You may notice that West Florida Avenue is slightly odd through the historic district. It is placed at a half-block increment between Jessup Ave and Magnolia Ave. There are few driveways off of it, and most homes and businesses’ backs face it instead. That’s because it was not originally a road but a railway. There is a tiny alley-like companion to this called East Florida Avenue on the east side of the tracks, behind some houses’ backyards. There is a small gap, and then its effective continuation is East Magnolia past the Church of the Nazarene.
This was the rail bed of the short-lived and long-defunct Florida Midland Railroad. It was incorporated in 1883 by Carl Cushing, Edward Henck, and S. W. Brewster. The original plan was to run from the Indian River on the east coast to St. Petersburg on the west coast. However, the plans changed, and it ran from Lake Jessup in Winter Springs, through Longwood, past Lake Brantley, to Apopka, and then swung southward and east again past Windermere and to Kissimmee. The Sanford and Indian River Railroad through Winter Springs and Oviedo did not permit them to cross its right of way, so the line never continued past Winter Springs.
The railroad did not last long. Its prospects dried up with the Great Freeze of 1895. After its insolvency, it became part of the Plant system of railroads, and the part of the line through Longwood was abandoned by the turn of the century. Its right of way was converted to neighborhood roads, the southwest slanting section of Warren Avenue, and then Highway 434’s path westward to the Little Wekiva River bridge.
The community of “Altamont” (not Altamonte Springs) was located at I-4 and 434. During the 1880s and 1890s, this was the Florida Midland and Orange Belt Railroads intersection. This is marked today by the Seminole-Wekiva Trail (Orange Belt Railroad) and Highway 434 (Florida Midland Railroad) crossing.
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Background on the Florida Midland Railroad
The men and boys of 1899 Longwood extinguished the fire. It is September 30, 1899, and a railroad depot platform has been set ablaze by sparks from a northbound freight train. Increasing the danger, east winds carry sparks to nearby buildings. After the threat has passed, prominent resident Fred Niemeyer returns to his home a quarter mile from the fire and prepares for bed.
On the covers, he found a piece of charred shingle from the depot, apparently carried there by the wind. Seemingly, the small village of Longwood has escaped a genuine chance of a much greater catastrophe than the loss of only several
buildings near the depot.
The depot involved in this fire was part of the Florida Midland Railway (FMR). The Florida Midland Railway Company was initially incorporated under the general incorporation laws of Florida and reincorporated on February 10, 1885, at which time
only 10 miles had been graded.
The new owners were E. W. Henck (founder of Longwood), S. M. Breuster, Carl Cushing, A. Menser, and C. E. Munson of Florida, and Edward Page, Charles W. Morris and Cyrus Carpenter of Boston, Massachusetts.
The Florida Midland route was to start on the Indian River in Brevard County and run to a point on the Gulf of Mexico. However, permission to cross the South Florida line was not granted, requiring the abandonment of the section of the line from the south shore of Lake Jessup. The line actually built ran from Longwood west to Apopka and then turned south to Kissimmee.
Stations listed from north to south were to include:
- Clifton [The FMR was unable to obtain permission from the South Florida RR to cross their tracks in Longwood, making completion of this station unnecessary]
- Longwood (junction South Florida Railroad)
- Palm Springs (junction Orange Belt Railway)
- Lake Brantley
- Fitzville
- East Apopka (junction Apopka and Clay Spring Railway)
- Apopka (junction Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad Orlando Division)
- Clarcona (junction Orange Belt Railway)
- VillaNova
- Ocoee (junction Tavares, Apopka, and Gulf Railroad)
- Minorville
- Gotha
- Windermere
- Doctor Phillips, previously known as Harperville
- Vineland, previously known as Orange Center, also Englewood
- Molanes
- Shingle Creek (Shingle PO)
- Kissimmee (junction South Florida Railroad)
As the tracks were laid and completed for the Florida Midland Railroad in the 1880s, growth in the area was rapid. Many more settlers moved in, large areas were cleared, and the market grew larger with better transportation facilities. Hard-surfaced roads did not come until many years later, but the sand trails were improved. As a result, crops like corn, cotton, and sweet potatoes were abandoned in favor of more lucrative citrus groves and vegetables for the winter market of the north.
Perhaps foreshadowed by its difficult beginnings, the Florida Midland Railway was not destined to be long-lived. Insufficient business sent it into receivership from 1891 to 1896. At that point, it suffered a similar fate to two other railroads in Central Florida and was sold to the Plant System. In 1902, the Atlantic Coast Line took over, and the section between Longwood and
Apopka was abandoned.
Late, the Florida Midland Railroad was acquired from CSXT in 1987. FMID operates 28 miles of track on two separate branch lines that interchange with CSXT at Winter Haven, West Lake Wales, and Wildwood.
Today, the railroad has been abandoned for about 100 years from Clifton to Apopka, and almost no traces are left. Parts of the right-of-way were used to construct Warren Avenue and SR 434. From Apopka to Clarcona, the right-of-way is used for the West Orange Trail. The right-of-way from Clarcona to Ocoee is currently owned by CSX and run by the Florida Central Railroad. From Ocoee to Kissimmee, the railroad is abandoned, but some elements remain.