Albin Polasek Museum and Gardens in Winter Park

Just a few minutes north of downtown Orlando, the Polasek Museum and Gardens is just around the bend from the Winter Park Library on Aloma Avenue, and the museum offers a fascinating glimpse at the life and work of one of Winter Park's most prominent citizens.

The custom designed house on Lake Osceola contains examples of Polasek's smaller sculptures and several paintings that he created after suffering a massive stroke, which limited him to the use of his right hand. Some of the most beautiful works of art include a wooden Nativity scene and plaster and wooden models of statues that were commissioned for churches throughout the country.

A devout Catholic, Polasek was a member of St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church just a few blocks away. As part of the museum's walking tour, visitors can see the chapel he constructed on his property and the stations of the cross he designed for display inside the chapel as well as the grounds of his property.

After nearly 30 years with the Art Institute in Chicago and a lengthy career creating sculptures, statues and monuments throughout the United States, the Moravian-born sculptor Albin Polasek (1879 - 1965) had considered retiring to his homeland in what was then Czechoslovakia, but the rise of Communism in post World War II Europe changed his plans.

A former student of Polasek's, Ruth Sherwood, invited him to visit her in Winter Park, FL, and Polasek ended up spending the last 15 years of his life in the house. Polasek and Sherwood married in 1950, but Sherwood died less than two years later. Polasek's second wife, Emily, remained in the house after Polasek's death in 1965 and decided to preserve his legacy by turning the home into a museum after her death in 1988. A fountain sculpture that Polasek made in Emily's honor is in front of the house.