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Orange County museum program traces rise, reinvention and legacy of Cypress Gardens
Summary
At a lunchtime talk, Jeremy Heilman of the Orange County Regional History Center surveyed Cypress Gardens’ history—from its 1930s founding and iconic water-ski shows to ownership changes, the 2003 closure and the site’s later redevelopment as LEGOLAND—highlighting preserved botanical features and archival holdings on display.
Jeremy Heilman, assistant curator of collections at the Orange County Regional History Center, told a lunchtime audience the story of Cypress Gardens, the winter-season attraction in Winter Haven that helped define Florida tourism for decades.
Heilman said the attraction traces to the Pope family and early promotion work that combined horticulture with showmanship. He described how the gardens grew into an extensive botanical collection—“it would eventually grow to 200 acres and nearly 8,000 different types of plants,” Heilman said—paired with water-ski exhibitions that became the park’s most recognizable draw.
The lecture reviewed varying dates tied to the park’s opening: Heilman cited a January 24, 1935 dedication, a March 1935 ribbon-cutting, a…
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