Leu House and Gardens

The Harry P. Leu Gardens is a 50 acre botanical landscape of over 150 years of growth, transformation, and commitment to horticulture and community enrichment in Central Florida. For this reason, the home and gardens have an intriguing history. To learn more about the classes, gardens, and the Leu Historic House onsite, please go to their website and plan your visit.

If you are interested in learning more about the history of the gardens, specifically the architecture of the home and how it had changed over the years, this article is for you.

The Architecture of the Leu Home

The original Mizell cabin was a rectangular, two-story structure, 30 by 20 feet at the base, with its long side facing the lake. It featured a gabled wood-shake roof, a 10-foot-wide lakeside porch, weatherboard siding, and a brick pier foundation. The ground floor had two rooms—one large (20×20 feet) and a smaller one (10×20 feet), each with its own fireplace. Upstairs, a 30-inch-wide hallway led to three 10×15-foot bedrooms. Windows were standard wood sash. 

After David Mizell sold the house to Duncan Pell, the house slowly became less of a ranch house and more sophisticated. It was painted white with a green trim, and a detached kitchen (now used as a library and office) was added. New wings expanded the home – a 20×30-foot east wing, a 40×30-foot south wing used as a dining room, a veranda on the north side, and a small lakeside porch. 

In 1906, Joseph Woodward bought the house from Duncan Pell and expanded the home further. He merged two front rooms into a grand living room and built a two-story addition that included a stairway leading to an upper bedroom. He also added a garage to the house. After his death in 1917 though, the family used the home less frequently. Following his widow’s passing in 1928, the house was rented out until it was sold to Harry P. Leu in 1936. 

Leu’s contributions to the house include his famous garden estate and modernizations to the house. He updated its plumbing and electrical systems. He also converted the outbuildings into living quarters for staff and began developing what would become the Harry P. Leu Botanical Gardens. Inspired by his world travels, Leu filled the grounds with exotic plants. By 1961, the gardens included nearly 3,000 camellia bushes and several hundred azaleas—many of which were planted by Leu himself in the 1930s and 1940s. 

The Mizells

In the seventeenth century, the ancestors of Florida’s Mizell family arrived in America as part of the French Huguenot migration to the Eastern Shore. Originally spelling their name “Moselle,” the family—David, his wife Sarah (née Albritton), and their son David Jr.—migrated from North Carolina to southern Georgia and eventually settled in northern Florida. By the early 1800s, they had established roots in Alligator Settlement, near present-day Lake City. 

In 1833, David William Mizell, future Orange County sheriff and patriarch of the Leu House, was born to David Jr. and Mary Pearce Mizell at Alligator Settlement. The family later relocated to Alachua County, where they lived for about twenty years. Drawn by tales of fertile pasturelands and the promise of free land, in 1858, David Jr. led the family to Orange County. Among the travelers were David William Mizell and his young wife, Angeline Augusta May. 

By 1862, while David served as a corporal in the 8th Florida Volunteers during the Civil War, Angeline began constructing a log cabin by Lake Rowena. Discharged due to medical reasons before the end of the year, David returned home. In 1868, he was appointed sheriff of Orange County. However, he was killed in the line of duty due to a family feud.  

The Pells

In 1902, the Mizells sold their farmhouse and land to Duncan C. Pell, a member of a socially prominent New England family that had begun wintering in Orlando in the 1890s. 

Duncan initially came to Florida with his first wife, Anna, settling on Main Street (now Magnolia Avenue). His uncle, Leslie Pell-Clark, already lived there in a grand home. The Pells and Pell-Clarks embodied a new wave of northern transplants who contributed to Orlando’s cultural fabric. Anna, like her aunt-by-marriage Mrs. Pell-Clark, joined the elite Rosalind Club but resigned in 1895. Anna “deserted” him and returned to New York in May 1901, according to Duncan’s divorce petition that same year. He married silent film actress, Helen Gardner, soon after, causing a bit of a stir in the Orlando community.  

While awaiting the finalization of his divorce, Duncan purchased the first portion of the Mizell homestead in April 1901 and a second parcel—including the cemetery—from Jessie and John Thomas Mizell in May 1902. When he remarried Helen, he brought his new bride to the now-spacious home overlooking Lake Rowena. 

However, Duncan and Helen didn’t stay long. In 1906, he sold the property to Joseph H. Woodward. 

The Woodwards

In 1906, Joseph Hersey Woodward of Birmingham, Alabama, purchased the former Mizell-Pell property as a winter escape for his family. Unlike the socially glamorous Pells, the Woodwards sought solace from the industrial city in what they called their Florida “jungle.” 

Born in Pittsburgh in 1843, Woodward moved with his family to Wheeling, West Virginia, around 1847, where his father founded La Belle Iron Works. After attending the Lindsley Institute and serving in the Union Army during the Civil War, Joseph joined the family business. In 1881, he and his brother founded the Woodward Iron Company in Alabama, where Joseph eventually became president. 

By the time the family acquired the farmhouse, Joseph was in his sixties. They named the estate La Belle, honoring their West Virginia roots. Initially, they bought 20 acres, later adding the cemetery in 1909 to complete the estate. 

The Leus

In 1936, local businessman Harry P. Leu purchased the estate for $40,000. Born in 1884, Leu grew up in Orlando, delivered newspapers for the Reporter Star at age twelve, and worked for Florida Gas and Electric after high school. In the early 1900s, he traveled to New York to study management and marketing before returning to Orlando to work for the Cain-O’Berry Boiler Company. With encouragement from his employers, he acquired company stock and by 1926 became the majority shareholder, renaming the business to Harry P. Leu, Inc. 

By the 1930s, his company had transitioned from manufacturing to supplying electrical and mechanical equipment for railways and industry. Leu became president of the Southern Industrial Distribution Association and played a pivotal role in Orlando’s economic development. 

In 1932, he married Mary Jane Schmidli. Wanting to present her with a grand home, Leu bought the old Mizell property, then considered “out in the country.” Surrounded by forest and outbuildings from the Pell and Woodward eras, the house was in need of restoration. 

Together, Leu and his wife traveled the world; they would often bring back seeds for their garden in Orlando.  

By the 1940s and 50s, Leu and his wife transformed the estate into a lush garden. In 1961, the Leu family donated the 50-acre land for educational and cultural value of the property. By the 1980s, under the proprietorship of the City of Orlando, the gardens expanded their plant collections, educational programs, and community engagement initiatives.

In the past year, the Leu Historic Home and Garden was visited by 277,460 people from around the world and about 35,000 plants grown and planted in the garden. There are 6,221 active members and 116 volunteers who help maintain the gardens.

More information on the history of the Leu Historic Home & Gardens can be found in the attached documents and images below. Feel free to browse them at your leisure.