Webster-Wagner Home

The craftsman-style Webster-Wagner home at 433 E. New England Avenue was built in 1905 by Albert Wagner from Pennsylvania as a winter residence for his family, as well as for the families of his two sisters-in-law, Jean Wallace Webster and Katherine Wallace Bradshaw. Square in its shape, the original home was constructed of pine with clapboard siding; typical of Florida architecture at the time, it also boasted a wrap-around open porch. It contained five bedrooms and two baths. In the 1930's, a retired Episcopalian bishop, Bishop Matthews, purchased the home and enlarged it, adding a wood-paneled library, a chapel with stained glass windows, servants' quarters, a sun-room, and a sleeping porch. The Webster-Wagner home bordering Lake Osceola now has fourteen rooms - five bedrooms and four and one-half baths - and a three-room guest house.

This article was written by former archivist, Barbara White, MLIS.