The 1890 Windermere Schoolhouse: Touring Orange County's Last One-Room School
A 16-by-22-foot pine cabin on West 7th Avenue is the oldest surviving schoolhouse in Orange County — and yes, you can tour it
The 1890 Windermere Schoolhouse, also known as the Armstrong-Parramore House, is the only surviving one-room schoolhouse in Orange County, FL and the earliest remaining structure in the Town of Windermere. Located at 113 W. 7th Avenue, the 16-by-22-foot frame vernacular building was constructed from locally milled Florida long leaf pine and served as a school from 1887 until 1916. The Town of Windermere brands the building as the "1887 Schoolhouse" based on Orange County teacher records, while the National Register of Historic Places lists it as the "1890 Windermere School" after adding it to the registry on June 5, 2003. Tours are arranged by the Windermere Historic Preservation Board for schools and community groups.
Drive through Windermere checking out the lakefronts and you'll pass a small wooden building on West 7th Avenue that looks like it belongs in a Florida history textbook. That's because it basically does. The 1890 Windermere Schoolhouse — a 16-by-22-foot pine building still sitting on its original plot beside a citrus grove, within eyeshot of Lake Butler — is the oldest surviving schoolhouse in Orange County. And it's still standing because the town literally voted to keep it where it is.
We tend to associate Central Florida "local history" with Walt Disney planting a flag in the swamp in the 1960s. But Windermere, Gotha, and the surrounding citrus country were quietly running schools and packing houses nearly a century before Mickey showed up. This schoolhouse is the most tangible piece of that era you can actually walk into.
Wait — Is It the 1887 or 1890 Schoolhouse?
You'll see both dates on signs, articles, and the National Register. Same building, both dates defensible.
The Town of Windermere officially calls it the 1887 Schoolhouse, based on Orange County Record of Teachers documents showing Miss L.E. Davis teaching at "#75 School House Lake" during the 1887–88 school year. The National Register of Historic Places lists it as the 1890 Windermere School (NRIS #03000509), reflecting the date on its federal registry filing from June 5, 2003. You may also hear it called the Armstrong-Parramore House — the name the National Register uses because the Armstrong family lived there from 1918 onward after it stopped serving as a school.
What You're Actually Looking At
The building is almost aggressively simple, and that's the point. It's a 16-by-22-foot, front-gable, frame vernacular, one-story structure with a metal roof, built communally from heart-of-pine timber cut and milled by L.J. Griffin at the local sawmill.
A few details worth noticing when you tour it: the original hand-dug well near the front door, the adjacent citrus grove (original heritage stock, not a replanting), a 1930s WPA outhouse in the back — a New Deal-era Works Progress Administration artifact in its own right — and the restored interior with its rough plank seats and black-painted wallboard chalkboard.
In the classroom's heyday, teacher Maude Adams earned $22 per month to educate 22 pupils across grades K–12 — children of local citrus grove owners and workers. The math works out to about a dollar per student per month.
A Building That Wore Many Hats
This place was the civic center of Windermere before Windermere officially existed as a town. The Windermere Improvement Co. didn't start formally developing the town until the 1910s, but the building was already here doing the work of a community.
Between 1887 and the early 20th century, the same four walls served as schoolhouse (through 1916, when a larger school opened at Main and 6th), headquarters for the local Board of Trade, a Women's Club meeting hall, Union Church, polling place, and general social hall. After the community-center era wound down around 1923, Lloyd and Minnie Armstrong moved in and raised nine children there. Lloyd worked the Chase citrus groves and packed fruit at the Chase packing house. In 1995, their daughter Eunice Armstrong-Parramore and her husband Manuel "Perry" Parramore deeded the building back to the Town of Windermere, and the Armstrong additions were removed to restore the original schoolhouse form.
How It Almost Got Moved (And Why It's Still Here)
In 2011, Windermere's town government floated a plan to move the schoolhouse. For a historic building, getting moved is a big deal — once a structure leaves its original site, it loses a significant chunk of its historic integrity and can be removed from registry listings. Residents organized fast. On January 31, 2012, a town charter amendment passed overwhelmingly, legally protecting the schoolhouse in its original location. The Florida historical marker (F-867) was erected in 2015 to formally commemorate it as a Florida Heritage Site.
Visiting: What to Know Before You Go
Address: 113 W. 7th Avenue, Windermere, FL 34786 (corner of W. 7th and Main Street, just off Parramore Park).
Exterior access: The building sits on three undeveloped, wooded lots in the heart of downtown Windermere. You can walk the grounds, read the historical marker, and see the hand-dug well and citrus grove anytime during daylight. The building itself stays locked when tours aren't happening.
Interior tours: The Windermere Historic Preservation Board coordinates tours, typically for school groups, civic organizations, and scheduled events rather than a regular drop-in schedule. To arrange one, reach out through the Town of Windermere's website. Tours run about 30 minutes and include the restored classroom interior.
Getting there: From Gotha, about 5 minutes north on Hempel Avenue. From Dr. Phillips, 10–12 minutes via Apopka-Vineland Road. From Horizon West, 12–15 minutes via Winter Garden-Vineland Road. From Downtown Orlando, roughly 25 minutes via the 408 and Conroy Road. Street parking along Main and W. 7th.
For nearby cultural stops to pair with a schoolhouse visit, our Gotha Arts & Culture hub and Dr. Phillips Arts & Culture hub are good starting points.
Why Relocators Should Care
If you're weighing a move to Windermere, Gotha, or Ocoee, this building is a useful data point about how these towns think about themselves. Windermere passed a charter amendment to protect a 140-year-old schoolhouse in place — and you'll see that same instinct in how the town regulates tree canopy, lakefront setbacks, and new construction.
If you value walkable historic downtowns within reach of major employment centers, the Windermere-Gotha corridor is a short list. You can live near a preserved citrus grove and still be 15 minutes from Disney or 25 minutes from downtown. For more on the area's historic character and connected landscape, check our features on The West Orange Trail and the Maitland Art & History Museum.
What the Locals Know
- The schoolhouse is walkable to downtown Windermere's lakefront restaurants and shops — pair it with Parramore Park and lunch for a full half-day outing.
- Fall and spring are best. The building has no air conditioning (it wouldn't be period-accurate), and Central Florida summers inside a closed pine structure are exactly what you'd imagine.
- If you have school-age kids, the Preservation Board has actively worked with Orange County Public Schools on educational group tours.
- The citrus grove on the property is genuinely original heritage stock — one of the last actual pieces of turn-of-the-century Windermere orange grove still in its original ground.
For current tour availability, preservation updates, and contact information for the Windermere Historic Preservation Board, visit the 1887 Schoolhouse page on the Town of Windermere's official website.
Curious about living in Windermere, Gotha, or the historic citrus communities of southwest Orange County? Browse our Windermere homes for sale or contact us for personalized relocation advice on the area's most preservation-minded neighborhoods!
