Looking back into 1950s and 1960s Maitland

 

The Piney Croft A-framed home is located in the historic town of Maitland, Florida. As this project seeks to capture the home in 3D using a variety of scanning techniques, it becomes important to contextualize the town of Maitland to better understand the circumstances of its creation within the town’s historical trends.

Maitland was founded in 1838 as Fort Maitland and was primarily a military outpost for U.S soldiers in the Indian wars yet this military outpost would be later decommissioned. In the 1870s, individuals started to move to Maitland and grow citrus, this was further expanded upon with the completion of the railroad stations cutting from Jacksonville south into the Maitland and the central Florida area. The central Florida area experienced a great freeze in 1894-95 which damaged much of the citrus production, yet the area continued to slowly grow over the next few years.  By 1900 the population of Maitland reached 136 people which expanded to 463 over the next forty years. However, in 1950 the population of Maitland almost doubled to 889 and exploded again in 1960 to 3,570. Businesses like the Martin Marietta Corporation moved into the central Florida area which led to the increase of population and architectural development that ballooned to match the rising population.

At this time, many architects would make their name in the central Florida and greater Florida area. Nils Schweizer, a representative of Frank Lloyd Wright who worked on and expanded Florida Southern College also built modernistic houses in Maitland and in the central Florida area throughout the 1950s including the Orlando International Airport, Loch Haven Park, St. Luke’s Episcopal Cathedral, and Orlando’s downtown library. One of Schweizer’s Maitland homes , 829 Nicoma Trail, was built in 1960 and features similar design points found in Clifford Wright’s Piney Croft home, such as the exterior design, sunken living room, central fireplace, and use of 27 feet of glass to let in natural light. Yet, many of Schweizer’s houses are not limited by this trend and many are unique in their design such as Schweizer’s personal home in Maitland built in 1960, his Goldberg house in 1955, as well as the Goldman House in 1965.

Yet, this central Florida boom in construction was not just limited to the likes of Schweizer, but also the likes of James Gamble Rogers II who designed the Florida Supreme Court building but also many Winter Park residences such as the 160 Glenridge home and Barbour residence. Many other architects threw their architectural designs into the central Florida and Maitland stew that brought the countless homes and churches with many different architectural designs into creation including Clifford Wright’s own Piney Croft.

 

"Census of Population and Housing". Census.gov.

“829 Nicoma Trl, Maitland, FL 32751.” Realtor.com. Retrieved March 12^th, 2021. https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/829-Nicoma-Trl_Maitland_FL_32751_M59326-96020.

“About Maitland.” The City of Maitland. Retrieved March 12^th, 2021. https://www.itsmymaitland.com/339/About-Maitland#:~:text=Maitland%2C%20one%20of%20the%20oldest,1838%20by%20the%20U.S.%20Army.

“James Gamble Rogers.” Casa Feliz Historic Home and Venue: Winter Park’s Community Parlor. Retrieved March 12^th, 2021. https://casafeliz.us/james-gamble-rogers.

“Maitland.” Viva Florida 500: History Happened Here. Retrieved March 12^th, 2021. https://vivafl500.org/cities/maitland/

“Mrs. Nils M. Schweizer and Architect Jerry Uhran Special Guest Speakers At Orlando Remembered, January 2020.” Orlando Memory. February 1, 2020. Retrieved March 12^th, 2021 http://orlandomemory.info/events/mrs-nils-m-schweizer-and-architect-jerry-uhran-special-guest-speakers-at-orlando-remembered-january-2020/.

“This 1960s mid-century modern home in Maitland just hit the market.” Orlando Weekly. June 7, 2020. Retrieved March 12^th, 2021. https://photos.orlandoweekly.com/this-1960s-mid-century-modern-home-in-maitland-just-hit-the-market/?slide=1&2298cede1cdcb493b199bb71548164d2l-m121360711xd-w1020_h770_q80.

Candelaria, Michael. “Maitland Neighborhood Guide.” Orlando Sentinel. June 21, 2018. Retrieved March 12^th, 2021. https://www.orlandosentinel.com/classified/realestate/neighborhood-guide/os-et-maitland-neighborhood-guide-2018-htmlstory.html.

Central Florida Modern. Retrieved March 12^th, 2021. https://www.centralfloridamodern.com/residential.

Larson, Brittni. “Maitland Cheers at its birth.” The Orange Observer. July 8, 2010. Retrieved March 12^th, 2021. https://www.orangeobserver.com/article/maitland-cheers-its-birth.

LeBlanc, Karen and Randy Noles. “60s Chic.” Winter Park Magazine. Retrieved March 12^th, 2021.  https://winterparkmag.com/2019/07/08/60s-chic/.

Shanklin, Mary. “Hidden Treasures of Design.” Orlando Sentinel. December 24, 2000. Retrieved March 12^th, 2021. https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-2000-12-24-0012220039-story.html.

Clifford Wright - Maitland and Winter Park's local architect

 

    Clifford William Wright was born at in the hamlet of Oceanside in Nassau county, Long Island, New York on April 15, 1933, yet spent most of his childhood in the Winter Park/Maitland area. He received his Bachelor of Architecture in 1955 got his license and moved across the street from the Meyer family where he would then build a house for them completed in the end of 1959. Clifford Wright’s career focused around the Winter Park, Maitland, and larger Florida area with other buildings being the expansion to the Ortronix Plant completed in 1960 in Goldenrod, the Schroeder Warehouses in Winter park in 1959-1960, a shop in Pine castle in 1959, a food store building in Orlando in 1961, an Apartment building in Sarasota in 1961 and the residence of Allan Hickok in Winter Park 1961 as well as condos in the Maitland and Winter park area around the 1960s.

    Wright spent two months coming up with the design for the Meyer residence and was pushed by Mrs. Meyer’s artistic demands to create the unique A-framed structure. Wright designed the house to be easily cooled despite the 32-foot overhead by allows cooler air to collect towards the bottom of the house, however this property would also make it difficult to heat the house in the winter, so Wright designed a brick fire place to help for Florida’s short winters. In designing the Meyer family’s residence, he was challenged to anchor the tall 32-foot A-framed structured against hurricanes and other strong winds. The answer was using steel plates to clamp the support beams in the center structure and anchor them into large pieces of concrete buried underneath the ground.

                The house was of a modern design in 1959 by following the recent trend of A-framed houses started in 1957 by Andrew Geller and designed with a sunken living room, wall to wall carpet, aluminum construction and newly prefabricated wooden beams and thirty two double glass windows along the two major A-framed walls. Wright balanced the unique structure with two traditional expansions on both sides of the A-framed featuring additional bedrooms and bathrooms on one side and a three-car garage on the other.

"New Home Will Offer Refreshing Taste in Design; Modern Thought Used in Dramatic A-Frame,” Orlando Sentinel, Oct. 4, 1959, p. 3

Interview and House Tour with Piney Croft Architect Clifford Wright, Sunday, April 29, 2018.

"WRIGHT, CLIFFORD W(ILLIAM). AIA 57. Mid-Florida Chapter." AIA Historical Directory of American Architects.
https://aiahistoricaldirectory.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/AHDAA/pages/20677106/1962+American+Architects+Directory

"Ortronix Inc. Building Storage Space for Overflow." Orlando Evening Star, Feb. 9, 1961, p. 7

"Campus Would Rather be 'Wright'." Miami Herald, Mar. 18, 1973, p. 231