In March of 2021, College Park residents Daryl and Carrie Carter had just finished lunch at the Briarpatch when Daryl suggested that instead of heading straight home they take a leisurely drive around Winter Park. “Let’s go explore,” said Daryl. “I’ll show where my nana lived on Maywood Road.”
They stopped—strictly out of curiosity, mind you—to visit an open house at 740 Palmer Avenue on prime property that fronted Lake Osceola and cornered the Venetian Canal. Daryl, a second-generation Central Floridian, recalled that the architect had been James Gamble Rogers II. That fact alone, he figured, warranted stopping to have a look.
After stepping inside, Carrie—an interior designer who owns Cypress + Pitch—turned to her husband and said: “I love this house.” So, with those fateful words, the matter was settled. Within weeks, the Carters had plunked down $2.75 million and had become, incredibly, only the home’s second owners since it was built in 1955.
Says Carrie: “You could almost see this place as it was. It was like taking a step back in time, as though it had been left untouched.” Adds Daryl: “Somebody could have just done some painting and it would have been fine as-is.”
Or, more likely, someone could have knocked it down and built new. The Carters, however, planned to spend $1 million to restore the exterior as authentically as possible, and to entirely reconfigure the interior with a new floor plan and modern luxury finishes.
“It was time to put my money where my mouth was,” says Daryl. “And, as it turned out, we didn’t demolish one square foot of the original home.” The final cost was considerably more than $1 million—such major projects rarely end up costing less than you’d expect—but the couple politely declined to disclose just how much over budget they had gone.
“Still, we never hesitated,” adds Daryl, who had promised the children of the original owners that they would do the project justice. And so they did. Yes, the home is bigger now—6,040 square feet versus 4,399 square feet—but there’s no doubt to anyone with even a passing interest in architecture who the architect was.
Daryl, CEO and president of real estate investment firm Maury L. Carter & Associates Inc., discovered early on that he knew of the home’s first owner through his late father, Maury—a self-made real estate titan who had been instrumental in securing land for Lake Nona, Hunter’s Creek, Eagle Creek, Metro West, Keene’s Pointe and Harmony.
Indeed, everyone knew John Walter Tucker, a third-generation Central Floridian and president and CEO of Tucker & Branham Inc., an insurance, real estate and mortgage banking firm. Tucker had built the home with his wife, Marjorie, after the couple received a wedding gift from Marjorie’s mother of funds to be used for a site of their choosing.
At the time they picked the idyllic location, much of the land nearby was resplendent with orange groves and the clear water was practically drinkable in Lake Osceola, recalls their daughter, Jill Tucker Read. So, naturally, when they were ready to build, they called the most respected architect in town.
Rogers primarily designed residences, but also buildings on the campus of Rollins College, including the Olin Library. His most famous commission was Casa Feliz, the home that Massachusetts industrialist Robert Bruce Barbour built along Lake Osceola in 1932.
That much-beloved structure, built in the style of a 19th-century Andalusian farmhouse, was famously saved from demolition when it was rescued in 2000 through a grassroots effort led by locals and relocated to property abutting the Winter Park Golf Course. There it was also restored and opened to the public.
But not all of the architect’s homes were grand estates like Casa Feliz, a project for which he had been given carte blanche to design what he pleased, cost be damned. He also built (comparatively) low-key homes in many revival styles that shared such traits as human scale, authentic materials and suitability for subtropical climates.
Drawings from 50 of Rogers’s residential commissions are archived at the Winter Park Library—including plans for the Tucker project, which incorporates influences from the French and Creole architecture of New Orleans. The ability to reference those documents proved to be priceless during the renovation process.
Jill Tucker Read, who was 2 years old when her family took up occupancy, says that her parents chose the design based upon their fondness for similar homes by Rogers, including one located on the other side of the canal and built in 1941. (The architect famously refused to use the same plans more than once.)
Read recalls that Rogers stopped by the site every day to make certain that construction was going according to plan for the young couple, who lived there for the rest of their lives. John Tucker died in 2014 and Marjorie Tucker followed two years later, both aged 88.
The home then sat on the market for more than three years and remained unoccupied until it was purchased by the Carters. They and their builder, Derrick Koger of Derrick Builders Inc., were determined to adhere to the integrity of the original plan even as they brought it up to date.
“We were very careful to never break stride with the core design intent of a Gamble Rogers-inspired plan,” says Koger, whose portfolio includes luxury custom homes in such upscale communities as Celebration and Golden Oak at Walt Disney World Resort as well as the Carters’ previous home in College Park.
As Koger’s team—which included architect Ron Manzo of Manzo Designs—made modifications, they channeled the spirit of Rogers, who died in 1990, “almost like he was walking with us.” Koger, an aficionado of architecture, says his goal was to “make it a Gamble Rogers home that looks like a Gamble Rogers home should look in 2026.”
On the west side of the home, the team added a two-story guest house and garage that connects to the main structure. And on the east side, in part for purposes of symmetry, a portico was built. The newly created courtyard is highlighted by a built-in hot tub concealed by a low wall and mature landscaping installed along Palmer Avenue.
A main bedroom suite was created downstairs in a former sunroom and extended by 10 feet, while the kitchen was relocated to what had been a guest bedroom. Much of this work required removing walls—a task made more difficult by the presence of steel I-beams atop concrete used to support lengthy spans.
Meeting building codes required updates of the home’s plumbing, wiring and mechanical systems. Taking it literally down to the studs gave the builders flexibility in executing interior design decisions and helped them to identify structural issues. Doing so, at times, also revealed the inventiveness of Rogers.
For example, crews needed to shore up support for the wrought-iron balconies, which had been ingeniously hung from rafters to avoid putting up column posts. Says Daryl: “I don’t know that we encountered that many surprises, but we were shocked that [Rogers] had figured out a way to do that.”
Rogers’s style was quiet and timeless, notes Koger, who adds that people “forget sometimes that less is more.” For example, the 9-foot-4-inch ceilings are higher than average but not so high as to be cavernous, as is the case in many modern luxury homes.
Such superior-grade remodeling choices as a slate roof, white heritage windows, oiled flooring of French oak, custom cabinetry and retractable iron-framed glass doors give the home “a warm but elevated feel,” notes Koger—a vibe enhanced by the eclectic yet sophisticated interior design by Carrie.
In May 2024, the couple moved in. During construction and after, curious passersby would often stop and ask for tours. Who could blame them? Fortunately for the rest of us, the Carters have been generous in opening their home for good causes. Notes Daryl: “With this home, it feels like we have an obligation to share it with the community.”
In 2025, for example, the home was the sole destination on the Mystery Home Tour sponsored by Council of 101, the volunteer fundraising organization for Orlando Museum of Art. In April of this year, it was featured on a tour of eight historic homes (three designed by Rogers) sponsored by Friends of Casa Feliz.
Betsy Rogers Owens, the architect’s granddaughter and executive director of the Casa Feliz Historic Home Museum, says that there are only about two dozen homes designed by her grandfather still standing in Winter Park. She is grateful to the Carters for “leaving the envelope intact; it’s an impeccable home and it’s really smart how they did it.”