Winter Park in Vintage Postcards

“The perfume of the orange blossoms . . . the beauty of every scene, combine to make me wonder whether I am not in Paradise,” wrote one visitor to Winter Park, Florida, in 1918. Just five miles north of Orlando, Winter Park’s oak-lined brick streets and its quiet lakes have been attracting visitors since the late 19th century, when U.S. president Chester A. Arthur declared, “This is the prettiest spot I have seen in Florida.” The New England–like city in the heart of the subtropics was once home to the Seminole Hotel, the largest resort south of Jacksonville. In 1885, prestigious Rollins College was founded here, the first institution of higher learning in Florida.