Roads
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Leonard Button and Button Road
Leonard Button was born in 1867 in Birmingham, Alabama. He became a very successful publisher/owner of many newspapers and magazines in Alabama, including the Birmingham News (still the main newspaper there). In 1934, Leonard moved to Longwood. He bought a 500-acre tract east of Casselberry and south of the horse track (now Legacy Park and Geneva School). He also acquired 43 acres in Longwood, near the Sanlando golf course. Button was from a wealthy family. When he was seven years old he recalled traveling to England and being the guest of Queen Victoria at her country home at Sandringham. There…
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Eldon E. Williamson
E. E. Williamson Road is a major east-west side road connecting Markham Woods Road with Longwood Hills Road, crossing Interstate 4 in the process. It was named after Eldon E. Williamson, who moved to Longwood in the late 1930s. He said when he moved to town the only hard-surfaced road through town was 427, which was then known as the Old Dixie Highway. He served several terms on the city commission between the mid-1950s and early 1970s. He was born in 1899 and died in 1974. Eldon was a member of the Longwood Town Council in the 1950s and a…
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Old Dixie Highway
What is now 427 / Ronald Reagan used to be part of the Sanford-Orlando Road, and the original Dixie Highway (17-92 path became the new Dixie Highway in 1927). Roads in the old days did not use to be as straight and smooth as today. They were more meandering and often took angles, especially in towns. This section between Sanford and Winter Park was paved in brick in 1916. Where the modern highway takes a smooth jaunt to the northeast toward Sanford, the old road took a line through what is now this brick neighborhood road. It then took a…
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Old Markham Road
Seminole County residents will generally recognize the name “Markham” as part of the prominent north-to-south Markham Woods Road running along the west side of I-4 from west of Sanford to Longwood. This route used to connect the no longer existent town of Markham to Longwood. It roughly followed the routes of modern Markham Woods, EE Williamson, Rangeline and West Church Avenue. In fact, albeit misplaced no where near Longwood, there is a stretch in northwest Seminole County still bearing the name “Longwood Markham Road.” So as West Church Avenue oddly diverges from its generally straight east-west route to a northwesterly curve…