V
June 1976
STETSON UNIVERSITY
HISTORY DEPARTMENT NEWSLETTER
Dear Former Stetson History Student (and a few other friends):
This Newsletter is sent to you in the hope that it may keep you informed of
happenings at Stetson and DeLand. Our mailing list is composed of a mish-mash of
names culled from student grade lists of past years or from what was once my
Christmas card list (I do not send them anymore)- If you are on the list and
want to be dropped off-or to add someone—just let us know. The Newsletter will
probably be published once a year in the future, usually in the summer months.
CHANGING DELAND
Change is almost imperceptible in DeLand, but somehow the agricultural town
which I discovered in 1953 has become a small urban 3iea with a constant flow of
tourists making their way to Disney World and adding a more cosmopolitan flavor.
We now have garages exclusively devoted to foreign cars, doctors who1 specialize
in urology and orthopedics, shops which sell crafts and paintings, and funeral
homes which engage In price advertising.
A new sidewalk was ready for use by Homecoming from the Chancellor's Cottage
(Michigan Avenue) northward to University Avenue. It should be called the Morgan
Welch Walkway since Morgan crusaded for it and dedicated it with his bicycle.
The John B. Stetson mansion Is being transformed into a. turn-of~the century
restaurant by the operators of the Red-Tailed Hawk restaurant of Vero Beach.
A new vista on the Stetson campus is the view of the new Edmunds Center from
the Carlton Union, previously obscured by Hulley Gymnasium. The ground is still
rather bare, but our Grounds Superintendent Ralph Harper is applying his "turf
magic", and it will soon look good indeed.
The face of DeLand has changed only slightly in the last year. Although Demand
is now surrounded by shopping centers, downtown DeLand has largely avoided the
"central city decay" that affects almost all American cities. One wag says that
it had less to decay, but except for a few buildings, notably the old Setzer's (or
Pantry Pride) building on West New York and the A & P on South Boulevard, most
DeLand buildings are occupied.
The city fathers envision a downtown beautification plan, which will convert
the block on Indiana Avenue in front of the now boarded up Athens Theater into a
mall. For the moment, however, they are limiting themselves to beautifying an
alley between the Stewart Building and the old Barnett Building (now a part of
the courthouse complex).
First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) recently sold their church
building at the corner of the Boulevard and Wisconsin Avenue to Gould Real Estate
Agency. The building, one of DeLand's oldest, dated from 1894, and was attract-*^-
but functionally obsolete. The congregation chose to sell their location in order
to build a new edifice on West New York Avenue three blocks beyond the truck route.
The Gould Agency in renovating has removed the steeple but has retained much of the
spirit of the fine old building. There will not be many other real estate agencies
operating from a former church,
