From The Archives

Situated on a corner lot with private parking and detached carriage house. Examples of a few of the exterior architectural details include: grandiose Ionic columns that support a two-story portico, a full length covered veranda graces the center entrance that is adorned with fanlight and sidelights, expansive second floor balcony, keystones that mark the window openings, a symmetrical façade, hip roof, boxed cornice and frieze band. Craftsmanship details include interior grand foyer which leads to a restored wood central staircase with custom spindles, 6/6-light double hung sash windows that provide natural interior lighting, beautifully finished oak flooring, extensive use of matching crown molding and 10” base molding, two-story sun parlor and French doors that flank the original brick fireplace.

The house has ties to two pioneering Osceola County families: Grace Winn and Henry Nelson Makinson who had it custom built to recreate the Winn family home in Memphis, Tennessee. In the year 1883, Williams Burroughs Makinson came to Kissimmee from Maryland at the age of 20. He traveled by boat to Jacksonville, then by train to Sanford and finally rode the first run of the train from Sanford to Kissimmee. W.B. donated the land that houses the present Kissimmee Railroad station in anticipation of Kissimmee’s future growth and development. One year after arriving in Kissimmee, W.B. and a friend founded a hardware store called Makinson-Katz. This store has established itself as being the oldest retail hardware store in the state of Florida and is still operating as such today. Alfred Winn and his brother owned and operated a lumber mill in Winston Florida, with his wife Bertha, prior to coming to Kissimmee where they established an indispensable ice plant on the site of Kissimmee’s old power plant.

Kissimmee is located in Central Florida in close proximity to Disney World, Theme Parks, NASA Space Center, Port Canaveral and the pristine beaches of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.