Picturesque Genius Drive, famed for its beautiful plantings and strutting peacocks, was an oasis of calm in a busy town
By Gayle and Steve Rajtar
January 2010

Early settlers arriving in what would become Winter Park in the 1880s were enchanted by its natural beauty. As the town grew, they preserved as much of the beautiful wilderness as possible by incorporating parks into their plans. Nearly 50 years later one man envisioned a peaceful refuge not far from the heart of the city – his dream became Genius Drive.

By 1904, Chicago industrialist and philanthropist Charles Hosmer Morse had become Winter Park’s largest landowner, buying property for investment as well as for personal use. Upon his retirement in 1915, his winter home in Winter Park became his primary residence. Morse, who wanted the town to retain the charm and grace that had first attracted him, donated land for Central Park and insisted it be used permanently as a public park. He felt the character of the town was much more important than potential profits.

In 1920, Morse bought land along the shores of Lakes Mizell, Berry and Virginia that had been settled by David Mizell in 1858. The settlement, first known as Lake View and renamed Osceola in 1870, was included within the original town limits of Winter Park. Morse kept nearly 200 acres undeveloped to provide a refuge from the hustle and bustle of the growing city. According to the Genius Reserve Guide Book, he “understood the therapeutic value of nature to humans – that it can provide a sanitary experience that will restore and inspire the observer; that it offers a valuable escape from the push of urban existence.” A dirt road was built along the southern half of the Lake Mizell shoreline that included intentional twists and turns designed to prolong the experience for visitors.

To add to the ambience, Morse planted citrus groves, azaleas and other flowering trees and ornamental shrubs. When he died the following year in 1921, a friend sent a note to his daughter, Elizabeth, praising her father and stating, “He had a character that will be an inspiration to his children, his grandchildren, and his great-grandchildren for years to come.” Thanks to his daughter and his granddaughter, Jeannette, his legacy continued.

Jeannette was born in 1909 in Chicago, the second child of art lovers Elizabeth Morse and Richard Genius, and she grew up in a refined, artistic atmosphere. Elizabeth was an amateur painter and avid art collector, and she had a great influence on her daughter. Jeannette began her education in private schools in Chicago and Massachusetts and then studied art and interior design in New York. She was on her way to becoming a respected artist, and her work was later featured in museums in New York, New Hampshire, Ohio, Switzerland and France.

In Her Father’s Footsteps

In 1926 Jeannette enrolled in the summer session at Rollins College. She had visited Winter Park as a child and had indelible memories of time spent with her grandfather at Osceola Lodge, the home he had renovated. Jeannette chose to follow in his footsteps, giving back to the community she loved, and she became a member of the Rollins College Board of Trustees in 1936. That same year her family finished building Wind Song, a Spanish Renaissance-style home designed by James Gamble Rogers II on the shore of Lake Virginia across from Rollins. The house was on the winding dirt road that the family had named Genius Drive in honor of Elizabeth, who died in 1928.

The Winter Park Land Co. managed the nearly two-mile long road, and Jeannette became the company’s president in 1941. A gardening staff of about a dozen was employed, and the road was open to the public. Visitors who drove along the picturesque dirt road where trees formed a natural canopy had a view of Winter Park that was much the same as that of the first settlers.

The entrance to Genius Drive was easily reached from Osceola Avenue by going south on Henkel Circle – a distance of just a few blocks but a world away from the paved streets of the city with its traffic and rows of homes. Plant enthusiasts came to see the tall grandiflora magnolias, wild lantanas, red and purple bougainvilleas, as well as scarlet hibiscus, red calliandra and a citrus grove. For many years, the area supervisor was Harold A. Ward, who lived on the property with his family in a large wooden home surrounded by orange trees.

The Peacocks Arrive

Native plants were emphasized, but the colorful trees and shrubs added by Morse enhanced the beauty of Genius Drive. Native wildlife was abundant and included gopher tortoises, white-tailed deer, foxes, raccoons, river otters, marsh rabbits and alligators. Bird lovers arrived to observe bald eagles, cooters, red-shouldered and red-tailed hawks, ospreys, barred owls and many other winged species. But Genius Drive earned most of its reputation in the latter part of the century for its peacock population, its most famous transplant.

Visitors came from quite a distance to see more than 100 colorful peacocks that freely wandered the area. The birds were descendants of those brought to Winter Park by Jeannette and her husband, Hugh McKean. Hugh was an artist and an art professor at Rollins and married Jeannette on June 28, 1945. The future Rollins president had become interested in the birds while on a trip to Asia and had them imported to Winter Park in 1950. The McKeans planned to have them live in their front yard along Interlachen Avenue but soon realized how noisy peacocks could be.  To maintain peace and quiet in their neighborhood, the peacocks were moved to Genius Drive.

Jeannette and Hugh followed the peacocks the following year when they inherited and moved into Wind Song, also known as Villa Genius, where Jeannette continued her efforts to protect her grandfather’s vision. She was honored with an award from Holiday magazine, which praised her for “protecting the special personality of the town…creating gardens and a wildlife sanctuary…and for resisting commercial encroachment.” Jeannette and Hugh paid further tribute to Morse in 1942 when they opened Morse Gallery of Art, now the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art.

Beginning in 1981, the McKeans limited access to Genius Drive, allowing the public to visit only on Sundays. Peacocks had been injured and orange trees had been damaged. Despite rabies warnings, visitors fed animals by hand. Hundreds of cars crowded the road, encouraged by guidebooks listing it as one of the best places to visit in Winter Park.

Genuis Drive was closed to the public in 1987 because of increased concerns over vandalism and liability. The move was intended to be temporary, but Hugh expressed concern at the time that they “would probably need an endless number of guards” for security that would not only be costly, but would also spoil the appearance of its natural beauty. Genius Drive was permanently closed to the public in the 1990s.

According to Hugh, it was Jeannette’s wish to preserve the land her grandfather had set aside. “She feels that if the remaining natural land is broken up, everybody in Winter Park will suffer some.” Jeannette died in 1989, and despite her desire to preserve the property, 152 acres were sold a decade later for home sites. What remains undeveloped is roughly one-fourth of the original wilderness owned and cherished by Charles Morse. Hugh died in 1995.

That land is now known as the Genius Reserve and is part of a restoration project by the Department of Environmental Studies of Rollins College and serves as an outdoor classroom for Rollins students. It includes the largest remaining orange grove within Winter Park’s city limits and several structures, including Wind Song.

Walking paths include a portion of the Dinky Line rail bed near the south shore of Lake Mizell, and the pignut hickory-lined Jeannette’s Walk, near the north shore of Lake Berry where Jeannette often strolled. On a quiet day, the calls of peacocks can still be heard through the locked gates at the ends of the Reserve or along the lakes that attracted the first settlers to Winter Park more than 150 years ago.

Gayle and Steve Rajtar are the authors of A Guide to Historic Winter Park, Florida, published by The History Press. To contact them or order a copy of the book, write to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .