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This promotional booklet, circa 1914, was published by the Winter Park, Florida Board of Trade. The booklet contains a condensed history of Winter Park as well as information and photographs of the town at that time.
Initially, the Board of Trade was named the Town Improvement Association of Winter Park, Florida. The group changed its name to The Winter Park Village Improvement Association in 1893 and retained that name until 1909 when it became the Board of Trade.
A letter dated March 3, 1909, to W. C. Temple said, "You are invited to meet us and a few other gentlemen at Dr. Blackman's office in Carnegie Hall, on Saturday March 6th, at 3 P.M. to consider the following questions: First, What is the matter with Winter Park? Second, What can be done to promote the interests of the town?" As a result of this meeting a committee composed of E. H. Brewer, George L. Dyer, Charles H. Morse, W. C. Temple and W. F. Blackman perfected the organization of the Board of Trade. Mr. Temple was elected president, George L. Dyer, vice president; Dr. Blackman, secretary-treasurer; H. A. Ward and R. D. MacDonald were on the executive committee. Other charter members were De Batchelor, E. H. Brewer, W. C. Comstock, George F. Deming, Col. H. T. Reed, F. W. Shepherd, C. L. Smith, and F. E. Spooner.
With $100 provided by the city council, The Board of Trade built a dock on Lake Virginia at the end of Ollie Avenue. Destined to become part of a one acre city park used by swimmers and boaters, the dock took its name from the narrow guage steam train located there, the Dinky. Around 1917, the Board of Trade began attending to better upkeep of Palm Cemetary and in 1918 provided metal street signs for the city.
In 1918, the Board of Trade, which now had about 131 members, began a campaign to rid the city of flies. It was authorized by the town council to pay 10 cents per 100 dead flies whose bodies were brought in by cooperating citizens. The fly corpses were to be taken to city hall between 4 and 5 P. M. Monday through Friday for collection of the bounty. In 1920, the Board expanded the program and the reward was also offered for flies that had been poisoned. Until then, only swatted flies had been acceptable.
Three years after the Board's revision of the fly rule, the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce was born. On November 1, 1923, the Board of Trade became the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce and adopted the slogan "City of Homes".
The booklet's pages are in .pdf format and you will have to use Adobe® Reader® to view them. If you do not have Adobe® Reader®, click HERE to download a copy.
Click on the links below to view this booklet. Please be patient as some of the files are large and may take a few minutes to download.
Special thanks to DeHaven Batchelor, DVM of Sanford, Florida and fifth generation of the Batchelor family, for providing this booklet to The Library's Winter Park History and Archives Collection.
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