Hello y'all. I hope you've had a great week! These past few days I having finished research on Gertrude Sweet Newell and began working on my internship presentation.
Gertrude Sweet was born on July 17, 1862, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her father, Charles Sweet, was a Confederate soldier in the New Orleans Fire Regiment and later a state tax collector. She had five siblings, three brothers and two sisters. Not much is known about her childhood other than her father’s death sometime in the early 1870s. Gertrude, her mother, and three of her siblings (Charles, William, and Ida) moved to Orlando in 1873. Her brother Charles, who would later become mayor of Orlando in 1881, was a surveyor who designed Orlando’s street network throughout the 1870s. In 1875, Charles named an important street of Orlando after his sister. Gertrude Street was over 100 feet wide and was designed to be Orlando’s main road.
Unfortunately, in late 1880, the South Florida Railroad arrived in Orlando to build a railroad to the Atlantic Coast, taking much of the street for the railroad, and Gertrude Street went from the widest road in Orlando to a trail for decades. In that same year, Gertrude Sweet met her future husband, Henry Newell. Henry was a music teacher, the organizer of the local band The Orlando Band, and the bell ringer for Orlando’s courthouse. Gertrude, an accomplished pianist, was also a member of the band, which performed at community events and parades. Henry and Gertrude married on February 13, 1883, and in that same year welcomed their first daughter, Anges, into the world on December 17th. At some point in the 1880s, Gertrude became known as “the most beautiful woman in Orange County”.
Gertrude and Henry’s son, McFadden, was born two years later on October 30th, and their second daughter, Mildred, was born on January 11, 1890. Sadly, Mildred passed away of tuberculosis on May 2, 1914. On November 11, 1918, Henry had the honor of ringing the Orlando Court House bell, which was heard for over three miles, signifying the end of the Great War (World War I). Henry later died of organic heart disease on May 15, 1940.14 Six years later Gertrude passed away of a cerebral hemorrhage on February 12, one day short of what would have been Gertrude and Henry’s 57th wedding anniversary.
Gertrude's legacy persisted in the form of Gertrude’s Walk. A trail since the railroad take-over of Gertrude Street, it soon received great attention from the city. On March 3, 1980, Gertrude’s Walk was commemorated in Gertrude’s honor, alongside the installation of a bronze plaque and a general improvement to the trail. In 2010, the pathway was repaved and widened, and the lighting was upgraded. In 2017, the city of Orlando commissioned the creation of Gertrude’s Walks’ mural. Today, Gertrude’s Walk runs through Downtown Orlando, connecting to the Orlando Urban Trail. It is a beautiful walk with over three hundred plants and serves to preserve Orlando’s history in a fascinating way.
I hope y'all have a great weekend and a fantastic Thanksgiving break!
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