William A. Guild was born in Dana, Massachusetts, August 31, 1827. He attended Harvard Medical School 1849-1852, intending to become a physician, but became a pharmacist instead.
He was a partner in the firm of Littlefield and Guild, located in Boston, for 30 years and was an active member of the Massachusetts Pharmaceutical Association.
For health reasons Dr. Guild began spending winters in Florida, in Palatka, St. Augustine, and in the Spring of 1883 he was in Altamonte Springs intending to buy property. However, Oliver Chapman and Loring Chase persuaded him to look over their new town site and he purchased 18 acres on the north shore of Lake Osceola. Here he decided to build and plant an orange grove. In the fall of 1883 he brought his family from Boston and made Winter Park his permanent home.
Unfortunately for Dr. Guild and his family there were problems from the beginning. Much of the lumber for the house was hewn from timber grown on the property. Blackmon's History of Orange County tells of materials, hardware, paint, and carpenters, being shipped from Boston. There is no mention one way or another about the carpenters, but all materials were lost when the steamer "City of Columbus" sank. Also, the big freeze of 1894-1895 had disastrous effects on the entire area.
Dr. Guild took an active interest in the Winter Park community serving at various times as councilman, town clerk, registration officer, deputy tax assessor, and tax assessor. Beginning in 1884 the Guilds began taking in boarders, naming their home Osceola House, with Mrs. Guild in-charge of the day-to-day operation.
The Guild's two daughters, Alice and Clara, also made important contributions to the Winter Park community. Clara enrolled in Rollins College's first class and was a member of the first graduating class. Her sister Alice organized the first art department at Rollins.
Dr. Guild died in November of 1902.
