TRT for Men in Zellwood, FL

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ZELLWOOD — Amy Colyer Frogley stood on the wide portico of Orange County’s newest addition to the National Register of Historic Places, a 41-room, 13-fireplace manor built over a century ago as a Pittsburgh steel tycoon’s winter retreat.

“Welcome to Sydonie Mansion,” she said, inviting a visitor for a rare tour to mark the recognition.

Frogley and her husband, Clark, a former FBI special agent, bought the 11-acre lakefront estate in 2014 for $1.5 million and have invested thousands more in a detailed restoration of the centerpiece home.

“I’m crazy, and he’s a little crazy, too,” she said when asked why.

Tucked away on a dirt road near Zellwood in northwest Orange, the estate, fashioned after a Spanish castle and designed by a trio of influential American architects, was built for John Laughlin Jr. of J&L Steel, who spared little expense. He called it Sydonie, his nickname for his wife, Sydney.

Construction began in 1895 and was completed nine years later.

The ivy-covered, 22,000-square-foot mansion had hot and cold running water, a power generator, an elevator that functions with ropes and pulleys; a bowling alley; and a basement pool called “The Plunge.”

The estate, once encompassing 500 acres, included a citrus grove, dairy farm and greenhouse in which the family cultivated rare palms and other exotic plants they brought back from their world travels. The mansion’s maintenance costs were estimated at $80,000 a year, a fortune back then.

“The Sydonie Mansion is one of Florida’s important historic treasures,” said Meredith Beatrice, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of State, which nominated the property for the national honor.

The recognition, announced this week, could make the property eligible for tax credits and federal preservation grants. Other Orange County properties on the list include the Lake Ivanhoe Historical District, the Jack Kerouac House in College Park and the Women’s Club of Winter Park.

Listing on the register doesn’t limit an owner’s property rights.

The Hampden DuBose Academy acquired the mansion on Dec. 31, 1942, using it as a boarding house for girls who attended the private interdenominational school. Some rooms were set aside for visitors, including the Rev. Billy Graham, whose daughter lived at Sydonie while attending the academy.

But Hampden DuBose became a day school in 1980 and stopped boarding students.

The mansion then “was virtually ignored” for 20 years, according to nominating documents.

A eucalyptus tree fell through the kitchen roof, and lawn care ceased.

The historic designation pleasantly surprised Richard and Carla Durante, who bought the slate and stucco mansion for $363,000 in 1998 and spent 16 years fixing what time and the Florida sun tried to ruin.

When they took possession, they found broken pipes, bugs and dust.

“We did everything we could so it could go on [the register] some day,” said Carla Durante, 84.

They considered transforming it into a bed and breakfast.

Richard Durante, who was a contractor and a carpenter, performed most of the repairs himself before age and failing health forced the couple to sell. “It got to the point it was just too much,” his wife said.

The Mount Dora couple was honored in 2006 by the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation, which noted “generations have the Durantes to thank for saving this American treasure from ruin … Without their efforts, it would have been bulldozed long ago.”

Many of Sydonie’s antiques were stolen or sold before the couple acquired it. Blue urns that had decorated the front porch were sold to singer Barbra Streisand. But the home still boasted enough flair and charm with its frescoed ceilings, crystal chandeliers and ornate tiles to host an occasional wedding.

“Sydonie’s just been hiding out,” said Frogley, who plans to offer public tours in December. She and her husband live there.

She’s also fighting modern development.

Frogley appealed to Orange County commissioners last month hoping to persuade the board to block a residential project on the other side of Lake Minore.

“You are making a massive mistake if you put nine cookie-cutter, itty-bitty houses across the lake from the oldest historic mansion in the state of Florida,” she said. She feared the development will bring boat docks and Jet skis to a place that has mostly been placid.

The board turned her down.

But commissioner Bryan Nelson, who praised efforts to revive Sydonie, offered to work toward a compromise for the project, which won initial approval from the county in 2005, nine years before the Frogleys bought Sydonie.

shudak@orlandosentinel.com or 407-650-6361

ZELLWOOD, Fla. – Hundreds of people in an Orange County neighborhood say their cable TV service has pixelated pictures and distorted audio during primetime hours.

Residents in Zellwood Station, a community in northwest Orange County for people ages 55 and older, say their homeowners association signed a multi-year contract with OpticalTel, complicating the situation.

Dennis Hites, who lives in the community, says they all have the same problem.

"You can't watch and the sound becomes distorted and off track," Hites said.

“Its just awful, just awful,” Brodsky said.

Three years ago, the Zellwood Station Homeowners Association notified residents that OpticalTel would be the service provider for the entire community.

The company started construction in the community and, a couple of months ago, started hooking up homes.

“Basically, it started the day they hooked it up,” Hites said.

Residents believe the company’s infrastructure can’t handle the number of homes in the community.

“The more people that turn their television on, the worse the pixelation becomes,” Hites said.

John Goller, who also lives in the community, agreed.

“It’s totally unwatchable from seven (o’clock) in the evening until 11 at night,” Goller said.

All of the residents are in their late 70s and early 80s and say TV is a big part of their day.

They also say they have complained to the company but have not gotten answers.

“They basically said, ‘Well, we’re working on it. We’re working on it.’” Hites said.

News 6 contacted the company and got a letter from their public relations team blaming "antiquated infrastructure" from the previous cable provider.

“Circumstances outside of our control, including but not limited to, road work prevalent in Central Florida, as well as third party approvals, have impacted the final completion,” the letter, signed OpticalTel Public Relations Team, read.

Elizabeth Lanham-Patrie, an attorney representing the HOA, also responded to News 6 and disputed that excuse.

“The timelines within the agreement were not contingent upon third-party approvals,” Lanham-Patrie wrote in the letter.

“OpticalTel contracted to run an all new fiber optic system throughout Zellwood Station, therefore, there was no reliance upon the older system,” Lanham-Patrie wrote.

The letter also shows that on Nov. 18, the association sent OpticalTel a letter demanding that they suspend further installation to other residences until OpticalTel fixed the service issue.

The association signed a multiyear year contract with the company.

OpticalTel started construction a year after the agreement was signed and later missed deadlines to fix the problem, according to Lanham-Patrie.

"The delay was not expected and not consistent with terms of the agreement." Lanham-Patrie wrote.

News 6 will follow continue following this story as it develops.

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“Tractors with balloon tires are plowing the black earth at Zellwin Farms, preparing the way for the first fall crop of fresh vegetables that will help feed much of the nation’s East Coast,” a Sentinel story began back in 1985.

“The fat tires allow the heavy machinery to glide across the farm’s 4,000 acres of muck, measuring as much as 15 feet deep in places,” the article continued.

Much of the farmland in the Zellwood area dated to the early 1940s, when the state built a levee along the north shore of Lake Apopka to drain 20,000 acres in an effort to increase agricultural production during World War II. The rich farmland became a source of pride, its bounty helping to feed the nation.

But fast-forward about a dozen years from the 1985 story, and many of the same farms were coming to an end as part of the state program to reclaim Lake Apopka, which had been transformed over decades from a pristine paradise into the state’s most polluted large lake.

Researchers were also discovering how the fertilizers and pesticides related to the farms had brought illness to farmworkers as well as pollution to Lake Apopka and its environment. It’s a big story from Central Florida’s past that affected many people in untold, personal ways. That includes the farmers and farmworkers.

An invitation to share memories

Now, 21 years after the state’s $20 million plan to buy the muck farms was signed into law in 1996, folks at the Zellwood Historical Society offer an opportunity to look back at the era of the farms and share memories at an April 27 program titled the Zellwood Muck Farmers’ Forum.

“We encourage people who were involved with farming on the Zellwood muck to attend and reminisce,” says Marjorie Grinnell of Tangerine, whose late father, Charles Grinnell Sr., farmed the muck land, as did her brother, Charlie Grinnell Jr.

It seemed like “a good time to bring together people who ‘lived’ the history of Zellwood farming,” says Grinnell. “We’d like to talk about the positive accomplishments achieved over the years by Zellwood’s agricultural community.”

The program offers an chance to hear the memories of farming folks such as Neil Stoothoff, whose father, Herbert Cornelius Stoothoff, started working for Zellwin Farms just a few months after Zellwin began business, says Grinnell.

Neil Stoothoff joined Zellwin in 1960 and stayed there 43 years, until the buyout; he recently brought to the Zellwood Historical Museum “a nice group of Zellwin pictures including one of his dad in ‘A-1,’ the first of Zellwin’s World War II Jeeps.”

“This once-in-a-lifetime program will bring together people with farming history to focus on events through the decades prior to the buyout,” says Grinnell — events and topics that include “the dehydration plant, the tornado, the dugouts and Timucuan artifact finds, muck fires, successes and disasters.”

Historical Society members have been collecting memories about folks such as Tillman F. Smith, who worked for the Zellwood Drainage District from 1945 through 1968 and dug, built, and cleaned most of the ditches on the farmland.

Smith’s son Ken Smith remembers going with his dad to check the drainage pumps on Sunday afternoons to make sure they didn’t run out of fuel, says Grinnell. “Ken Smith recalls a time when the muck caught on fire and they used the pumps to flood the farms, to put out the fire.”

Organizers plan to make a video of the event, as an important record of a significant piece of Zellwood’s history.

If you go

On Thursday, April 27, the Zellwood Historical Society, Museum, and Library, will host the Zellwood Muck Farmers’ Forum at 3160 Union St. Social time begins at 6:30 p.m., followed by the program at 7 p.m. The event is free and open to all.

Attendees are encouraged to bring photos and memorabilia related to farming in Zellwood. Details: Email Marjorie Grinnell at cyclegoddess1@gmail.com or call her at 352-383-9904 or 352-406-8236.

Joy Wallace Dickinson can be reached at jwdickinson@earthlink.net, FindingJoyinFlorida.com, or by good old-fashioned letter at the Sentinel, 633 N. Orange Ave., Orlando, FL 32801.

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The owner of a commercial nursery has won a $1.2 million judgment against the Florida Department of Agriculture in the latest verdict against the state agency for destroying citrus trees in the 2000s during an attempt to stop the spread of costly tree diseases.

A jury in Orlando last week determined the state agency had destroyed more than 160,000 citrus plants in an effort to stop citrus greening and Gary Mahon deserved the $1.2 million as compensation at fair market value. Mahon’s company, Pokey’s Lake Gem Citrus Nursery, cultivates fruit trees in Zellwood, Florida.

The Department of Agriculture had argued Mahon did not deserve compensation since he could have avoided his losses by moving his citrus plants into greenhouses. Mahon’s attorneys disputed that interpretation of the law.

In 2008, Florida lawmakers passed legislation requiring citrus plant growers to sell or destroy plants not grown in greenhouses to protect the state’s citrus industry from citrus greening. Citrus greening is among the biggest threats to the U.S. citrus industry since infected trees produce fruits that are green, misshapen and bitter. The disease can eventually kill infected trees, though it is harmless to humans.

“While the Florida Legislature and Department of Agriculture meant well by passing and enforcing this law, it had a catastrophic impact on citrus nursery growers,” said Alexander Clem, Mahon’s attorney. “Our client fought for years to get justice for the thousands-upon-thousands of plants he was forced to destroy, and we are thrilled he will be compensated and can move on with his life.”

In a statement, the Department of Agriculture said Wednesday that it would appeal the case.

“This case has been long fought by our department, and our position has not changed: the damage to Mr. Mahon’s citrus crop was a direct result of his failure to come into compliance with state regulations,” the statement said.

In the past two decades, Florida’s citrus industry has been threatened with greening and another disease called citrus canker. Citrus canker can cause the leaves and fruit on citrus trees to drop prematurely and create unappealing lesions on the fruit. The lesions leak bacterial cells that can spread to other trees by wind, rain or contaminated equipment, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

With both diseases, state agriculture workers destroyed citrus trees in an effort to stop their destructive spread.

Earlier this year, about 18,000 homeowners in Orange County, home to Orlando, won a judgement of $42 million against the state for destroying their citrus trees.

Tens of thousands of homeowners in Broward, Lee and Palm Beach counties also have won class action lawsuits against the state over their destroyed trees, and compensations varied by county. A case in Miami-Dade County is still pending.

Copyright 2022 WWSB. All rights reserved.

Anuvia Plant Nutrients has entered into a long-term strategic relationship with The Mosaic Company to help meet the increased demand for its biobased sustainable and environmentally friendly plant nutrients.

The companies have signed a long-term lease arrangement which provides significant benefits to both parties and the surrounding community. Anuvia will utilize a portion of Mosaic’s shuttered Plant City phosphate production facility and repurpose existing infrastructure to increase its production capacity to up to 1.2 million tons. Currently, Anuvia’s Zellwood facility produces 80,000 tons annually.

In addition, as production increases, the company plans to add approximately 135 new employees with an average salary of $70,000. It will be the Zellwood-based company’s second Florida location and is expected to be operational by the second quarter of 2020.

This expansion is in response to increased demand for Anuvia’s biobased sustainable and environmentally friendly plant nutrients. “In the three years since the Zellwood plant went online, the market has been receptive to our products and its unique benefits,” says Anuvia Plant Nutrients CEO Amy Yoder. “And now in response to the increased demand, we are increasing our production capacity. It is gratifying that farmers are realizing the performance and environmental benefits Anuvia products bring to crop production.”

“Mosaic has been looking to partner with successful, innovative companies and this arrangement which includes an equity position is an excellent fit for us,” says Walt Precourt, Mosaic Senior Vice President, Strategy and Growth. “Both companies are committed to operating safely and sustainably while providing customers with high-quality crop nutrient solutions. We look forward to exploring opportunities to further expand our relationship.”

In agriculture, Anuvia products stand out because of their ability to help farmers increase productivity as well as the far-reaching environmental benefits which include improving soil quality, reducing nutrient loss and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Research and extensive use indicates a positive yield increase which allows farmers to produce more food in a less intensive manner. Anuvia’s innovative products address a key issue of our time—how to meet future food demand in a sustainable way.

Their products offer benefits for both end-users and the planet with little to no barriers to implementation. Anuvia’s plant nutrients products are a plug-and-play technology primed for fast adoption. Their products work within current user practices and technologies, making their use a turnkey part of achieving sustainable goals.

Anuvia's products include SymTRX™ for the agricultural sector, GreenTRX™ for the turf industry and ANUGREEN for the consumer residential lawn market.

Anuvia Plant Nutrients manufactures high-efficiency, sustainable bio-based fertilizers for the agriculture, turf and lawn care industries. Located in Zellwood, Fla., the company developed and uses a unique technology that not only optimizes nutrient availability and efficiency for plants but also improves soil health, preserves natural resources and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Anuvia is committed to offering easily-adoptable, profitable and sustainable solutions to customers, their communities and global agriculture. This commitment recently earned Anuvia an honorable mention in the food category of Fast Company’s 2019 World-Changing Ideas Award. Learn More about Anuvia Plant Nutrients – GreenTRX for Turf and Lawn, SymTRX for Agriculture, visit www.anuviaplantnutrients.com.

The Mosaic Company is one of the world's leading producers and marketers of concentrated phosphate and potash crop nutrients. Mosaic is a single-source provider of phosphate and potash fertilizers and feed ingredients for the global agriculture industry. More information on the company is available at www.mosaicco.com.

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Anuvia Plant Nutrients

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