A community not forgotten: Tildenville

Wedged in between Winter Garden and Oakland is a community initially called South Apopka and later renamed Tildenville that dates back to the 1870s. The area has a rich history that had its beginnings in farming and citrus. Many of the homes built by early settler Luther Fuller Tilden and his offspring still stand today.

The Winter Garden Heritage Foundation has amassed many articles and recollections that chronicle Tildenville's infancy and growth, all started by pioneering citrus families and their field workers.

THE TILDEN FAMILY

Luther F. Tilden came to Orange County from the north in 1875. He bought 160 acres of land in Apopka the following year and farmed that for two years. After traveling to the south side of Lake Apopka to purchase some corn and surveying the luscious farmlands there, he purchased 561 acres in an area in unincorporated Orange County later named Tildenville.

He became a leading citrus grower, was instrumental in establishing the area’s first schools and donated land for the construction of Beulah Church, the Presbyterian Church in Oakland, and the Lakeview High School (now Lakeview Middle School).

The citrus man learned early that quality matters, and while fruit packaging was crude in those days, Tilden made sure merchants knew that when they received a crate with “L.F.T.” or “C.H.T.” on it, this meant it was packaged either by Tilden or his son, Charles H., and the contents were top quality.

Luther F. was among the first to build packinghouses for properly packing citrus and vegetables, and his sons, Charles H. and Luther W., joined him in this venture.

The Tildens became early growers of vegetables in the state. Before the railroad came through, products were hauled by ox, horse or mule team and shipped from Sanford to Jacksonville via the St. Johns River.

One of Luther F.'s sons, Charles Herbert Tilden, became one of the largest land owners and citrus growers in Orange County. He served as president of the South Lake Apopka Citrus Growers Association and, with James H. Sadler, formed the Bank of Oakland in 1912.

His first home, at 15400 Oakland Ave., was a one-story Colonial Revival-style house built in 1883. Today, it serves as the offices for the McKinnon Corporation.

The second Charles H. home was built in 1910 at 15373 S.R. 438 (Oakland Avenue) and was later owned by his granddaughter, Margaret McKinnon.

The youngest son, Luther W. Tilden, developed groves and vegetable farms numbering around 300. He was associated with the formation of the Florida Citrus Exchange, the state's oldest and largest cooperative fruit packing and marketing association.

SOUTH LAKE APOPKA CITRUS GROWERS ASSOCIATION

The South Lake Apopka Citrus Growers Association was established in Oakland in 1909, and a packinghouse was built the following year at 1061 Tildenville School Road. The organization, one of the largest in Orange County, was formed by James H. Sadler, L.W. Tilden, G.R. Croft, D.L. Pierson, S.B. Hull and A.W. Hurley.

Citrus processed by the South Lake Apopka Exchange was marketed through the “Fellowship,” “South Lake” and “Good Will” brands. Several outbuildings and a water tower and tank were added during the next decade.

Approximately 150 growers affiliated with the association shared the costs of grove care-taking and harvesting services, equipment ownership, joint marketing and the packing and shipping of citrus.

The large main building, the cooling rooms and the adjacent office building still stand at the site and are now rented by various small businesses.

THE ADVENT OF ELECTRICITY

In 1910, the power plant at SLACGA began providing electricity to homes in Tildenville and Oakland. Every day at 11 p.m. the power was turned off for the night. Residents knew when the lights began flickering at 10:55 that they had five minutes before service was interrupted. The company was sold to Florida Public Service Co. in 1925.

The Tildenville Power Company was formed in 1919 by Oakland pioneers Charles H. Tilden, James H. Sadler, Luther W. Tilden, H.A. Connell, A.J. Willis, Arthur W. Hurley, Charles F. Mather-Smith and Gus S. Hall.

It started providing power to Winter Garden in April 1920.

TILDENVILLE ELEMENTARY

A two-story frame schoolhouse was erected in 1905 in Tildenville on land donated by the J.A. Willis family. A larger brick building was later built on the same site to serve Winter Garden and Oakland, and in 1918, it was expanded. A new facility was constructed in 1964.

The school was replaced in 2006; students spent a year being bused to the West Orange High School Ninth-Grade Campus while the new school was built on its same property.

BRICK ROAD

It spans little more than half a mile from Plant Street to Tildenville School Road, but it is a significant piece of history. Brick Road is exactly that, a .6-mile historic remnant of a brick-laid road, Highway 22, that once took travelers from the Orange-Lake county line all the way to Orlando's Washington Street.

The nine-foot-wide road was built in 1915 and known as Winter Garden Road. The posted speed limit was 30 mph.

An Orange County historic marker will be placed at the intersection of Brick and Tildenville School roads. Orange County Commissioner S. Scott Boyd, who is a descendant of the Tilden family, has assisted with getting the marker approved.

HOMES

Tildenville School Road was a popular place for Tilden family homes. Luther F. built his first home there in about 1878. The second home he built, in around 1905, was just south of his original house.

His son, Luther W. and his wife, May Wise, were married May 4, 1893. Nine children were born to the couple in the palatial home he built at 940 Tildenville School Road on 14 acres surrounded by azaleas, oaks, palms and a formal rose garden. Each room was decorated with period antiques.

The house was later given the name of Meadow Marsh. It more recently served as a Victorian bed-and-breakfast. In 1999, HGTV (the home and garden channel) filmed a segment called “If Walls Could Talk” at Meadow Marsh.

The historic home, currently set on 2.31 acres, was sold in November 2015 for $725,000. It is now a private home.

One of Tildenville's historic houses was moved in 1994 to land less than a mile away. The four-bedroom, one-bath, one-story McKinnon/Hornstein house, built in 1908, was relocated from Oakland Avenue to Tildenville School Road, renovated and turned into a two-story home.

It took four-and-a-half hours to move the home, which was originally built on land granted to the Willis family of Oakland by President Chester A. Arthur.

J.S. “SHORTY” REDDICK'S MARKET

Everyone in the area was familiar with Jacob S. “Shorty” Reddick and his market, which stood on the northeast corner of Oakland Avenue and Tildenville School Road. It now houses Page's Pastiques antiques shop.

Reddick's supplied the Tildenville neighborhood with meats, groceries and notions for many years and also cashed the checks of workers who labored in the area's citrus groves. Reddick lived across the road on the northwest corner in the large brick house that replaced the Victorian Clarence G. Tilden home that once stood on the spot.

Reddick, 70, was killed during an early-morning shoot-out and possible armed-robbery attempt at his store in February 1970. He had been shot in the chest. He was still clutching an empty .38-caliber revolver when police found his body; his six bullets were later found inside his store.

OAKLAND-TILDENVILLE COLORED CEMETERY

As many as 500 people might have been buried in the 2.6-acre plot of land known as the Oakland-Tildenville Colored Cemetery on what was originally Judge James Gamble Speer property. A committee was formed of parishioners from St. Paul's and Tildenville Missionary Baptist churches in 2002 to clean up and care for the site, which had become overgrown and all but forgotten for about 60 years.

The earliest tombstones date back to 1916, and the last people were buried there around 1946.

TILDENVILLE MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH

Tildenville Missionary Baptist Church, 233 Massey Ave., Winter Garden, was established in 1939.

From the 1960s until 1998, this community church provided the only streetlights in the neighborhood.

The church organized the Tildenville Child Care Center in 1971; the Rev. Peter Lias was president of the board, and Deacon C.C. Siplin as vice president. It was started to give working parents a safe place to take their preschool-aged children. Prices were considered affordable.

Members of the church purchased the 9.5-acre Avalon School property. Alice Siplin started a thrift shop to raise money to get the daycare started. Dinners were sold, Amanda Booker made and sold hundreds of sweet potato pies, and other members pitched in to get the center operating.

Alice Siplin, Margaret Siplin and C.C. Siplin were in charge.

Booker became the director later that year. She said that in the first four months of her job, there were no funds for food so she bought it with her own money. She also washed and dried the center's clothes at her house because the center had no washer or dryer.

The daycare opened its doors with three students but that number grew as high as 150. Financial strains ultimately led to its closing in 2004.

POSSUM HOLLOW

The small neighborhood of Possum Hollow is nearly indistinguishable to drivers traveling Avalon Road just south of West Colonial Drive. It was originally part of south Tildenville but was separated from that neighborhood by Florida's Turnpike when it was built in the early 1960s.

The neighborhood suffered extensive damage during the February 1998 tornado that tore through the area from the southwest. Many of Possum Hollow's older wooden dwellings were destroyed.

SOUTH TILDENVILLE / HARLEM HEIGHTS

Mabel McKinnon, daughter of Charles Tilden and wife of Daniel McKinnon, both of whom played important roles in the development of Oakland, Winter Garden, and Tildenville, opened the Black Lake subdivision along the east shore of John's Lake in 1937. A black settlement emerged there during the 1930s and 1940s. Nearly twenty dwellings, typical of labor housing built for citrus grove laborers, remain near the intersection of Avalon Road and the turnpike.

Through the years, the Silver Moon grocery and J's Heritage Community Store have offered residents a place to buy food and hang out.

In the 1980s, the city of Winter Garden and the town of Oakland both wanted Tildenville for their reserve growth zone for future expansion, but the results of a questionnaire mailed out to Tildenville residents from the Orange County Planning Department revealed most responders wanted to be excluded from both municipalities.

In 2012, a plumber installing pool piping in a newer subdivision on Avalon found mummified fragments of two skulls and newspaper scraps dating to 1978. The former migrant-worker housing camp was located on this land, once known as Harlem Heights.

Ralston O'Connor for more than 30 years managed this village of wooden barracks occupied by generations of orange pickers. Freezing temperatures in the mid-1980s wiped out the citrus industry and ended the migrants' work here.

In the last decade, Orange County started a landmark neighborhood revitalization program to assist residents living in older transitioning neighborhoods. Nine Safe Neighborhood communities, including Tildenville, were designated.

The Tildenville Safe Neighborhood Action Plan calls for partnering citizens with the Sheriff’s Office, county departments, the private sector and other community stakeholders to preserve and stabilize neighborhoods. The idea is to identify the community’s core issues and then recommends projects and programs to address them.

A survey was developed and sent to all residential addresses in the targeted area. In Tildenville, residents were most concerned with crime, traffic, beautification and code enforcement.

The 2010 Census showed the racial makeup of Tildenville as mostly black (78%) and the median household income as $21,925, lower than the county median of $50,138.

The lack of income and employment opportunities for residents may have contributed to the income decline of the community.

Tildenville Park opened on Shongi Avenue in 2003. The neighborhood park, funded by Orange County's ReNEW Initiative, includes three picnic shelters, picnic pavilion, tot lot, playground, basketball court, open play field and paved parking lot.

County projects have also included road improvements, the demolition of several unsafe vacant buildings and, currently, the addition of new LED lights.

For the last eight years, Commissioner Boyd's office has partnered with the Orange County Sheriff's Office to deliver shoes and backpacks to Tildenville children. Cleanup programs and home-improvement projects take place as well.

WHERE IS TILDENVILLE?

The community of Tildenville lies within and directly adjacent to the city of Winter Garden and town of Oakland. It is located in northwest Orange County and is bounded by West Colonial Drive to the north, Winter Garden Vineland Road to the east, Ellerbee Street to the south and Avalon Road to the west. The Tildenville community is approximately .41 square miles.

Contact Amy Quesinberry Rhode at [email protected].