The rec walls came tumblin' down

For more than a dozen years, a former church parsonage and day care center served as the headquarters of the Winter Garden Recreation Department. The yellow wooden home, said to be built in 1915, was located on North Woodland Street and once housed the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Winter Garden.

It was located for decades on the west side of Woodland Street across from the church, until the early 1990s, when the city of Winter Garden was looking for a new home for its rec offices. The building was no longer being used by the church, so the city bought the 1,300-square-foot house in 1995 and had it moved to the shores of Lake Apopka, just north of Farnsworth Pool.

In this location, the recreation staff was closer to a bulk of the department's activities at the pool and Tanner Hall, where all the holiday and summer camps were held.

The building was already close to 80 years old when the staff took it over, and former Recreation Director Jay Conn said when the department wanted to put a safe in the house, the city was worried it would fall through the aging wood floor so a crew shored up the area underneath with concrete blocks.

Conn fondly remembers holding ice-cream socials on the lawn while a bluegrass band played on the covered porch.

The recreation staff called that little building home until the Jessie Brock Community Center opened in 2010.

Claiming the dilapidated building was a hazard, the city had the building torn down Feb. 7.

Contact Amy Quesinberry at [email protected].