Robert E. Langford

In 1934 Robert E. Langford's grandmother saw the moss-covered oak trees of Winter Park and said, "This is the place."   So began the legacy of the Langford's in Winter Park.   It would not be until after World War II, however, that Robert Langford would start his first project in Winter Park, the Langford Apartments.   Having been raised in the hotel business, Langford wanted to build a hotel.   He realized with the advent of air conditioning and air travel, Central Florida was ripe for development.   At that time there were no fine hotels in the area.   On January 12, 1956 the Langford Resort Hotel opened and was a fixture in Winter Park until it closed its doors, May 30, 2000.   Sadly, Mr. Langford died less than a year later on March 31, 2001.

"An Interview with Mr. Robert E. Langford" by Mrs. Margorie L. Muller was taped November 11, 1981.   Click on the links below to hear selections from the 60 minute tape of Mr. Langford's recollections of the Winter Park area at the time he came here, the reason that he selected the exact placement of his hotel on its lot and accounts of the stay of some very famous visitors to his hotel.

Below are five selections from Mr. Langford's oral history interview.

Mr. Langford decided that his hotel should be built in an exact spot on the lot because he wanted to save the trees and azaleas that were already there.   Click here to listen to his plans for the hotel's layout on the lot.   Below is the written transcript of this audio excerpt.

Mr. Langford:   " I started out - I never intended to build a hotel.   It's a crazy thing.   The best house happened to be on the corner - the Schultz home.   It's right on the corner of New England and Inter lachen - had beautiful azaleas and a big piece of property.   And he was in the real estate business, and it took a good long time to acquire it - he thought he was going to retire.   He was in poor health and he said he wasn't going to sell it.   But he finally said," Okay, I'll sell it."   As a matter of fact, alot of the azaleas I used around the hotel are from his house.   I used a lot of the trees.   I used every bush and tree as you know."

Mrs. Muller:   " I know you did".

Mr. Langford:   " There isn't a decent tree or bush that I could move that's not on this property, still.   And when I laid out the hotel to save those live oaks that are in the driveway, I took the architect, and I put a string on the area where he could design the building.   And I said, " If you touch those oaks, I'll shoot you in cold blood."   So that's why the hotel's built just where it is".

Robert Langford talks about hunting trips in the outskirts of Winter Park.   Click here to listen to his recollections of hunting quail in the Aloma Avenue area!   Below is the written transcript of this audio excerpt.

Mr. Langford:   " I used to take my station wagon and my two bird dogs and I'd put them out where Lakemont and Aloma Avenue is.   Right where the hospital is now.   Then there was an old, abandoned country club(Aloma Country Club).   It was an old, overgrown Spanish architectural venture that failed.   The whole area was just overgrown brush.   I used to hunt quail from Lakemont on one side down to what's now 436 and get alot of quail.   It was just a single little road, and then I'd come back the other side of Aloma to - because you were not allowed to shoot within the city limits, I'd come right up to Winter Park at Lakemont there - at Aloma, and I'd have two dozen quail and I did the same thing on Lee Road.   I'd hunt from 17-92 at one side of the road to the other and cut back to the other side.   It was all wild and full of quail".

Many famous people stayed at the Langford Resort Hotel.   Click on the links below to hear what Mr. Langford had to say about the visits of:   (after each link a written transcript follows)

Mrs. Muller:   " Well, I think it would be interesting to know, also, you've had some famous people visit your hotel."

Mr. Langford:   " Unbelievable, unbelievable."

Mrs. Muller:   " Can you remember some of them?"

Mr. Langford:   " Oh, yes.   Well, I've had, for example, Mrs. Roosevelt.   Franklin D. Roosevelt's wife came to be a speaker at a Winter Park Chamber of Commerce dinner at the Langford Hotel, oh, a number of years - I think it was the last term of Eleanor's, I mean".

Mrs. Muller:   " Franklin's...."

Mr. Langford:   " Franklin's presidency.   And I had the good fortune to have tea up in her suite with her, and a nice half an hour of conversation.   And she said, " Tell me, what is the political leaning of the town I'm in here?"   And I said, " Mrs. Roosevelt," I said, " You are in the heart of the most die-hard conservative Republican community in the United States."   " Wonderful!" she said.   " Wonderful!"   She said, " What do they like the least?"   And I said, " Well, I could just start our with - one thing on the list is the United Nations."   " Fine, that's what I will talk about tonight."   And she did, and I want to tell you, having seen her in pictures, which never did her justice, really and seen her in movies, and so on - that to talk to her in person - She was absolutely a powerful woman.   And a very, very fine one.   I had a complete turnabout in my thoughts of Eleanor Roosevelt."

Mrs. Muller:   " Very gracious."

Mr. Langford:   " Very gracious, very gracious.   Very smart."

Mr. Langford:   " Mamie Eisenhower stayed with us ten days - I guess, four years ago, the year before she died."

Mrs. Muller:   " Was she visiting somebody.   Or how did she happen to come here?"

Mr. Langford:   " Yes, she had a friend in Winter Park, an old army officer's widow, that had been a friend.   They'd been friends in the early years of the military.   And she just loved the hotel.   She came with seventeen plain - secret service men.   They took over a whole floor, and I guess they stayed with her until she died.   But she was only coming for two or three days.   But she just loved Winter Park.   She had the men drive her all over and she thought Winter Park was great and was coming back!"

Mr. Langford:   " Then, last but not least, three years ago, Ronald Reagan and his wife spent their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary in the Langford Resort Hotel, up in a suite.   And I had dinner with them, and, I shouldn't say dinner - I felt so sorry for them.   They had secret service all over.   They were spending their wedding anniversary and had secret service standing in every corner of the room, out in the hall."

Mrs. Muller:   "No privacy whatsoever".

Mr. Langford:   " And what I was doing, was directing the scenario, kind of like a headwaiter, directing the waiters when they brought the food up.   And I just thought that for a twenty-fifth wedding anniversary.   It's a shame".

Mrs. Muller:   "Yes".

Mr. Langford:   " Just a shame.   So, I don't envy those people at all".

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