History of Mount Dora, Tavares & Eustis

INSIDE MOUNT DORA'S ICONIC LANDMARK

11/10/2015

Like an aging Southern beauty, it remains charming and captivating. The old, weather-beaten, chalky white church inevitably piques the interest of passersby.

Mount Zion Primitive Baptist Church of Mount Dora is tiny by today's standards No matter its size, it remains proudly perched at the southern entrance to Mount Dora as if it was a welcoming ambassador. Atop the rusty tin roof, a steeple stands strong and within it a church bell that hasn't rung in more than three years. A battered, simple wooden cross still stands firmly at the top.

The original church was built in 1896 along with a cemetery on a hilltop of orange trees across US 441. It was founded by pioneer African-American families from northern Florida and Georgia. For those early homesteaders, as well as for more recent members, the small church was a central meeting place for worship and social gatherings.

The pioneers, Julia and Richard Woodbury and her brother Archie, hauled lumber from Sanford with a wagon to build the original church. When the original burned down, the congregation built a replacement church high on a hill in 1926.

Due to the need for land for the construction of US 441, the church was later moved to its current place on Old Highway 441, across from its previous hilltop location, where it has been for at least 58 years. In 2010, it was included on the Register of Historic Places.

Inside the church, is a step back in time and a tiny glimpse of local African-American history. Inside the plain exterior doors is a small, purely functional foyer. On the left side of this tiny area is a single book case with a sign reading "Church Library." Perhaps the most eye-catching element in the foyer is a simple, framed primitive print of a congregation.   On the right side is the rope that rings the church bell. Off the foyer is a restroom and a cramped office with scattered paperwork and two framed memorial cards.

A pair of tall screen doors stand straight ahead as the last remaining threshold into the sanctuary. Termites have helped themselves to the eight short pews that face the elevated altar. In winter months, the congregation was warmed by the rusty pot-bellied stove stationed among the pews. Two Bibles still sit atop the lectern as if waiting for the next reading.
The modest pulpit on the altar is flanked by an organ on the left and on the right dried acorns are scattered across a piano's keyboard as evidence of the squirrels that once called it home.

The sanctuary is still adorned with artificial flowers and a few pieces of religious decor, including a print of a painting of the church and a poster-sized print titled "The Primitive Baptist Church Covenant and Articles of Faith."

Today, the historical landmark is closed to the public. On a recent sunny day, helpful Orange County Sheriff's Deputies Hicks and Capraun compassionately helped secure the building again.   Vandals, vagrants and unwanted real estate agents have made a "No Trespassing" sign necessary.
"Some of my first childhood memories are of when we used to meet on Worship Sundays," said Beaulah Babbs. "We would sing the songs of Zion, pray and enjoy the joyful sound of the gospel."

Babbs, 79, is one of four members of the church remaining. Her family can trace its membership back to 1942.

"All of the written history of the first church burned up in the fire," she said. "We know that Reverend McCarthy was the first pastor in 1896 but the names of the founding families are long gone. "

Rhonda Torrence, daughter of the church's late Deacon Bobby Torrence, has found memories of attending the church from childhood to adulthood."This was our family's church and though it may be hard to imagine, the entire congregation was related," said Torrence.

"I remember helping my Dad mow the church grass and cleaning up the church yard. Great times when life was simple and the church was simple and honest. I really miss those days."

Primitive Baptist churches are sometimes called Hard Shell Baptists or Old School Baptists and considered to be conservative.

"We were a small congregation of 23 families at one point in our church history. Our family was the church," said Babbs. "How I wish it could be filled again with another generation of people who worship and praise the Lord."

"I have always kept the faith that good people will help us refurbish our little church and let it stand for another century," she said.

Past families of the congregation included the Woodburys, MCCarthys, Babbs, and Torrences among others.

Tax-deductible donations for the church's preservation can be made by check payable to MDCT Live Oak Fund and sent to Mount Dora Community Trust, 821 N. Donnelly Street, Mount Dora FL, 32757. In-kind contracting, engineering, landscaping and plumbing donations are also needed.

By Sharon G. Nichols and Trish Morgan

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Beaulah Babbs with helpful Orange County Sheriff's officers Hicks and Capraun.

Above: Screen doors lead from small foyer to sanctuary (below).

Above: Close-up of print that hangs on northern wall (below)

Above: In the foyer, stands a single bookcase church library and a small framed congregation print (below).

Above: Iron heating stove Below: Acorns on the piano keyboard.

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MOUNT DORAN'S SHARE THEIR BOMB SHELTERS

10/29/2015

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This is the final installment of our series on Mount Dora's secret Catacombs. "GIMME SHELTER" was written by Bill Sievert and originally published in 2006. In this segment, the writer takes readers inside his home's personal fall-out shelter and others in Mount Dora.

"GIMME SHELTER", Part 3 (for part 1, click here)

Maybe more of our residents and visitors will someday be able to experience America’s largest private shelter. Until then, some of us can reflect on the ones we have in our own basements, backyards and garages.

One reason I became interested in the subject of local bomb shelters is that the house my partner John and I bought in Mount Dora came with a fairly intricate example in the backyard. It has two levels, the first several steps below ground. A narrow hallway leads from a steel door and then makes a right-angle turn at the back wall into a room approximately 20-feet by 20-feet. Many shelters were built with such right-angle turns because the radiation from a direct bomb-hit moves in a “line-of-sight” manner and cannot turn corners, according to Mount Dora-based science buff Steve Guch. Unfortunately, Guch says, fallout drifting from a detonation in a city farther away would have no such limitation, dispersing in all directions “like an aerosol spray.”

So, our shelter’s right-hand turn wouldn’t save us from drifting fallout, but we could find protection in a completely subterranean room a flight of stairs down from the first level. Not that we’d be able to reach that room if a blast occurred today. A previous owner, perhaps concerned about a safety hazard to children, filled the entire lower level with sand. Last year, a group of friends helped us begin a feeble attempt to dig the sand out with shovels, but we only made it deep enough to discover that the old wooden steps had rotted away. We did unearth a few apothecary jars and pieces of glass bottles, but not the buried treasure (or someone’s mother-in-law) we expected to find.

An elderly neighbor says she has no idea why the lower level of our shelter was filled in. However, she does recall being invited there for cocktails parties in the 1970s. “Personally,” she says, “I would have rather sat in the garden.”

We have been dreaming of turning the upper level of our shelter into a potting shed and/or an artist’s studio for John’s mosaic work – but first we have to get rid of the pile of sand we retrieved from the lower level last year.

A few blocks away, Rachel and Steve also have a fallout shelter in their downtown Mount Dora home, and their eventual goal is to convert it to a wine cellar – though that would mean the loss of considerable space for the Halloween costumes and decorations they store there. It is amusing to step into their one-room shelter, which is accessible from a basement recreation room, and see skeletons draped across the original military-surplus bunk beds. (Editor's note: this home is no longer owned by Rachel & Steve, however the shelter was used to the stagee the cover photograph included on this page)

Rachel acknowledges that the bomb shelter “gave me the creeps at first,” but she says she felt better once her husband cleared away some of the remaining artifacts of the atomic era. Steve left in place some of the original fixtures, including a vintage mildew-powder bag that dangles from a bedpost, a fuel-oil gauge, a water pump and the air-circulation system.

Steve and Rachel have decorated the doorway to their shelter with a copy of a classic Gary Larson “Far Side” cartoon. In it, a couple climbs out of a manhole to behold scorched, barren earth, blackened skies and fires blazing in every direction. Throwing up his hands, the man exclaims to his wife, “Thank God, Sylvia! We’re alive!”

Rachel regards the illustration as indicative of what shelter-dwellers most likely would have discovered had they survived a real attack. However, she doesn’t think she would have lasted long inside their concrete room. The only bathroom was placed just outside the protective steel door. “Whoever built this shelter,” she says, “must have figured that, when you really have to pee, it’s worth a little radiation exposure.”

Across town, Jeff, a local artist, has a bomb shelter in his two-car garage. He was told that an owner in the late 1950s decided to convert one of the bays by putting up two-foot thick concrete walls. “At first I thought of removing them,” he says, “but the demolition process was simply too daunting.” Like Steve and Rachel, Jeff may convert the room into a wine cellar, though he also considers it a safe haven in the event of severe hurricane winds.

“Having the shelter may add to the historical value of the home,” Jeff notes. “It even has its original hand-crank air-circulation device. So I’ll probably just leave everything the way it is.”

That seems to be how most folks feel about their shelters. Although at this point in time no one seems worried that they may have to be returned to their intended purpose, our personal bomb shelters – like the giant Catacombs – have some real historical value.

If you missed Part 1 or Part 2 of “Gimme Shelter”, the article on Mount Dora’s Catacombs, click here.

"Gimme Shelter" was written in 2006 by Bill Sievert, owner of The Wow Factory in downtown Mount Dora, and Richard Stayton was the photographer and published in PULSE Magazine.

For more local news and articles, click here

Bill Sievert and John Theis have a bomb shelter in their historic Mount Dora home which piqued Sievert's interest in local shelters.

Above: This staged cover photo was shot on location in 2006 inside the personal bomb shelter of Mount Dora residents. Ric & Michele Wilson, along with their boys, were the models.

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PART 2: THE REAL GHOSTLY RESIDENTS OF MOUNT DORA

10/27/2015

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"We didn't have any ghost activity until we went into the attic to do some repair work. We must have disturbed the spirit because after that, we had a ghost", said Pattie Dando, of her former store Pattie Anne's Vintage Land on the corner of Tenth Avenue and Donnelly Street. Lights flicked on and off on their own. Objects flew through the air, especially these little crowns. One day a friend walked in and said he wanted to experience the ghost. Right on cue, a crown whizzed by."

A DECADE OF PARANORMAL...

Above: Windsor Rose Tea Room

For the past 10 years, Marsha and Paul Goodale have owned The Windsor Rose Tea Room located on Fourth Avenue. When asked if they knew of any ghosts in the building, Marsha Goodale laughingly replied, "We have 10 years' worth of experience with the paranormal at The Windsor Rose."

Some of the customers and staff have commented on seeing the apparitions. One spirit is a woman dressed in a Victorian period outfit from the waist up and a vapor-like film appears from the waist down. The other is a young boy who is wearing a 1960s outfit. Though Goodale doesn't know the history of the woman, she was told that the young boy was killed in a car accident in front of the building during the '60s.

Goodale shared a recent sighting of the little boy, "He entered through the front door, passed through the restaurant while customers were eating and into the men's room. He was in there for quite awhile, so Paul knocked on the door. There was no answer. Paul then tried the knob. It was locked. He opened the door with a master key. No one was there.

"One night my husband was upstairs in the office working, and I was in the kitchen cleaning up. We were the only ones here. I had my hair pulled back in a ponytail, and I felt someone brush up against me and flip my ponytail over my face. At first I thought it was Paul, but no.

"We held a 'Wicked Windsor Night' where actors scripted a seance and put on a show for restaurant guests. I think we upset our ghosts. They didn't like being taunted, and for awhile, they showed their displeasure and stepped up their activities--knocking things off shelves, rearranging displays and playing with the lights.

"Occasionally, dining guests will call me over and tell me that their dinner plates just moved across the table with no assistance. We don't want to frighten our guests but we do put forth that we have friendly, and sometimes, naughty ghosts. The usual response is, 'That is cool.' "

a SKEPTIC'S ENCOUNTER

Crissy Stile is the owner of Barrel of Books and Games on Fourth Avenue. She describes herself as a ghost skeptic, but in spite of that, she did have one story to tell, "One day I went to the back of the building to turn off the lights, and when I came up front and checked the security monitor, there was an big orb captured on video. It was moving around the screen."

Even though Stile had this ghostly encounter, she is still a skeptic.

The Lost Parrot had its own ghost, too, and owner, Patti Roe, knows who it is. "It is David. Back when it was Eduardo's, he worked at the restaurant and played music upstairs. Over 15 years ago, he was tragically killed in an I-4 car crash. He lives here now," said Roe.

"In life he was a big kidder, and he continues the kidding in the afterlife. He messes with the lights. Things go missing. Glasses fall and break for no apparent reason. Phone and cameras will go from fully charged to no charge. I even find myself yelling, 'David stop that!'

Roe continued, "He got attached to us and never left. His spirit lives on here, and he watches over us now."

You have been introduced to some of Mount Dora's friendly ghosts. There are more. When you find yourself in one of the city's old, historical buildings, you might want to ask the staff if they have any ghost stories to share. You might be surprised at what you hear.

By Jane Trimble

To read Part 1 in Mount Dora's ghost series, click here. For more news and events in Mount Dora, Tavares & Eustis, click here. To get the area's top stories in your inbox once a month, sign up for the free monthly issue of Mount Dora Buzz here.

Above: The type of paper crown hurled at Pattie Anne's Vintage Land

Above: An orb, similar to t his one captured on the security camera at Frog & Monkey, was also seen on Barrel of Books & Games' security monitor.

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THE REAL GHOSTLY RESIDENTS OF MOUNT DORA (Part 1)

10/26/2015

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ABOVE: 1884 sepia photo at Lakeside Inn reportedly showing Amy

Meet Amy. She is a six-year-old resident of the Lakeside Inn for the past 130 years.

One foggy morning in the late 1800s, Amy wanted to join her father in a fishing outing on Lake Dora. He told her to stay with her mother at the Inn. Unbeknownst to her father, Amy followed him down to the lake. She was never heard from again, but there have been sightings.

There is a sepia photo of the inn's dining room, dated 1884, that hangs adjacent to the present day dining area. The table is set but no one is in the photo except a small, unposed child in the background. According to the Inn's ghost lore, this is Amy, and the picture was taken just weeks after the child went missing. Over the years, her apparition has appeared to hotel guests and staff. She is always described as "a little girl wearing a red dress."

Sabrina Law works the front desk at Lakeside Inn and has been an employee there for five years. When asked if she has any ghost stories to share, she smiled and said, "Things happen here frequently, and it doesn't matter if it is daylight or nighttime or a holiday. Just this morning that framed picture fell off the table onto the floor. No one was even near it."

Law has no fear of the Lakeside Inn spirits, "Our ghosts are friendly. They love this place, and they do not want to leave.

"One day I was passing by the back stairway. Something caught my attention, and I glanced down and saw a rather portly Caucasian woman. She was dressed in late 19 century attire, complete with brocade dress, pillbox type hat and a small purse hanging from her wrist. She was so real, and then she just disappeared.

"Sometimes you catch a whiff of a strong cigar or a hint of a floral perfume, the scent that maybe your grandmother wore, but there is no one around. Or the front desk phone will ring from one of the guests' rooms. When you answer it, there is silence. It turns out the room is unoccupied."
Law was working with another front desk person (DP) who did not want to give her name, but her ghost encounter freaked her out. DP was coming up the back stairwell, the same one where Law saw the apparition. Someone was right behind her and trying to whisper in her ear. No one was there. DP no longer uses those stairs.

Floyd works the early shift and arrives at the Inn around 5 a.m. He and Myrtle, the cook, are the only ones in the building, and yet he has heard ethereal voices singing and laughing. When queried if these are just the sounds of an old building settling, he responded, "I lived in New England, and I have heard the creaking and groaning noises that very old homes make, and these are different."

MORE GHOSTLY ENCOUNTERS...

The Renaissance Building on Donnelly Street used to be a hotel, but now it is home to shops, restaurants, and some ghosts. The Frog and Monkey Pub and Restaurant located in the basement of the building appears to have its share of ghosts.

Eddie Parsons reported, "I am working in my office late at night. Everyone has gone home. The place is locked, and I know I am the only one in the restaurant. Then I hear a glass crash to the floor or the bell that is located under the bar rings. It is our ghost."

Above: Orb captured by a camera in Frog & Monkey's kitchen.

They have named the ghost Nancy, and she seems to be friendly and mischievous, but there are probably a lot more of her kind inhabiting the pub. Parsons has 24-hour video monitoring of the restaurant, and on occasion, bright orbs will flash on the video screens and meander about the pub. It happens so frequently that the staff has begun to take it for granted when Parsons calls them over to observe the latest ghostly activity. "One night the monitors were filled with so many orbs you couldn't keep track of them on the screen," Parsons reported.

ABOVE: Security camera in Frog & Monkey Pub pick up the moving orbs. (one is circled in red)

"We have found there is more activity during the winter season when the crowds are bigger. The ghosts like the live music corner, and they especially enjoy the piano. Recently I replaced that piano with another, and the ghosts seem disappointed that I did this," said Parsons.

By Jane Trimble

To read Part 2 of the series on downtown's ghostly resident, click here. For more news and events in Mount Dora, Tavares & Eustis, click here. To get the area's top stories in your inbox once a month, sign up for the free monthly issue of Mount Dora Buzz here.

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PART 2: A TRIP INSIDE MOUNT DORA'S SECRET CATACOMBS

10/21/2015

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A rare, first-hand account of a trip inside the city's hidden bomb shelter is the second part of this series. In 2006, with the promise of its location remaining a secret, writer Bill Sievert and photographer Rich Stayton were given permission to go underground for "Gimme Shelter", an article published in PULSE Magazine and now republished by Mount Dora Buzz. (For Part 1, click here )

A TRIP DOWN UNDER
As Richard and I inch our way into the eerie darkness, having nothing but a flashlight and Richard’s flashbulbs to illuminate our path, I am overcome with the feeling that a nuclear holocaust truly has occurred and that we are witnesses to the end of civilization. Just past the steel trap door, the first relic we notice is an old-fashioned drug-store-style scale, which creates a momentary illusion that we are entering an amusement park funhouse (the dark and scary kind). We imagine that the scale was placed there not for member weigh-ins, but as a good-humored attempt to lighten the mood of panicky arriving occupants.

Even the official house rules, a copy of which was provided to Pulse by the owner, are frightening. The regulations placed “authority for maintaining order” and “enforcement” of all rules in the hands of the Security Committee. “Distribution of all food and other supplies in storage will be in the hands of the Security Committee. … All firearms brought into the shelter will be tagged and locked up by the Security Committee ... The Security Committee will stop all disputes between parties, and those of a serious enough nature will be arbitrated by an arbitration committee composed of the chairmen of the Security, Medical and Maintenance Committees and two members of the Board of Directors. … The Security Committee may select from among the able bodied men additional persons to aid in protection of the shelter.”

The Medical Committee, led by Dr. Hall, was assigned responsibility for the “health and welfare of the shelter… All minor illnesses will be treated at a Sick Call at 8 a.m. each morning. Serious illnesses will be treated at any time.” Smoking, not regarded the health hazard it is known to be today, was permitted, but only in the 40-foot by 20-foot great hall.

Other rules instituted curfews: “Children under the age of 9 years must be in their units by 7:30. All persons must be in their units by 11 p.m. and quiet time will be observed until 7 a.m. There will be a quiet hour from 2 p.m. until 4 p.m. daily.”

It was left unstated how the Security Committee intended to punish infractions of policies when, as time wore on, children misbehaved and adult tempers flared.

An “Agricultural Committee” was to “make assignments of jobs to the members for the purpose of growing crops to feed the members after leaving the shelter.” The committee had a lot to work with. On our tour, we are amazed at the stockpile in the large closet known as the “seed room.” The metal shelving units on which the cans once stood have crumbled into rusty red dust, but hundreds of containers of seeds, most of them still sealed and secure from the prowling roaches, have spilled into the hallway.

The seed room is located at the northern end of one of twin corridors that attach to the central hall on both sides, forming a layout shaped like the letter H. The hall, which served as the communal recreation and meeting room, is situated just beyond a thick wooden door from the entrance area (the wood door served as a secondary barrier to access, just in case someone successfully circumvented the steel trap). The wood door also kept residents away from the electrical-generator room (the shelter had a sophisticated system of air-conditioning and air filtration) and a decontamination room.

In one corner of the common hall is the community kitchen, its four-burner stove and sink still present but the latter crumbling badly. There’s no way, we think, that such a tiny facility, seemingly designed for a cottage or motel room, could possibly handle food preparation for up to 100 people. The rules said nothing about cooking or dining shifts, so we have no idea how the residents planned to share the space.

Some people, however, must have been planning to dress for dinner. In one of the sleeping units in the west wing of the H, we are startled by the form of a woman – but, resisting the urge to run, we discover that it is merely a ragged, patterned party gown draped over an old wire hanger. At one time, the dress had been beautiful and probably quite expensive; now it was the last remaining garment on what had been a rod full of clothing. Perhaps it belonged to the wife of the coop member who, according to the current owner, left behind an entire rack of business suits. Some of these people clearly intended to maintain a semblance of formality.

Most of the shelter’s contents were cleared out before the cooperative dissolved, and other items were removed by the property’s current owner. Still, what remains constitutes a memorable peek into what it might have been like to inhabit The Catacombs. I won’t easily forget a child’s playroom or, perhaps it was intended as a classroom. In one corner, a handcrafted dollhouse leans atilt against a rickety plank bookcase. On a shelf is a short stack of decayed volumes – no titles could be deciphered – but from the index thumb markers, the top book appears to be a dictionary. Nearby, pieces of an abandoned jigsaw puzzle – its once bright imagery reduced to plain cardboard – have melted into a tabletop.

Searching gingerly through the relics of The Catacombs is not unlike sorting through the pieces to a complicated jigsaw puzzle – one bit of history fits here, another there. Richard and I stay much longer than we had planned, despite my expressed fear that the owner (who had left us alone) might become annoyed at our dawdling and seal us inside. Even in such a large space, it is impossible to escape the feeling of claustrophobic confinement.
As we finally begin climbing the stairs and notice rays of sunlight pouring in from above, I can’t help but wonder whether something should be done to preserve what is left of this one-of-a-kind monument to a dark period of history, and to restore what has been lost. Perhaps a state or federal agency should attempt to purchase the property, turn the lights and air-conditioning back on, and allow the public inside. Our planet still possesses the capability to destroy itself with nuclear weaponry many times over, but if enough people had access, The Catacombs could serve as a strong reminder why we never want to come so close to the atomic precipice again.

If you missed the Part 1, click here.
For part 3, click here.

"Gimme Shelter" was written by Bill Sievert, owner of The Wow Factory in downtown Mount Dora, and Richard Stayton was the photographer. Bill was one of the founding partners of PULSE, along with Carole Warshaw, Jane Trimble and Aaron Marable. Permission was generously granted to Mount Dora Buzz to reprint the story, so more people could learn of this piece of local history.

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MOUNT DORA'S BIGGEST SECRET: THE CATACOMBS

10/19/2015

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The community's shrouded atomic bomb shelter is arguably the most intriguing aspect of Mount Dora's past, yet many residents know nothing about it. Mount Dora Buzz was generously given permission to reprint Bill Sievert's captivating article. "Gimme Shelter", that uncovered the city's secret catacombs, reportedly the largest private bomb shelter in the country.

GIMME SHELTER

PART 1 of a 3-Part series
They all knew what they’d have to do. At the very first wail of an air-raid siren or the earliest broadcast bulletin of an impending atomic attack, they were ready to drop everything and rush to the secluded refuge they had created six feet under an orange grove on the edge of Mount Dora. As many as 100 members of 25 prominent local families – doctors, lawyers, a bank president, a minister and even Mount Dora’s mayor – would strive to reach their shelter in time. For, once the “Security Committee” had dropped the steel trapdoor across the entranceway, any stragglers (including spouses and children) would be left behind. And all those who made it down the concrete stairwell into the bowels of the 5,000-square-foot labyrinth knew that it would be impossible for them to open that2,000-pound door again.

Rather, after enduring their elaborately organized underground domain for as long as six months, the survivors of nuclear warfare would have to dig their way out through a partially pre-constructed tunnel or “escape hatch,” carrying with them cans of uncontaminated seeds they had safeguarded during their time below.

Built secretively at the height of nuclear tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States in 1961, “The Catacombs” was not only the biggest privately constructed shelter in our area, but federal officials have termed it the nation’s largest. Yet, its affluent members were far from the only residents of our towns to jump on the bomb-protection bandwagon. Homes all over the area – from Deidrich Street in Eustis to Alfred Street in Tavares to Tremain Street and Tenth Avenue in Mount Dora – still boast fallout shelters, all dug by fearful folks in the late 1950s and early 60s. Today, most of the concrete rooms are used for storage, though several owners see their potential as hurricane hideouts, wine cellars or party rooms.

Were people in our communities unusually preoccupied with the possibility of a nuclear attack? In a sense, they were. While the entire nation was gripped by fright and students everywhere practiced “duck-and-cover” drills beneath their school desks, Floridians felt especially vulnerable because of our proximity to Soviet missile sites in Cuba. However, residents along the coasts and in South Florida were too close to sea level to dig underground asylums. In this area we had plenty of high-and-dry spots to make the temptation practical.

“I was in high school in Lauderdale and whenever we visited my grandparents in Mount Dora, they would take us down for a look at their shelter,” recalls Ruth Ault, who now lives here. “My dad made us watch John Kennedy’s famous TV speech [during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October, 1962], and it put a scare in me. It bothered me that we couldn’t have a place to escape in South Florida like my grandfather did.”

In the tri-towns of Mount Dora, Eustis and Tavares, the fear became particularly palpable after the publication in 1959 of writer Pat Frank’s nationally renowned novel “Alas, Babylon.” It is the story of one small Florida community’s struggle for survival following the nuclear annihilation of Miami, Tampa and Orlando. Frank, actually the pen name of journalist Harry Hart, lived in Mount Dora at the time he wrote the book, and his fictional setting of Fort Repose was (not coincidentally) one of a triangle of small towns not too far north of Orlando.

Locals immediately linked the novel’s locale to Mount Dora, Eustis and Tavares, and began to identify with the characters and the chaos they faced. In the story, all power and communication with the rest of the country is lost, the local doctor is beaten up by drug addicts, the police chief is murdered and the bank president, unable to cope, kills himself.

Not long after “Alas, Babylon” became a best-seller, Lake County Health Director Dr. James Hall, citrus magnate William Baker, and retired paper-manufacturer and big-game hunter Theodore Mittendorf, as well as several of his fellow members of The Mount Dora Yacht Club, approached local builder J. G. Ray about the idea of designing a group shelter for their families. They thought that pooling their efforts would be more cost-effective than creating single-family shelters, and that they would draw comfort and strength from their number.

Ray took on the $60,000 job, even though he personally did not care to join the cooperative venture, which cost each participating family at least $2,000 toward construction plus around $200 in annual upkeep fees. According to his son, Jeff Ray III, who was in college at the time, “My dad was offered a room in the building as part of his fee. He told me that he said to them, ‘No way! I’m not about to go in there with a bunch of old fogies.”

The senior Ray, who was in his 40s at the time, also confided to his son that he declined to accept a share because, with his children away at school, it was unlikely he could gather his family in time to use it. Jeff Ray did have the opportunity to tour the facility during its period of peak preparedness. He especially recalls the “arsenal of weapons [which included numerous .357 Magnums and about 10,000 rounds of ammunition] and the places where bodies would be stored.”

The project was so carefully thought out that even the likelihood of resident deaths was anticipated. Burial crypts line the wall at the base of the entry stairs, across from the electrical-generator room. More than 30 other rooms are included in the complex, including 25 family residences, each 12-foot by 12-foot (about the size of a small college dorm room). There is a kitchen at the edge of the central hall for group gatherings, separate lavatories for men and women, and a medical clinic, which is still furnished with a refrigerator for chilling antibiotics and a reclining wicker wheelchair where one of several doctors could perform examinations or even surgeries.

Fortunately, the coop members never had to avail themselves of such services. As a group, they spent only one night living inside the shelter for a drill. Still, they stocked the kitchen, the seed pantries, the pharmacy and their individual rooms with everything they thought they would need, from party gowns to children’s toys (one family even horded chocolate bars), in hopes of living with some pretense of normalcy.

They were fairly successful in keeping the project secret from the local public, who they feared would demand access in an actual emergency. Maintaining confidentiality was no easy feat, particularly with lots of heavy equipment and a large crew on site during six months of construction. According to various reports, the man who offered his property for the shelter told anyone who asked that he was simply building tennis courts or (even less credible) a croquet court.

Today, 45 years after its construction, The Catacombs remains remarkably intact, though the foot-thick walls teem with thousands of palmetto roaches, and rust and mildew are abundant, having flourished since the electrical system and dehumidifiers were disconnected many years ago. The original cooperative relinquished its claim to shares of the underground space in the 1970s, long before the current owner purchased the property two decades ago.

The owner recently permitted Pulse photographer Richard Stayton and me to tour the complex. (We agreed not to divulge its location due to concerns about liability as well as his privacy.) The entrance is in a shed just beyond the backdoor to his home, which was built soon after completion of The Catacombs.

Taking deed to the giant shelter was not a consideration in his family’s decision to purchase the property. “I couldn’t figure out anything legal to do with it,” he says with a laugh. “Hydroponic gardening, perhaps? Initially, there were some parties, and my kids played in it a few times. But eventually I just closed it up.”

“What is mind boggling to me,” he adds as we descend the stairwell into the darkness, “is that so many people could come together to do this thing.”

Click here for Part 2 when the writer and photographer take a trip inside the catacombs.

"Gimme Shelter" was written by Bill Sievert, owner of The Wow Factory in downtown Mount Dora. The photographer was Richard Stayton. The article was originally published in PULSE Magazine in 2006. Bill was one of the founding partners of PULSE, along with Carole Warshaw, Jane Trimble and Aaron Marable. There are catacomb photos included in this re-published article that have never been published. The top photo is the staged PULSE cover photo of the issue featuring local residents Michele & Ric Wilson and their children in a much smaller bomb shelter.

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MOUNT DORA'S HISTORIC DOWNTOWN FIRE

9/3/2015

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In February 1922 a fire destroyed the main block of Donnelly Street between Fourth and Fifth streets. The city lost many important buildings including town hall. The fire reportedly started when someone left an electric iron unattended. At the time, the community had limited fire service.

The town leaders decided to build a fire station. John Donnelly donated the land for the building. Construction was completed in 1923. The front half was used for the fire service and the back half served as the jail. This building is now the site of the Mount Dora History Museum.

The first known piece of fire apparatus was a manually-pulled, two-wheeled hose cart that allowed the firefighters to bring more equipment to a fire scene, similar to the Wirt Knox hose cart presently on display at the History Museum. An ad in the October 6, 1915 issue of Fire & Water Engineering Magazine, stated a Wirt style hose cart was designed for “progressive towns and boroughs” that required a light-weight, speedy hand-drawn hose cart.

In 1926, the city purchased a type 75 American LaFrance triple pumper. This vehicle was sold to the Sorrento volunteer fire department on November 27, 1953.

The building was used as a fire station and the jail from 1923 to 1941. At that time, the police and fire department moved to Fourth Avenue, west of Donnelly. Even though the police left, the prisoners remained until 1969 when the city then began transferring prisoners to the county jail in Tavares.

The fire department was completely volunteer until 1965. When the station moved to Third Avenue east of Donnelly in 1969, there were four firefighters on the payroll. In 1974, the Fire Department and the Police Department became separate entities. In 1993, they moved into a shared complex at the corner of Lincoln and Donnelly streets.

In addition to an original leather Cairns and Brothers fire helmet from Mount Dora and other fire equipment, the museum has an extensive collection of items reflecting life in Mount Dora from the 1880s to the 1930s. The rear of the building housing the museum features the restored jail cells.

The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 1-4 pm at 450 E. Royellou Lane in downtown Mount Dora. More information about the museum is available here and a podcast featuring the original helmet is available here.

By Janet Westlake

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Above: The Great Fire of 1922 (Donnelly Street) Below: 1961 fire and police station on 4th Ave., downtown

Above: Wirt Knox hose cart. Below: Original leather fire helmet.

Above: Jail cell as it is today at the Mount Dora History Museum. Below: The 1923 fire station and jail is currently houses the museum.

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MOUNT DORA'S PUZZLING WINDMILL

8/27/2015

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The observant can't help but notice a windmill looms over the Grandview Bed & Breakfast and wonder about the story behind the perplexing landmark.

Fifth generation Mount Doran and former resident of the historic house on the corner of Third Avenue and Grandview, M M Waite said, "It was the windmill for operating the water pump."

Originally, the Grandview Bed & Breakfast was the William Watt house which was built in 1906. Mr. and Mrs. Watt, who migrated to Florida from the Northeast, owned a large citrus grove surrounding the property. The windmill-operated water pump provided the irrigation for the grove.

Grandview Bed & Breakfast's website notes that William Watt "invented corrugated cardboard as a packaging medium for his oranges."

"Mr. Watt made these huge boxes that would go over the orange trees to protect the fruit when a freeze would hit, but the corrugated cardboard was primarily used for fruit packaging and shipping," said Edee Waite Robinson, M M's sister.

M M and Edee's parents, Ed and Mary Martha Waite, bought the Watt property in the early 1950s as their family home. Though the windmill and pump were operational, the Waites didn't use it as a water source, but did maintain it.

"Dad would climb up and oil the windmill blades on a regular basis. If he didn't do that, you could hear the screeching of the blades all over town. Later, he wised up and hired boys to climb up and do the oiling," said Edee

M M recollects, "My dad would fill the wooden holding tank with water. The only problem was that the woodpeckers had pecked holes in the tank, and the water spewed out like a water fountain. To my eight-year-old self, it was pretty funny. It looked like a cartoon."

Edee, owner of the home in the 1990's, looked into the possibility of going off grid and using the windmill to produce electricity. Much to her disappointment, a specialist advised it wasn't feasible because the windmill was designed to pump water not generate electricity.

Today the Grandview Bed & Breakfast has named one of their guest rooms the Windmill Cottage which is literally built around the old historic windmill.

By Jane Trimble
Contributing writer

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Above: Historic photo of the windmill at what is currently Grandview Bed & Breakfast

Above: The windmill today, on Grandview just south of 3rd Avenue. Below: Vintage picture of the Watt house

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THE COOLIDGE CONNECTION

8/19/2015

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Not to be confused with St. Tropez or St. Barts, Mount Dora used to attract its share of V.I.P.s
In the 1920's and 30's President Calvin Coolidge and his wife, Grace, frequented the town with lengthy stays at the Lakeside Inn.
During the dedication ceremony of the Mount Dora Community Building in 1930, the reportedly extroverted Grace Coolidge is pictured above helping to plant a tree.

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MOUNT DORA'S TOWERING LANDMARK

8/11/2015

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Some home transformations defy the most impressive episodes on HGTV.

Such is the case of Mount Dora's "Tower" home, circa 1911, located on Donnelly Street between 3rd and 4th Avenues. The immense structure was the former home of Warren Butts and was equipped with a large wind-powered water tower to provide running water.

The tower was later removed leaving only the first and second floors. The building stands completely renovated today and was most recently occupied by The Painter's Daughter, a women's boutique until 2014.

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