The Longwood Village Inn is the largest, most impressive landmark in the City of Longwood and during its 120-year existence, it has served the Central Florida community as a focal point for social and commercial interaction, attracting both locals and winter visitors from the North. Currently operated as an office building offering space for small businesses, the Inn offers suites ranging from 132 to 1,881 square feet at moderate prices that include all electrical, janitorial, and maintenance services.
In 1873, E. W. Henck, a Bostonian entrepreneur, who had served as one of the Honor Guard that accompanied President Abraham Lincoln’s body on the train trip from Washington to Illinois, arrived in Florida via the St. Johns River Steamer. He became President of the South Florida Railroad Company and founder of the City of Longwood, which he named after an attractive suburb in Boston. In 1883, he commissioned Josiah B. Clauser to build a stately hotel in Longwood. Clouser was well known for constructing Victorian homes in Central Florida, and by 1885 the Waltham Hotel — the original name of the Inn — was open for business. This was a grand hotel in its day, boasting electric bells and indoor bathrooms for $3 per day.
The three-story wooden structure is one of the few remaining 19th century hotel buildings in Florida today and is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. It currently operates as The Longwood Village Inn, an office building with all the charm and elegance of the former hotel.
The disastrous freeze of 1894-95 ruined the citrus crops and tourist trade dropped off considerably. Henck sold the building to C. W. Entzminger, a former Florida legislator, who sold it to George and Florence Bunker-Clark in 1922. The hotel was renovated and re-opened that fall under the name The St. George Hotel. But the following April, George Clark met with a fatal accident in the hotel, and it is rumored he is the elusive ghost who has been reported to haunt the building to this day.
According to the Shadowlands Haunted Places Index (www.theshadowlands.net), the building is inhabited by a presence fondly called “George” who shuffles around the third floor at night, turning lights on and off, and operating the elevator without showing himself. At 2:30 a.m. one morning, police responded to a possible burglary at the old hotel and the first officer to arrive saw someone in a third floor window. The police set up a perimeter around the building and conducted a room-to-room search, but they found nothing. Many of the Longwood veteran police offices to this day say the building is haunted. Could this be old George Clark still taking care of his hotel?
In the mid-1920s, Fred A. Clark (brother of George), managed the hotel under the name Orange and Black Hotel, which became one of the finest sporting and gambling establishments in Central Florida. Ed Crocker, the head of a syndicate that included baseball great Joe Tinker, took over the property in 1926. The Longwood Hotel, repainted and renamed, was again noted for its Southern charm and hospitality. It reportedly hosted the National Governors’ Convention of 1927, which attracted 200 people including 32 governors.
From 1952 to 1957, George Barr, a Major League Baseball National League umpire for 19 years, conducted the George Barr Umpire School at the hotel. A row of shower stalls was built across the back of the building to accommodate the athletes. In 1964, the hotel was used as a set for the movie Johnny Tiger, starring Robert Taylor, Chad Everett and Linda Scott.
In 1969, the Central Florida Society of Historic Preservation selected Longwood as the nucleus of its historic restoration, with the Longwood Hotel as the hub of the plan. Grace Bradford (Mrs. Robert S. Bradford) purchased the building in 1972 for $85,000 and put $65,000 into major renovations and cleaning (it was in skid-row condition when Mrs. Bradford first saw it, having been used as a flophouse and junk car lot). Mrs. Bradford was instrumental in having the Florida Bicentennial Committee dedicate the Longwood Village Inn (which she renamed the building in 1972) as a Historical Landmark along the Bicentennial Trail, the first such site named in Florida. Grace Bradford later became the first President of the Central Florida Historical Commission.
In 1973, George and Marian St. Laurent bought the Longwood Village Inn for $225,000. Florida celebrated her Bi-Centennial in 1973 and on July 26, the Bi-Centennial Committee dedicated The Longwood Village Inn as an historical landmark. The St. Laurents also spent a lot of money on renovations to the old hotel; however, their restaurant business did not last. In 1978, Marian St. Laurent gave the hotel /restaurant to Cornell University in honor of her late husband. Both she and her husband had attended Cornell.
Cornell University leased the hotel offices and restaurant to several different managers after receiving ownership. Longwood Village Investors, Ltd. purchased the property from Cornell in 1983 and planned a program of restoration for the grand old inn.
The building is notable for its original energy efficient features; its basic shape having been designed for maximum coolness in summer and warmth in winter. With a large porch on three sides and large window openings on the first floor, the structure allowed air to sweep through the hotel and out the large windows in the second and third floors.
Those who work in the building report a sense of calm and much more interaction between the tenants than one would find in a large office building. It is a building with a varied past, but its present seems to say “Retreat from the hustle and bustle and come to the Longwood Village Inn.” It offers the unique combination of history, peacefulness, a sense of family, yet all the modern conveniences needed to operate a small business.
The present owner, Homevest Properties, LLC, purchased the Inn from Longwood Village Investors, LTD. Homevest completed another phase of major renovations, and the Inn has now become a successful office complex. The hurricanes of 2004 took a toll on the old building, but today it stands proud once again as a testament to the preservation of Longwood’s storied history.
