Oliver Everett Chapman (1851-1936)

Co-Founder of Winter Park

Oliver E. Chapman was one of the original founding fathers of the city of Winter Park, Florida along with Loring A. Chase. Chapman was born in Canton, Massachusetts but was a resident of Sharon, Massachusetts for much of his later life.  Chapman grew up in Canton where he attended school until he was sixteen.[1] After his education, he worked in both Boston and Chicago in a wholesale house where he imported luxury goods.[2] Chapman returned to Canton five years later to work as a bookkeeper and paymaster for a company that manufactured print cloths. Illness in his family caused Chapman to relocate to Florida in 1880. He moved to a small settlement just outside of Sanford, Florida known as Sorrento. It was here that he met up with his old friend, Loring A. Chase, who had moved to Florida from Canton to treat his own illness.[3]

Chapman and Chase soon decided to form a company together and invested in real estate. In partnership, they acquired over 600 acres of land around Lake Maitland and Osceola. Since Chase credited the mild weather in Orange County with improving his health, he believed that the region could be an idea winter community.[4] In July of 1881 the two men received the first deed and quickly got to work surveying the land to plot a town. They named this town Winter Park owing to that fact that it was designed to be a winter community.[5]  Oliver E. Chapman built one of the first houses in Winter Park in 1882 alongside Lake Osceola on what is currently Interlachen Avenue. Chapman worked hard to develop the community, even taking on the role of Winter Park’s first Postmaster on April 5, 1882.[6] For the next four years, Chapman continued to work as land developer in Winter Park until 1885.  His failing health led to a doctor’s recommendation that he returned to Massachusetts. Chapman sold his half of the Winter Park Land Company to Chase for $40,000 in 1885, and moved back to Massachusetts, eventually settling in the Sharon.[7]  Chapman's health improved and he returned to business having success in textile and street railway business before he died from a heart attack in 1936.[8]

By the time Chapman sold his half of the Winter Park Land Company, the company itself was worth over $300,000. In 1885 the Winter Park Company was chartered by legislature to continue with business.[9] Chapman and Chase agreed to donate land for Rollins College whenever it was necessary.[10]According to Chapman, “The starting of Winter Park was probably the most important event in my life”[11]