Winter Park Land Company celebrates 100 years with '100 Days of Service'

A Winter Park-based corporation is celebrating 100 years of business in the city — and it is paying it forward.

The Winter Park Land Company will celebrate its centennial this month by serving the community with its “Good Deeds Matter — 100 Days of Service” project, giving back through a variety of charitable events.

It all kicks off with a school supply drive outside the Winter Park Community Center on Saturday, July 29.

The 30 agents in the corporation hope to reach a goal of 800 hours of service over the 100 days.

“We were trying to sit down and brainstorm about what we could do for our 100th year that would be really meaningful,” said Winter Park Land Company Broker Pitt Warner, who joined the corporation in 1992. “The idea boiled up of 100 days of community service.”

The 100 Days of Service will continue with several other projects. Agents will be teaching workshops at the Coalition for the Homeless to help struggling families transitioning to apartments and homes, giving them an explanation of their rights as tenants and the basics of healthy and safe home upkeep. The company also is working to fulfill wishes through New Hope for Kids, adopt meal delivery routes for seniors, serve as bingo hosts in care facilities and provide breakfasts for veterans.

The corporation has a long history of giving back to numerous organizations, Warner said.

“As long as I’ve been here, every year, we contribute, whether it’s to the library or the Rotary Club,” he said. “Whether it’s supporting high-school football teams or little league baseball games, we’ve done that for years.”

The Winter Park Land Company traces its roots back to a time when Theodore Roosevelt sat in the Oval Office and a speed limit of 8 mph had just been mandated in Winter Park, which had yet to be incorporated as a city.

In 1904, Charles Morse bought all the stock for the corporation and named it the Winter Park Land Company. In 1917, it moved to its current location along Park Avenue. Despite the building moving up and down the street over the years, the Winter Park Land Company has always stood on that same block along the iconic Winter Park street, Warner said.

“Winter Park Land Company is the original development company of Winter Park,” he said. “Similar to cities that pop up today like Baldwin Park or Avalon that are planned cities, Winter Park was a planned city.” 

From its vantage point in Winter Park, the Winter Park Land Company has seen the real-estate business change and evolve over the years, Warner said. Technology plays a critical role today, and buyers come to them with knowledge from their own research.

The company has continued to thrive as a small, independent real-estate agency in the world of larger entities competing with them. The key is a wealth of local knowledge and commitment to service, Warner said.

“The business has changed a little bit, and obviously we’ve changed with it,” he said. “We’d like to get ahead of the curve and grow with it.”

Central Florida is expected to have a tremendous population boom in the next 25 to 30 years, Warner said. Whatever changes are in store for Central Florida, the Winter Park Land Company hopes to keep one thing consistent internally: integrity.

“Our motto has been handshake integrity for over 100 years,” Warner said. “We feel like that’s been our watchword here. We don’t squeeze every last nickel out of a transaction. We say, ‘Leave a little something for the other guy, too.’ We try to carry that forward today and get ready for the next 100 years of the company.”