Merrywood, built in 1940, is a large Spanish-style home, with more than 7,000 square feet of living space. The house features a grand entry hall and a covered porch with sweeping views of Lake Osceola. It sits on a nearly four-acre lot and is currently unoccupied.<\/p>\n
The current owners have filed a demolition request, but the home also has a prospective buyer, who wants to split the lot, build a new home on half the property and sell Merrywood to someone who wants to preserve and restore it.<\/p>\n
Winter Park\u2019s comprehensive plan, however, prohibits splitting lakefront lots and getting such a plan approved requires an amendment to the city code. The city\u2019s planning and zoning board is to consider the request in June and then make a recommendation to city commissioners, who have final say.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, preservationists are worried.<\/p>\n
Betsy Rogers Owens, the executive director of the Friends of Casa Feliz, which helped save that property, said estate homes like the Merrywood property are \u201ca dying breed\u201d in Winter Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re underappreciated for what they give the city in terms of its sense of place, its sense of scale, its beauty,\u201d said Owens, who is also the granddaughter of the architect.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/tos-l-merrywood-0225-3.jpg\")
The Merrywood property at 1020 Palmer Ave. in Winter Park on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, was built by James Gamble Rogers, the same architect responsible for Casa Feliz. Local residents and preservationists are advocating for the house\u2019s preservation, with concerns that it will be demolished unless they find a buyer for the property. (Rich Pope\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n
She said losing the house \u2013\u2013 which she describes as a showplace \u2013\u2013 would be akin to \u201closing the goose that laid the golden egg in Winter Park.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rogers designed many Rollins College buildings as well as the Florida Supreme Court building in Tallahassee, according to the Winter Park Library, which called him \u201cWinter Park\u2019s most revered architect.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Merrywood house is not on the city\u2019s historic register, however, a designation which would have offered it some protection from demolition.<\/p>\n
The current owners, siblings Raymond Gilmer and Cathleen Gilmer, could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n
Tara Tedrow, the property\u2019s prospective buyer, filed the demolition request on behalf of the owners but said she does not want to knock down the old house. Instead, she hoped the demolition notice would get the community\u2019s attention and help find a new owner for Merrywood itself.<\/p>\n
Tedrow, a local land-use attorney, said allowing the Merrywood lot to be split would not impact other lakefront properties and would work given the size of the property.<\/p>\n
On Merrywood\u2019s lot, someone could build a house as big as 56,000 square feet \u2013\u2013 a size that would be \u201cout of character with the city\u2019s desire to maintain scale, charm and compatibility of residential development,\u201d she said via email. Her plan would allow Merrywood to remain and a new house to be constructed on a still-sizeable parcel.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/tos-l-merrywood-0225-5.jpg\")
A notice of demolition is posted at the Merrywood property at 1020 Palmer Ave. in Winter Park on Tuesday, March 24, 2026. The home was built by James Gamble Rogers, the same architect responsible for Casa Feliz. Local residents and preservationists are advocating for the house\u2019s preservation, with concerns that it will be demolished unless they find a buyer for the property. (Rich Pope\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n
Allison McGillis, the city\u2019s director of planning and zoning, said the policy prohibiting lakefront lot splits is in place to protect community character and natural resources along Winter Park\u2019s lakes.<\/p>\n
Though the house is not a historic site, it is listed as a historical resource so the demolition request had to be presented to Winter Park\u2019s Historic Preservation Board as an information item. The board could not deny the request, however.<\/p>\n
At a March 11 meeting, board members said they want to see the house preserved, especially because it was designed by Rogers and connected, therefore, to the city\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
Board member Margie Bridges said saving the house will need the efforts of\u00a0the city, the community and Tedrow.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are a historic community and if we start pulling those threads out of the fabric of this community finally at some point, we\u2019ve destroyed it,\u201d Bridges said. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t believe any of us want to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
John Bill, the chairman of Friends of Casa Feliz, is hoping for a repeat of Casa Feliz\u2019s story.<\/p>\n
That historic house was set to be razed and replaced with a 12,000-square-foot mansion in 2001 until preservationists and the city intervened to relocate the house.<\/p>\n
The 750-ton building was placed onto 20 dollies and moved onto city property where it was ultimately restored and opened as a museum and events venue. Friends of Casa Feliz was formed to save the house and raised over $1.5 million in donations and corporate sponsorships.<\/p>\n
The organization now operates the Casa Feliz Historic Home Museum.<\/p>\n
Bill, who got a chance to tour Merrywood recently, said the two-story house stands out in \u201cquality, magnitude, design and location.\u201d<\/p>\n
The home features original tile, oak floors and decorative ironwork and masonry.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t really know that there are any other houses in the same league in this,\u201d Bill said.<\/p>\n
But most importantly, he said the home honors the architectural past of Winter Park. These historic houses are \u201cwhat makes Winter Park, Winter Park,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Owens said the Merrywood home is showing its age but someone with appreciation for historic architecture could turn the house into a \u201cshowplace.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there\u2019s somebody out there who says, \u2018Yeah, I\u2019d love a chance at seeing that house to see if I could buy it and restore it\u2019\u2026. Now\u2019s the time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A historic Winter Park home on Lake Osceola built by the city\u2019s most-famous architect could be demolished soon,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[558,114,266,139,141,140,480,109],"class_list":["post-205257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-business","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-real-estate","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205257","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=205257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}