years later it had fallen into disrepair and due for demolition when it was saved by the Central Florida Historic Preservation and moved to historic downtown Longwood.
But that’s not all folks It is reported to be HAUNTED: “Brutus, the black cat has been seen sitting in the upstairs window of the….House, looking at the passersby on the quiet street…..” There have been report of cold feelings and feelings of a need to leave the second floor, as well as hearing a deep voice when there is no one else there. Reports of seeing the silhouette of a man, hearing footsteps in the downstairs when there is no one there and the shop is locked. And don’t forget the feeling a cat brushing against their legs. . With the majority of the events taking place in early evening.
HAUNT HUNTER’S GUIDE TO FLORIDA
Joyce Elson Moore
Longwood’s Historic District encompasses roughly 190 acres and has 37 contributing structures. It became part of the National Register of Historic Places in October 1990. The District, the heart and soul of the city, is well hidden near the intersection of State Road 434 and County Road 427.
The Historic District also contains City Hall and a number of city administration buildings, as well as a new 10,000-square-foot, $1.4-million Community Building. In addition, a couple of specialty stores and boutiques can be found here.
Longwood’s Historic District Walking Tour
Precious Moments “You Are My Number One” Figurine 1988
$5.99
Longwood Village Inn
300 N Ronald Reagan Blvd
Longwood, Florida
Circa 1885 historic hotel converted into office and restaurant space. It features all sizes from executive suites and virtual offices to large offices.
While not open to the public one can take a quick look into the lobby of this historic building thru the glass front doors: “Built around 1885, the hotel opened during Central Florida’s railroad boom, and it became a winter resort for business tycoons from the North.” Orlando Sentinel 1/17/13
Two years after he laid the first railroad line from Sanford to Orlando, EW Henck built a rambling 38-room hotel, followed five years later by a second hotel, which was later destroyed by fire. His hotel would survive the severe freezes of 1894 and ’95 that wiped out citrus groves and forced settlers to pull up stakes. Henck sold it in 1910.
The hotel underwent numerous name changes under several owners. George Clark bought it in 1922 and changed its name to the St. George Hotel. When Clark died in 1923, his brother, Fred, renamed it the Orange and Black. In 1927, the heads of 32 states slept at the inn during the National Governors Conference. During the 1930s, the Orange and Black was a gambling casino, luring visitors from throughout the state. During the 1950s, baseball umpire George Barr ran an umpire school there. Longwood Village Inn In 1966, the old hotel was the set for a movie called Johnny Tiger, starring Robert Taylor and Chad Everett. Historic preservationist Grace Bradford saved the dilapidated flophouse from being razed in 1972 and gave it its present name, the Longwood Village Inn. Since its million-dollar restoration in 1986, it was been used for professional offices.
Longwood Historic District
This building is also reported to be haunted a claim that I have confirmed personally with persons who have spent time in the building. For more info on the ghost
Peace River Ghost Trackers:
Haunted Travels USA
Haunted Places
Longwood was the home (starting in 1977), to Robert Newton Peck. “…Peck who was born in Vermont in 1928 and went to Rollin’s College for his B.A. degree, has been a soldier, a lumberjack, a paper mill worker, and an advertising executive. Peck describes himself as ‘Author of 55 books, 100 poems, 35 songs (words and music), creator of 3 TV specials on ABC, winner o the Mark Twain Award, ragtime piano player, stand up comic, lousy dancer, enthusiastic, yet untalented athlete, habitual show-off.’ His best-known novel A DAY NO PIGS WOULD DIE (1972), sprang from his experience as a hog-killer. Peck has written other books for readers of all ages, including MILLIES BOY (1973), SOUP (1974), THE SEMINOLE SEED (1983), HALLAPOOSA (1988), and THE HORSE HUNTERS (1988).
1945 World War II Florida Medic’s Discharge Paper in Folding Leather Case
$44.50
https://www.etsy.com/listing/521455656/1945-world-war-ii-florida-medics?ref=shop_home_active_13
So that’s a glimpse of historic Longwood thru its buildings that while quite old are still very active. I hope that this will encourage you to make a detour one of these days to find this downtown—-so few people know it even exists—-and look around and may I suggest that you:
Take the Historic District Walking Tour
The Historic District Walking Tour can be completed in about 1 hour. The tour will take you from one end of the district to the other, by every contributing historical structure. Take an afternoon to explore the oldest city in Seminole County! Access the
Historic District Walking Tour Brochure (PDF).
OH AND PLEASE COME BACK NEXT WEEK to my blog for Things to do….including an African Coffee Shop, a thrift shop that is a must for the collector and a restaurant just outside of the historic district that takes you to the Island….an of course we’ll look at events that you can enjoy and much more.
Green Etched (Rose Pattern) Sugar Bowl Depression Glass
$29.66
