Green space donated to Gotha

A small piece of land at the intersection of Hempel Avenue and Sixth Street in Gotha with ties to the past has been donated to the community. The green space has been dedicated as a park and heavily landscaped to ensure the property never will be developed.

Kathleen Klare, a longtime Gotha historian, said she considers this corner the main historical site of Gotha. It was the location of the community’s first store and boarding house.

In recent years, several different owners of the property tried to have the land rezoned for commercial and to have it developed— and each time, Gotha residents fought it.

The current owner, Bob Holston, had purchased the property, along with another roughly 40 acres, for development. He built the Fire Creek neighborhood to the west and put in the roundabout at the entrance where three roads dangerously converged. Upon learning about the residents’ desire to keep the Hempel/Sixth corner undeveloped, Holston decided to donate the land to the community.

He paid about $5,000 toward a $7,000 sign that serves as a historic marker and shares facts about the property and the community’s original history-makers. Klare and Kurt Ardaman each contributed about $1,000.

Klare said it was the best thing that could have happened to this property.

Holston, CEO of Holston Properties and Development, in Orlando, has lived in the Gotha area for 33 years and, by now, considers it his spot. After amassing close to 40 acres along Sixth Street, he started working on the Fire Creek community and the roundabout. This passive park is an extension of that land.

“It can never be developed, ever, so that’s out of the equation,” Holston said. “It’s a dedicated park in the Orange County park system and dedicated to the historic society of Gotha.”

Holston said the park was included in the Fire Creek maintenance agreement, so the subdivision’s homeowners’ association maintains it.

Other projects of Holston’s are the third phase of Windermere Downs, as well as Windermere Chase and Windsor Landings.

WHAT’S ON THE SIGN?

SIDE 1: Gotha First Store and Boarding House — Between 1878-1879, German printer and inventor Henry Hempel of Buffalo, New York, visited Central Florida to establish one of only two German-European colonies in Florida economically based on citrus farming. Between 1881-1883, after Hempel purchased 1,000 acres of pine-forested land on Florida’s “backbone,” he began construction of Gotha’s first store and boarding house on this site. In the Gotha colony, he built a post office; a two-story home on Lake Olivia; (and) a planing mill to supply orange crates, lumber and wood shingles to Gotha and the cities of Winter Park, Maitland and Altamonte Springs.

In early 1885, Charles Koehne of Oldenburg, Germany, purchased Hempel’s store, five adjoining lots, undeveloped land and orange groves in the expanding colony. By March 1885, he moved his family from Indiana to Gotha.

On April 20, 1885, the Gotha colony was founded and named after Hempel’s birthplace in Gotha, Germany. Koehne, recognized by horticulturist Henry Nehrling as “Gotha’s patriarch,” organized the only American Turner Society in Florida. Prior to his move, he had jointly organized the only American Turner Society in Florida. Prior to coming to Florida, he had jointly created a Turner colony in New Ulm, Minnesota. The German Turner Movement focused on promoting gymnastics, academic study, equal rights, separation of church and state, and the German culture-Turner derived from the German word Turnen: “to do gymnastics.”

Sponsors: Robert Holston, Kathleen Klare, Theresa Schretzmann-Myers, and Kurt and Karen Ardaman

SIDE 2: In the year of his arrival, Koehne immediately established Gotha’s first school in Hempel’s log cabin in 1885. With the “Turnverein” membership, he constructed the colony’s second and third schools, and Gotha’s first community center, Turner Hall, on South Dingens Avenue. Always committed to the colony’s success, Koehne taught Turner gymnastics classes, constructed a bowling alley, organized musicals, dance events, social and intellectual clubs and held lectures for the community’s enrichment.

By the late 1800s, the founders had successfully established a vibrant colony in Southwest Orange County — one of only two German colonies ever founded in Florida. For 47 years, this site was the center of trade and Gotha community life.

In 1919, Mathis Kline, owner of a Windermere store, purchased this property for Faber, one of his sons. The store later became known as “Kline’s Corner” and was active until the 1930s when it was converted into a plant nursery. In 1963, the 80-year-old structure was demolished to prevent the turpentine-rich pine from catching fire.

In 2023, Robert Holston, developer of Fire Creek, donated this park to commemorate and preserve Gotha’s rich pioneer history.