Lake Lucerne, Orlando, Fla.

postmarked November 30, 1905, Winter Park, Fla

Dear I.,

How are you this Thanksgiving Day?

PAC

Miss Ida Hawkins

East Greenwich, Rhode Island

A lovely photograph of how Lake Lucerne appeared over a hundred years ago.  You can see the Historic Inn on the other side of the lake, unobstructed by the Spessard L. Holland East-West Expressway.

East Greenwich, Rhode Island is a town of about 13,000 people today.  It was a waterfront town with a prominent mill built by one of the early developers of steam mill technology, Charles Tillinghast James.  It turns out that Ida Hawkins was his niece.

According to her gravestone in Glenwood Cemetery,  Miss Ida Hawkins was born in 1873.  She attended the East Greenwich Academy, a prominent boarding school, graduating in 1893, then went on to Brown University complete her Bachelor's in education at  in 1897.  She was 32 when she received this card, which would be well after she started her career in teaching at an undetermined high school and before she was married to Alexander Morrison.  After a long life of teaching, she passed away in 1944 at the age of 71.  

Let's hope she was well on this Thanksgiving Day, whoever P.A.C. was. 

Central Avenue, Looking West from Court House, Orlando, Fla.

postmarked February 10, 1922

2/9/22

In the centre of the city there is an open space where the men play croquet, cards, pitch quoits or just sit around all hours of the day.  It certainly looks strange.  There are three fairly good sized banks here, but I don't know how good they are.  Remember me to Mrs. Congdon.

Madeline

Mr. W. H. Congdon

Oak Lawn

Rhode Island

Madeline gives us a report on the daily activities of 1922 Orlandans, and of course the quality of the area banks.  It certainly is strange for our writer to choose the pitching of quoits (similar to horseshoes but with a ring) and the area banks to W.H. Congdon, who was a poultry judge and Treasurer of the Rhode Island Poultry Association in 1893.  

This view was most likely taken from the intersection of Court Street and Central Avenue, looking west as the card describes.  The gabled structure is the Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks lodge, with unknown retail shops and the San Juan Hotel in the background.  None of these buildings survive today, with the exception of what must be the Yowell-Duckworth building on the south side of the street.  

Lake Lucerne, Orlando, Fla.

Postmarked March 14, 1907, Jacksonville, Fla.

Mrs. Philip DeLeon?

East Greenwich, Rhode Island

East Greenwich, Rhode Island is a community in Rhode Island of about 13,000.  Founded around 1686, the town has the the highest per capita income in the state.  It's hard to make out the name of the recipient, so records for her are scant.

This card is the first of many featuring my new hometown.  I'll see if I can augment these posts with some present day photos, so you can see how time has treated buildings like the Historic Inn at Lake Lucerne seen in the distance on this card.

The Singing Tower, Mountain Lake Sanctuary, Lake Wales, Florida

This beautiful singing Tower, on the highest elevation in Florida, in beautifully landscaped grounds known as the Sanctuary, was a gift to the people by the late Edward W. Bok.The Singing Tower Carillion has 71 bells with 53 notes, or four and one-half octaves.  The total weight of the bells is 123,264 pounds.  The tenor bell alone weighs 11 tons, and the smallest 12 pounds.  It is the finest and largest carillion ever cast.  Height of tower 205 feet, diameter at base 51 feet.

Miami, Fla. March 6, 1931

Visiting Florida

Ames Austin in

Miami & enjoying

Every minute.

Came by boat &

Bought my car.

Limes? And Fruits? From

Tillon? Here Lois

Is entertaining.

Gertrude C.

Mildred Copeland

17 Sefton Drive

Edgewood, R.I.

Now we know what the bells weigh.  The same bells you could be hearing if you attend the International Carillon Festival this weekend at Bok Tower Gardens?  (Again, I am not a paid sponsor.)

Gertrude fancies herself an imagist poet to her friend Mildred.  No historical records for Midred come up in a search, but the house comes up in Google Maps.  Edgewood is actually a neighborhood in Cranston, RI, which Seth MacFarlane states as being the inspiration for Family Guy's fictional setting of Quahog.