{"id":112272,"date":"2026-01-09T20:46:51","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T20:46:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/112272\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T20:46:51","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T20:46:51","slug":"the-fortress-longwoods-historic-midcentury-modern-home-is-for-sale-for-10m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/112272\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The Fortress,’ Longwood’s historic midcentury modern home, is for sale for $10M"},"content":{"rendered":"

A midcentury modern Orlando-area home (and piece of Florida\u2019s architectural history) has hit the market yet again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Located at 812 Sweetwater Club Blvd. in Longwood, the home is dubbed \u201cThe Fortress.\u201d It was originally custom-designed and built in 1979 for the billionaire founders of Publishers Clearing House, Harold and LuEsther Mertz.<\/p>\n

The couple enlisted world-renowned Orlando-based architect firm Helman Hurley Charvat Peacock\/Architects, Inc. to create the home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It offers nine bedrooms, 13 bathrooms and spans a total 14,623 square feet.\u00a0 The home is set on nearly 12 acres and the property centers around a 5-acre private lake spring fed by Wekiva Springs State Park. The exterior is sprinkled with imported European fountains, bronze sculptures and koi fish ponds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some other knockout features include the eight-car garage, resort-style outdoor entertainment area and the home\u2019s very own tennis court.<\/p>\n

The home is listed for $9,950,000 and the agent is Lisell Melo with Serhant Florida.\u00a0<\/p>\n

All photos via Realtor.com.<\/p>\n

Every house has a story, and our mission is to tell Orlando\u2019s story through the lens of our community\u2019s most exceptional and historic homes. Orlando Weekly\u2019s real estate features are not ads and are assembled by our editorial department. But we love public input. Do you know of a unique Florida home we should highlight? Let us know, and email\u00a0cgreenberg@orlandoweekly.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A midcentury modern Orlando-area home (and piece of Florida\u2019s architectural history) has hit the market yet again.\u00a0 Located…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1623,57075,139,141,27637,140,8990,27638,1628],"class_list":["post-112272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-apple-news","tag-historic-orlando-homes","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-homes","tag-orlando-news","tag-orlando-real-estate","tag-rare-orlando-homes","tag-slideshow-gallery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}