Scenic Boat Tour- Winter Park

Written By: Gail Clifford | Published By: Weekend Notes | September 27, 2022

https://www.weekendnotes.com/scenic-boat-tour-winter-park-florida/

Perhaps the most beautiful way to see any area is by boat, true of Winter Park, Florida and best done via Scenic Boat Tours. Hidden at the end of Park Avenue, at the end of East Morse Boulevard, the Pontoon fleet’s dock would be easy to miss. The street, named for one of the city’s scions, Charles Hosmer Morse, an American philanthropist originally from Maine, and namesake of the famous Morse Museum of American Art which houses the world’s largest collection of Tiffany glass, is the gateway to Osceola Lake.

The Winter Park chain of lakes contains six lakes (Osceola, Virginia, Mizell, Maitland, Nina, Minnehaha) connected by navigable canals created by Charles Mizell of timber fame who had the canals built to make it possible to ship his product in this more timely and economic way than by freight in the mid-1800s. During our journey, we traversed three lakes and two canals.

The pontoon boats can’t have a roof or cover because the water levels on the lakes can be quite high during the wet, summer season, and there isn’t enough clearance for the boats to pass under bridges that dot the canals.

Met by our Skipper, Don Brown, he greets us heartily and provides the safety features, including the location of life vests and the importance of following directions. He’s been performing this tour for years and is well versed in everything Winter Park from the history to the museums, best things to do on Mondays in Winter Park (the Scenic Boat Tour is the best… all the museums are closed on Mondays), the golf courses, and the hidden treasures.

Heading out on Lake Osceola, Skipper Don wows us with an instant piece of trivia. The Scenic Boat Tours are the oldest, continuous running, attraction in the state of Florida since 1938! They operate seven days a week, 364 days a year (not Christmas). Peppered with jokes, facts, and wry asides, he’s a treasure trove of information.

He tells us that Winter Park was established in 1881 by two northerners seeking refuge from the painful winters of their home states. But earlier that century, in the mid-1830s, Chief Osceola was known to camp on these shorelines, so it’s named in his honor. It wasn’t until 1858 that David Mizell arrived from the Commonwealth of Virginia, bought six acres of land on what he named Lake Virginia and bought six acres where he established a sawmill and started harvesting wood from the areas, creating the canals. For thirty years, the canals were full of timber heading for Mr. Mizell’s sawmills.

Before we can move too far along in our journey, though, it’s time for the first section of historic shoreline to receive a shout out. On the right side of the lake once stood the Old Seminole Hotel, the grandest hotel in the state of Florida. In 1886, maybe even the United States. It had 250 hotel rooms and a four-story tall observation tower from which you could see both Lake Osceola and Lake Virginia. Most impressive was its front porch, stretching 600 feet (that’s two football fields). Host to Presidents Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison, many said that Rollins College and the Old Seminole Hotel brought “luxury to the edge of the Florida frontier.”

Sadly, the hotel caught fire in 1902 and burned to the ground. Under-insured, the owners were forced to sell the real estate.

There are three museums on this lake visible from the tour. The first, the Albin Polasek Statue Garden, remains a popular wedding venue. Mr. Polasek, a sculptor who specialized in bronze, moved from Czechoslovakia to Chicago in 1901, then retired to Winter Park in 1960. When he died in 1962, his wife dedicated their home and over 400 pieces of his work in honor of her husband to what is now the Polasek Sculpture Museum and Gardens.

But the story of this museum and its foundation goes further still. When the Capen House, a historic home built on the other side of the lake, was in danger with new owners, the Polasek offered safe haven. The new owners of the land the Capen House stood upon paid for the house to be split in two (called Fred and Ginger after the famous American dance team, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers), rolled down the hill, and floated across Lake Osceola to its current location. It took 45 minutes for the first half, according to our skipper, and 15 minutes for the second. He invited us to check out the YouTube video from 2010 where a drone covered the event. Movement across the lake starts at 1:42.

From there, we enter the Fern Canal. Just an eighth of a mile long, they’re about four or five feet deep. We pass one of the oldest oak trees in the region and the fern draped across it is given special mention.