Winter Park's City Commission has unanimously approved replacing the demolished Gardens at DePugh nursing home with a cluster of 10 single-story office buildings, even as residents and city leaders push to ensure the site's history isn't erased along with the building. The vote marks the first of two required approvals for Z Properties' Morse & Penn development, proposed for 1.72 acres at the southeast corner of South Pennsylvania Avenue and West Morse Boulevard.
The commission's unanimous approval, confirmed as the first of two required votes on October 28, comes after the proposal already cleared Winter Park's Planning and Zoning Board by a 6-0 vote on October 6, according to GrowthSpotter. The plan calls for about 27,500 square feet of office space spread across the 10 buildings, with individual structures ranging from 1,428 to 5,376 square feet, and the complex will include general offices, medical offices, an operating room and 72 parking spaces. Z Properties intends to sell the buildings individually once construction wraps up.
A Nursing Home's Final Chapter
The Gardens at DePugh, a 40-bed facility, closed in December 2025 after nearly 70 years in operation, a casualty of skyrocketing costs and stagnant Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. As the Orlando Sentinel reported, Z Properties acquired the land for about $5.5 million in December 2025, though another account from Winter Park Voice put the purchase price developer Zane Williams paid at $5.4 million — the two figures were not reconciled in available records. The 40-bed building itself was demolished sometime in 2026, per the same GrowthSpotter report on the project's board approval.
Before its closure, the facility had still been delivering high-quality care: it was one of only seven nursing homes in the metro Orlando area to earn a five-star rating from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and as of September 2025 it housed 17 long-term residents, two of whom had lived there for about 25 years, alongside two short-term residents, according to the Orlando Sentinel's earlier coverage. Winter Park placed a historical marker on the corner months before the home shut its doors.
The Woman Behind the Name
The nursing home's name honored Mary Lee DePugh, who moved to Winter Park from the Chicago suburbs in 1937 and spent years working to provide health-care access for the mostly Black Hannibal Square community. Through the Ideal Woman's Club, DePugh helped establish a dental and medical clinic for that community, a contribution the Orlando Sentinel's earlier reporting traces back to the era of segregation. DePugh died in 1949 at age 83, and the nursing home that bore her name opened in 1956 as the first state-approved facility in Florida where aging Black residents could receive care, according to Winter Park Voice's reporting on the neighborhood's history.
DePugh's legacy already has a physical presence elsewhere in the city: a bust honoring her was dedicated in August 2024 and now sits in the Shady Park Pioneer Memorial next to the Winter Park Community Center on New England Avenue, one of four busts there honoring Black residents central to the city's history.
Commissioners Debate How to Remember Her
During commission discussion, Commissioner Craig Russell said he supports the Morse & Penn project but has also spoken directly with developer Zane Williams about memorializing DePugh's contributions on the new site. Russell suggested renaming neighboring West Welbourne Avenue after DePugh and floated naming the development itself the Mary Lee DePugh Office Center, arguing the redevelopment should appropriately recognize the site's historical significance. Commissioner Kris Cruzada offered a more modest fix, suggesting the existing historical marker be relocated to a more prominent spot on the site with benches added nearby.
Z Properties representative Rebecca Wilson said the company was happy to work with the city to recognize the neighborhood's history, and the developer has documented outreach to Bethel Church, Ward Church and Welbourne Day Nursery as part of that effort. City officials reported receiving numerous supportive letters and emails on the project, including from nearby businesses, though not everyone in the room agreed. Residents Martha Bryant Hall and Maria Bryant opposed the project, with Hall saying she opposed further destruction of the Westside legacy that includes DePugh's story.
Conditions Tied to Approval
City staff recommended conditions requiring the existing DePugh historical marker to remain on the property, protected or appropriately relocated during construction, according to the Orlando Sentinel's reporting on the board's recommendation. The conditions also call for a six-foot perimeter masonry wall to be installed before building construction begins, per GrowthSpotter's account of the project. A traffic study tied to the application estimated the office complex would generate 165 additional vehicle trips per day compared with the former nursing home, including 33 trips during the morning peak hour and 41 during the afternoon peak.
Under Winter Park policy requiring compensation for housing potential lost in a rezoning, Z Properties agreed to donate $100,000 to the city's Affordable and Workforce Housing Fund. The city intends to put that money toward purchasing 809 W. Comstock Ave. for $250,000, with the property eventually transferred to Habitat for Humanity for a home site; the Morse & Penn project would generate an additional $27,500 toward that fund during the permitting process. The Sentinel's earlier reporting noted a 2016 report describing renewed concerns about gentrification in Hannibal Square as older homes and vacant lots gave way to townhomes and duplexes, a backdrop that continues to shape how residents view new development near DePugh's old property.
The DePugh site sits near several other landmarks tied to the Hannibal Square community, including Welbourne Nursery and Preschool, Ward Chapel AME, Bethel Missionary Baptist Church and the Ideal Woman's Club, according to Winter Park Voice. With the commission's first vote now cast, a second required vote still looms before Morse & Penn can move forward — and with it, an unresolved question over whether DePugh's name will find a permanent place on the rebuilt corner.
