Pine Castle festival returns in spirit of old-fashioned fun
“I find it hard to realize that this is February,” journalist Will Wallace Harney wrote from his lakeside Central Florida home to Ohio readers in 1875. He went on to describe flowers blooming in 70-degree weather.
Harney’s home — the “Pine Castle” on Lake Conway — was one of the most visible landmarks in a Central Florida that was then mostly scrubby woods and cattle range. In 1870, Orange County’s population was only about 2,000. By 1880, it had tripled (and doubled again by 1885), fueled by railroads and, perhaps, by Harney’s descriptions of Florida’s charms. No wonder he’s been called a one-man Chamber of Commerce.
Once again, to celebrate the historic area Harney pioneered, the Pine Castle Pioneer Days festival returns Feb. 23-24 to Orange County’s Cypress Grove Park.
This year’s theme is “Old-Fashioned Fun,” says William “Billy” Morgan, a longtime organizer of the event, which began in the 1970s. The “signature artist” for this year’s event, photographer Rob Matheson, “supplied us with a great image of pioneer descendants in period attire, playing an intense game of marbles,” says Morgan; the “honorary pioneer” is Don Price, former sexton of Orlando’s Greenwood Cemetery, who will be recognized at the opening ceremonies.
In Harney’s time
Morgan’s own family ties to the Pine Castle area go back to the 1840s — amazingly early for Central Florida. The 1840 census found just 73 civilians living in our part of what was then Mosquito County. Harney came to the area about 30 years later, when he was about 37, following the lead of his father-in-law, William Randolph. Harney, a former teacher and editor of the Louisville Democrat, had married Mary Randolph in 1868.
The couple and their baby son journeyed to Florida in 1869 in hopes that the warm climate would restore Mary’s frail health, but sadly, she died in 1870, leaving Will Harney to raise their son and also a young nephew on the pine-and-palmetto frontier.
He made his living writing for the Cincinnati Commercial as well as other newspapers and national magazines. In 1873, he built the house he called his Pine Castle; by 1874, he was putting that dateline on his articles.
Soon, the community that grew up around the Harney home adopted the name. In 1881, the South Florida Railroad extended its tracks from Orlando through Pine Castle on the railroad’s way to Kissimmee and Tampa.
If you go
Hours for Pine Castle Pioneer Days, Feb. 23–24, are 10 a.m.– 4 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.– 3 p.m. Sunday, but the event kicks off earlier Saturday, at 9 a.m., with a classic-car cruise from Van Barry’s on South Orange Avenue to Cypress Grove Park, 290 W. Holden Ave., Orlando. Also, before the gates open Sunday, a “sunrise” service takes place at 9 a.m., featuring “circuitriding” preachers. Opening ceremonies are will be Saturday at 10:30 a.m.
The program includes living-history enactments, a hayride, a pioneercooking demonstration, plus plenty of activities for kids, arts-and-crafts booths and displays by community organizations.
Admission of $5 for adults, $3 for children, includes a collectible magazine (parking is free). Pets are welcome, Morgan notes, as long as they’re on a leash or held by human companions. For more information, call 407-427-9692 or visit PineCastlePioneerDays.org.
To learn more
In 2010, Morgan published “A Pine Castle Anthology: The Collected Writings of Will Wallace Harney,” a 724-page anthology that made Harney’s writings much more available to researchers, and in 2014 the Pine Castle Historical Society published “Dateline: Pine Castle Stories of Orange County, 1870-1890, as reported by Will Wallace Harney,” by historian Paul W. Wehr.
Morgan’s anthology is available at Amazon.com (or write PineCastlePioneerDays@hotmail.com). For information about Pine Castle Historical Society publications, email pinecastlehistory@gmail.com.
Joy Wallace Dickinson can be reached at jwdickinson@earthlink.net, FindingJoyinFlorida.com, or by good old-fashioned letter at the Sentinel, 633 N. Orange Ave., Orlando, FL 32801.