On Dec. 30, 1935, a small wire story ran inside the Orlando Sentinel with the headline, “Cypress Gardens opened.”
“State Sen. S.L. Holland of Bartow was principal speaker at the formal opening of the Florida Cypress Gardens scenic project at Lake Eloise,” it said.
That humble start led to a 70-plus-year run for Winter Haven’s Cypress Gardens, which has been called Florida’s first theme park.
Its theme, Sentinel writer Joy Wallace Dickinson noted in 2009, was Florida itself. “Its role in promoting the state shouldn’t be underestimated,” she said.
As an example, here’s how a 1937 story in the Sentinel described Cypress Gardens as “one of Florida’s real beauty spots.”
“In the Lake Region of Central Florida, among the hills and orange groves, a most remarkable beauty spot, one that is fast developing into a national attraction, has been built within the past two years. The name of this is the Florida Cypress Gardens and it represents a dream conceived some eight or ten years ago by Richard D. Pope of Winter Haven.
“…Today, the Florida Cypress Gardens is advertised over the state to such an extent that a hundred thousand people will visit this natural wonderland during this coming season.
The Southern Belles at Cypress Gardens. The Veranda in the background is made from a World War II satellite dish and the pillars are from an Ybor City Cigar factory. (Sentinel file)
“…After a purchase of a ticket to go thru the Gardens (35 cents is being charged this year), a wide pathway of pecky cypress blocks winds down the hillside of perfect lawn to the edge of large Lake Eloise, some two and a half miles across, and here a grove cypress is growing out of the water. Many say this one scene of these weird but magnificent centuries-old trees is worth the trip they have made.”
As its reputation grew nationally and its attendance grew, Cypress Gardens became a favorite spot for photographers – amateurs and professionals. In 1947, the park’s gift shop was the world’s highest-grossing retail outlet for Kodak film.
A story in the Sentinel on Christmas Day 1950 noted, “while nearly all the visitors come with cameras, few of them realize that they are in one of the world’s busiest outdoor color studios where movies, television, advertising illustrations and many other phases of pictorial art are consummated.”
While its beautiful gardens, amazing waterski shows, pretty Aqua-Maids and charming Southern Belles in their “crinoline costumes of the old South” were popular for decades, it became harder and harder to compete for visitors once Disney World, Sea World and other attractions arrived.
The Pope family would sell Cypress Gardens to Orlando-based publisher Harcourt Brace Jovanovich in 1985 for $23 million. Busch Entertainment would by the park from HBJ four years later. New ownership could not not solve the same old attendance problems.
Shortly after after Universal Orlando opened, Cypress Gardens had to lay off 22% of its workforce in 1991 because of declining attendance. In April 2003, the park would close but then relaunch itself as Cypress Gardens Adventure Park on Nov. 26, 2004. New owners and the addition of 38 rides including four roller coasters and an ice-skating show still couldn’t draw the crowds needed to sustain it.
Cypress Gardens would close for good in 2009. The site today is home to Legoland Florida Resort, which includes nods to its historic predecessor.
A Lego Belle sculpture, in the tradition of the Cypress Garden Southern Belles, is featured during a media preview for Legoland in September 28, 2011. (Sentinel file)
Many Floridians still have fond memories of the state’s first theme park. “For years it was the place to be and be seen. Miss Floridas and Miss Americas made it one of the first stops on their victory tours. Elvis Presley visited. Swimming star Ester Williams made a move there,” the Sentinel noted.
Dickinson wrote that Pope claimed that Cypress Gardens had hosted at least 10 kings, some of whom were taught to waterski. Among them was the Shah of Iran, which inspired Pope to say, “There’s no business like shah business.”
For more stories from the Orlando Sentinel’s celebration of its 150th birthday, go to OrlandoSentinel.com/150
