Nine Decades on Main Street
From a living-room gathering in 1917 to a beloved Winter Park fixture today — here's how the Shop came to be.
The Winter Park Welfare Association is formed to coordinate community aid, founded by Mrs. Charles Morse.
Mrs. Edward Spurr of the Woman's Club of Winter Park proposes a shop selling donated used clothing at reasonable prices. The Benefit Shop is born, soon supplying clothing, food, and medical devices identified by state welfare workers.
The Shop helps establish a local health clinic at Winter Park Elementary School and Winter Park's first employment agency.
After years in borrowed, temporary spaces, a White Elephant Sale and Buy-A-Brick campaign fund a permanent home at 151 W. Lyman Street, built in 12 weeks, on plans donated by architect James Gamble Rogers.
The Benefit Shop formally incorporates.
An agreement deeds the Lyman Street land back to the City of Winter Park; the Shop continues operating as long as its civic work continues.
The City relocates the Shop into the former City Jail building, where it operates for the next two decades.
A lease expiration threatens closure. The community rallies; the City Commission approves a new 5-year lease and moves the Shop to Lake Island Hall.
Grand opening of the expanded, ~2,000 sq. ft. Benefit Shop at 450 Harper Street.