Casa Feliz Historic Home Museum — Attraction in Winter Park

Casa Feliz is Spanish for Happy House. Known as the Barbour Estate, architect James Gamble Rogers II designed the home for Massachusetts industrialist Robert Bruce Barbour in 1932. Rogers was given free rein to creat what he liked.. Barbour told Rogers to make it "any way you like. If I don't like it, I'll sell it." so he designed it to look like an old farmhouse. Built on the shores of lake Osceola during the Great Depression, the house was designed in an Adalusian style at a cost of $28,000. To make the house looked weathered he used old roof tiles and created a crumbling archway on purpose. The result was a house that was beloved by the residents of Winter Park for the next 70 years.

In 2000 a local doctor purchased the property and planned to tear down the house because it was too small for him. With the house in danger of demolition, the Winter Park community rallied together to save it. The fate of the house was so dire that wrecking balls had actually struck the corners of the house before demolition was halted. The house was moved from the lake to it's present location 300 yards away on the Winter Park Golf Course. Copies of Rogers' original drawings and interior photographs taken in the 1930s by Harold Haliday Costain were used to restore the house to how it looked in the 1930's.

Today the house is a museum and is used as a wedding venue and for private events. You can tour the house for free as I did with my daughter on my most recent trip to Winter Park. The wood work inside the house is exquisite. Interesting to me was the fact that the house has a basement which is something you never see in Florida homes. The house is a treasure and thankfully it has been restored which was not the case for 15 percent of the other 129 historically significant buildings recognized the year Casa Feliz was saved. They have since been destroyed. As James Gamble Rogers II granddaughter Joy Wallace Dickinson has stated "People like to be surrounded by the feeling of history. But they don't want to have to deal with small bathrooms." As real estate and developing pressure increase more homes will fall, ruining the character of what attracted people to the area in the...

My great grandfather is James Gamble Rogers, the brilliant architect behind this house. My family fought to save this house from demolition decades ago, and the last minute discovery of a protected bald eagle's nest delayed the project enough for it to be saved and moved to its current location on Park Ave. My mother was executive director here most of my childhood, and my brother and I spent many afternoons here growing up while she worked, exploring and collecting lost golf balls. In high school, my mother and I attended weekly yoga in the garden room - an experience so beautiful and unique it ruined yoga at normal places for me!

From the moment you walk in, the home feels safe and soulful, almost like stepping away from the "real" world and into a fantastical oasis. This house is not only utterly stunning and full of rich history, but a place that has, as its name suggests, brought joy and fond memories to many people. It is central to my family history as well as my own history. It's a story I tell often and with pride. The beauty and warmth of this home is unsurpassed in Central Florida. If you choose Casa Feliz for your event, you and your guests will not be...

Casa Feliz or "Happy House," was the signature work of Winter Park architect James Gamble Rogers II. In 1932. Massachusetts industrialist Robert Bruce Barbour commissioned Rogers to design a home on the shore of Lake Osceola with the promise, "Design it any way you like. If I don't like it, I'll sell it." Rogers called the commission a "dream come true." Built during the Great Depression at a cost of $28,000, the Barbour estate became Rogers all-consuming project. He drafted plans on site, rolling up his sleeves to assist with carpentry and masonry. Barbour loved the Andalusian-style masonry farmhouse, which stood as crown jewel in the "City of Homes" for the next 70 years. The property faced demolition in 2000, but the community rallied around the house. They raised more than $1.2 million to save and restore the building. The 750-ton structure was moved across Interlachen Avenue to its present location, requiring 20 pneumatically leveled dollies. With the aid of copies of Rogers' drawings and interior photographs taken in the 1930s, dozens of craftsmen and artisans restored the house to its original...