City board denies Winter Park chapel's historic designation

An attempt to place the Winter Park Wedding Chapel on the city’s historic register fell short last month after it was deemed not historic due to recent renovations intended to help save it.

The Winter Park Historic Preservation Board determined during its meeting on Aug. 13 that the chapel’s new brick courtyard, basement and tile roofing had left the building unrecognizable.

Board members shot down the city’s proposal for the chapel’s historic designation by a vote of 5-2.

“You want future generations to be able to tell what is new and what is old, and you can’t do that with this anymore,” board chairman Randall Glidden said. “It’s a nice old building, but the renovations have reduced the historic fabric and historic nature of the building.”

The recent renovations came as a by-product of an unexpected moving project last December. The chapel originally sat along West New England Avenue, but new development planned along that road led to the structure being threatened with destruction, and being moved to its current location at the corner of New York and Lyman avenues.

Property owner Dan Bellows and local nonprofit Traditional Neighborhoods, Inc. took on the project to move the building, proposing and adding the new amenities as well.

“I was kind of shocked to see all the changes,” Glidden said. “They’ve turned this into a pseudo-entry icon in the Hannibal Square area.”

But board member Phil Wood said he disagreed, and that the building still holds great historical value.

“I think the final job is excellent, and it is an asset to the city of Winter Park,” said Wood, who cast one of two votes in favor of the chapel’s historic designation. “If [the building] doesn’t qualify for historic designation now, it will in the future. It adds good character and has a tremendous history to it.”

Constructed in 1935, the building housed the Grant Chapel Methodist Church in 1943, led by Rev. E.J. Sheppard. The congregation resided in the building all the way up until the 1990s when it outgrew the building and moved elsewhere.

Designating the chapel would allow the city to have more of a say in what happens to the building moving forward, Planning and Community Development Director Dori Stone said.

“If you do not designate this building, it will become a commercial structure and [the property owner] can do with it what he wants,” Stone said. “If you do designate it, you have some control over it.”

Winter Park residents Steven and Suzanne Graffham have run their wedding business out of the charming chapel since 2009. A historic designation would have provided a sense of security not only for the building, but for the couple’s wedding company.

“We’re a little shocked and disappointed,” Suzanne said.

“We don’t want to dwell on it.”

Suzanne said that she and her husband are still grateful for the new additions to the chapel. She said that they hope to see the building up for historic designation once again down the road.