The Capen-Showalter House

Win­ter Park’s his­toric Capen-Showalter House is ready to shine again, after news of its impend­ing demo­li­tion broke in June 2013. The Albin Polasek Museum & Sculp­ture Gar­dens, Win­ter Park His­tory Museum, the Friends of Casa Feliz, and hun­dreds of com­mu­nity sup­port­ers res­cued the his­toric home by rais­ing $450,000 in four months to relo­cate it to the Polasek Museum.

To move the 200-ton build­ing, con­trac­tors cut the house into two halves — nick­named Fred and Gin­ger — and floated the parts across Lake Osce­ola in a one-of-a-kind event that attracted national news cov­er­age. The ren­o­va­tion process included reat­tach­ing the two halves of the house, restor­ing the orig­i­nal 1885 pine floors, and equip­ping the struc­ture with acces­si­ble restrooms. The project won the 2014 Orga­ni­za­tional Achieve­ment Award from the Florida Trust for His­toric Preser­va­tion in recog­ni­tion of this remark­able achievement.

“We are thrilled to mark the 130^th anniver­sary of the Capen-Showalter House at the Polasek Museum and wel­come the com­mu­nity to visit and enjoy an irre­place­able part of Win­ter Park’s his­tory,” said Deb­bie Koman­ski, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor. “This renewed home will be used to host many of our events and will ben­e­fit res­i­dents and guests to Cen­tral Florida for years to come. We could not have accom­plished this work with­out the ded­i­ca­tion of our con­struc­tion and design team and the sup­port of the whole community.”

The com­pleted house, mea­sur­ing 4,200-square-feet, con­tains museum offices, his­tory exhibits, art­works, col­lec­tions from the Polasek Museum, and  is avail­able for work­shops, meet­ings, and spe­cial events. For more information about renting The Capen House for your next event, please click here.