Lake Charm
Posted by: 
overrover
N 28° 40.703 W 081° 11.915
17R E 480598 N 3172370
A Seminole County Historical marker at Lake Charm in Oviedo, Florida
Waymark Code: WM1V4T
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 07/10/2007
Views: 60
Walter & Mattie Gwynn settled here in 1868. Walter was the comptroller for the State of Florida from 1861-1865. Their daughter Martha named the lake because of its beautiful setting, providing her with healing properties, thus it was ”charmed.”
In the early 1870's Dr. Henry Foster, from Clifton Springs, New York, began to plant groves in the area and persuaded friends to build homes on Lake Charm. In 1880 Dr. Foster built the Lake Charm Memorial Chapel, which still stands today as a private residence at 6007 Lake Charm Circle. For more than 20 years eminent clergymen were invited to preach at the chapel during the winter.
The adjacent parsonage later became the private home of James H. and Laura Lee, early pioneers who arrived in 1874 at Lake Jesup and then Lake Charm. Many of their descendants still live around the lake today.
There are three other homes from that era that stand today. M. E. Owens built at 6179 Lake Charm Circle in 1882. Calvin Whitney, president of Chase Piano Company, New York, built at 6297 Lake Charm Circle in 1886 and Methodist Bishop Linde at 6235 Lake Charm Circle about 1880.
This resort area flourished in the 1880's. For a few months in 1886 Lake Charm even had its own post office at Thomas Lawton's store in "Lawtonville", about a quarter mile south. O.H. Brewster had a large hotel on the northeast shore about 1887. In 1888 the landowners, organized as the Lake Charm Improvement Company, encircled the lake with one of the first paved sidewalks in Central Florida.
However, the Great Freeze of January 1895, coming in the wake of the national panic of 1893, ended Lake Charm's time as a resort.
Marker Number: n/a
Date: n/a
County: Seminole
Marker Type: Roadside
Sponsored or placed by: Museum of Seminole County History
Website: [Web Link]
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