by Chuck Seaver, South Lake Tablet
The Christmas season has deep stories in Clermont dating back to the town’s beginning in 1884 but what many do not know is that there was a particular Christmas season and party that perhaps was the beginning of a new era for a town that was struggling to get back on its feet after two devastating freezes in 1886 and the winter of 1894-95 that left its primary economic resource in shambles.
The first freeze hit the small town hard only two years after its first of two incorporation dates. However, the real catastrophe was only nine years later when a second devastating freeze took the town by surprise and wiped out the citrus industry. Records from the Florida Department of Agriculture reveal that over five million boxes of citrus were being produced in the state of Florida annually before the second freeze. It would take an estimated fifteen years to once again regain such production status.
In the meantime, Clermont once again struggled to maintain its identity. Many of the homesteaders and investors left the area with little to no notice. Several left owing local businesses hundreds of dollars in good faith loans and accrued debt that was accumulated while getting on their feet during times of a promising future for new landowners of the area.
In October 1913, a time when there were less than 200 acres of active citrus trees in the Clermont and Minneola area, the Lake Highlands Company was organized by Stuart Bowman and Ulysses Anderson. The decision was quickly made to promote the area for citrus, but it was also decided that a clubhouse would be needed as a headquarters for the company’s operations and for the entertainment of guests and patrons of the business. The clubhouse at 151 East Minnehaha Avenue would be built in the Clermont Heights section of town, an area that is now known as the subdivision area of East Avenue and Minnehaha Avenue. A private water system and electric power plant were installed while the development of the clubhouse and surrounding homes began. Plots of land were also set aside in the area to begin the planting of citrus trees.
With the clubhouse officially opening in the spring season of 1914, a large plan was soon underway to host an extravagant Christmas party and invite potential buyers from all over the eastern seaboard. The local newspaper at the time, The Clarion, reported a party at the clubhouse as follows: “The spacious reception rooms and dining rooms were appropriately decorated with yuletide emblems. Great branches of holly, rich with red berries, mingled with mistletoe, while red roses rioted in profusion. The dinner consisted of six courses from fruit cocktail to mints and bonbons.” Many of the Christmas party guests soon bought land and eventually became regular winter visitors or permanent residents of Clermont. Within fifteen months, 24 new families had become new residents, adding 67 new people to the town’s population. Within eighteen months, 800 acres of land had been newly set to citrus groves.
The clubhouse continued to be the backdrop for strategic planning and financial assistance to projects that would shape the town. For example, in 1921, the Lake Highlands Company planned to spend $80,000 on improvements that would include connecting the private water system with the town’s established system. They hoped to get at least one street from Minnehaha Avenue to Lake Minnehaha paved. The first street is now known as Bowman Street and was named in honor of S.H. “Stuart” Bowman, General Manager of Lake Highlands Company, in 1921.
Over the years, the clubhouse changed names, ownership and usage but the most trying times for the growing establishment arose in the mid 1920’s when increasing financial problems arose. A stock market crash in 1929 began with a decrease in real estate sales that would lead to the Florida economic collapse.
The clubhouse, which had been converted to a hotel, would be purchased by a pair of businessmen from Uniontown, Pennsylvania. The team would add a spacious 32-room addition to the hotel and move the entrance to the north side of the stately structure. The large porches overlooking Lake Minnehaha remained on the hotel’s south side. Guests enjoyed a clear view of the lake from the porch as the land between the hotel and Lake Minnehaha had been preserved and undeveloped.
The Christmas season played a second historical role in 1929, with the grand reopening of the beautiful hotel. The reopening was held on Christmas Eve with the serving of a plentiful Christmas dinner for hotel guests and towns people alike. The combination lounge room, hall and dining room which had been the scene of so many social events in the town’s history, gave the impression of beauty and spaciousness. The third floor of the hotel was remodeled with upgrades and was intended for servant’s quarters. Accommodation was also made on the third floor for chauffeurs and servants of the wealthy guests.
Although economic times for Clermont remained questionable during the era that became better known as the “Great Depression,” a time when financial difficulty swept the country, the Lake Highlands Hotel would survive for years to come. It wasn’t until 1959 when the hotel, located at the southeast corner of Minnehaha Avenue and East Avenue, was sold for plans to reopen as a retirement home, that the face of the original clubhouse would begin to take on dramatic changes.
In 1960, new management joined the effort to transition the historical building into a fulltime retirement home, complete with dining facilities and single-room style living quarters for today’s version of “assisted living.” The facility also planned to offer full nursing services for those occupants who needed healthcare assistance. In 1962, the City of Clermont allowed the facility to expand and repurpose the stately hotel into what would become Clermont’s longest serving retirement and assisted living facility to date.
Throughout the 1960’s and in keeping with the hotel’s Christmas season traditions, the management arranged for families and friends to visit loved ones at the retirement home and enjoy a plentiful Christmas dinner together. The First United Methodist Church of Clermont’s kindergarten classes would visit the home each year at Christmas time to sing cheerful songs for the guests and their families. Kindergarten teacher Lillian Byrd would assist her students each year in making Christmas tree ornaments for the residents of the home. The ornaments were placed on the large Christmas tree that stood proudly in the social room of the home that was a favorite spot for residents to gather and share childhood stories of yesteryear Christmases.
Fast forward to today, where the grounds support a completely different structure but maintain the founders’ original intent by offering hospitality, assisted living services and graciousness to those in their aging-years. The historical location is now the home of Clermont Health and Rehabilitation Center, and Westminster Care of Clermont. The grand halls and carefully crafted wooden handrails of the ethereal style stairways of the clubhouse are gone but as you enter the public access lobby of the care facility, you can still catch a glimpse of the past with historic pictures that decorate the walls of the entryway. Holiday traditions carry on with a beautiful Christmas tree that welcomes visitors and guests in the common area. And if you listen close enough, you just might hear a familiar hymn or cheerful carol coming from the chapel located within the home.
