The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art , Winter Park


The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art – Ocean Florida

Originally uploaded by Ocean Florida

The massive cross-shaped “electrolier” in Tiffany’s chapel is one of its most powerful elements. Weighing approximately 1,000 pounds and measuring 10 feet in height, this lighting fixture is comprised of cast metal and green turtleback glass. This reconstructed chapel was featured at the 1893 World’s Fair Exibition. This is only one of the magnificiant exhibits awaiting your visit!

Thurston House Times – New Art!

The Maitland Art Center has just opened a new exhibit – Concrete Realities: Andre Smith Sculpture. Stay at Thurston House, take a short stroll over to the museum and celebrate the sculpture that is residing in the gallery and surrounding grounds….very special & unique!

Andre Smith Art Sculpture

Thurston House Times – Holidays at the Waterhouse!

From November 19th to January 10th, the Waterhouse Residence Museum will be dressed in Victorian Christmas splendor. Tours are available from noon-4pm on Thursdays thru Sundays, excepting major holidays. Night tours will also be offered from 6-8pm, December 3, 10 & 17.  Be on the lookout for the Waterhouse mouse!  This museum is just minutes from Thurston House  bed & breakfast. “Twas the Night Before Christmas and All Through the House, Not a Creature Was Stirring…Except the Waterhouse Mouse!”

Waterhouse mouse

Waterhouse mouse

North Orlando – Goldsboro?

We have a very active Maitland Historical Society and they are always offering wonderful exhibits and lectures. I just attended a very interesting lecture and viewed a documentary about the historic town of Goldsboro. It is an African American community that is part of Sanford,  just to the north of us. This documentary was done by Valada Flewellen, VP of the Sanford Historical Society and University of Central Florida students involved in the Zora Neale Hurston Institute for  Documentary Studies College of Arts & Humanities.  Zora Neale Hurston had a very strong link with my area, especially Eatonville, and also the area of Goldsboro and Sanford. All very interesting connections!

Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston

Morse Museum of American Art Makes Big Announcement!


The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art announced plans to build a 10,000 square-foot addition! The new space would house most of its holdings of objects and architectural elements from Laurelton Hall, Louis Comfort Tiffany’s Long Island, N.Y., country estate. It would also include additional office space and triple the size of the outside courtyard garden to 4,450 square feet. Work should begin late this year and be completed by the spring of 2010.

The Daffodil Terrace from Laurelton Hall, measuring 32 feet by 18 feet, will be the architectural focal point of the addition. The recently restored terrace, supported by eight marble columns topped with bouquets of glass daffodils, has never been on view in Winter Park.

Laurelton Hall, built between 1902 and 1905 on Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, is thought to be Tiffany’s greatest work of art. The 84-room mansion was destroyed by fire in 1957. Surviving architectural elements and windows were salvaged by Hugh F. and Jeannette G. McKean are now part of the collections of the museum Jeannette McKean founded in Winter Park in 1942. This museum has always been and will continue to be a Winter Park treasure! The museum is just moments away by car from Thurston House, a Winter Park area bed & breakfast.

Images and Illustrations & Is That New?

A new exhibit opened 5/9 at the well known Maitland Art Center. It is a new collection of works by Rod Reeves featuring drawings of historic Winter Garden. The art center is a short and very pleasant stroll from Thurston House! Mark your calendars because coming August 1st is a short run exhibit that will highlight some of the new acquisitions and recent gifts to the center.

Veterans History Project

Do you know any veterans? Honor them by telling their war story to us all. The Library of Congress has begun this fascinating project, a way to protect war stories for all generations to come. They are looking for personal stories, memories, photos and letters. I recently finished putting together my Dad’s WWII story and submitted it to the library. It will take up to 6 months to finish but once everything is scanned it will be available for viewing by anyone for all time to come. My Dad died way too young and never told much about it so I am honored to do this in his memory. He was a hero! Do it now before it is too late!!!

I have talked it up to many guests here at Thurston House. One guest, a high school history teacher, even asked for a copy of two of my Dad’s letters, one written from a foxhole with bombs falling around him and the other an eight page letter written day by day during the liberation of Paris – amazing stories! He wants his class to learn the subject of WWII through the eyes and ears of a real person, this gentle boy from small town Massachusetts – Corporate Albert H. Webber, 196th Field Artillery.