The small Central Florida city of Winter Park has a lively downtown, charming historic districts, and tree-lined lakes that appeal to locals and visitors alike. More surprisingly, it’s home to the world’s most comprehensive collection of works by famed designer Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848–1933). Less than 45 minutes from Orlando’s theme parks, the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art (known as the Morse Museum) displays everything from brilliantly colored lamps to an entire chapel designed by Tiffany. Founded by Jeannette Genius McKean in 1942, the museum grew its glittering collection gradually, thanks in part to remarkable rescues and meticulous preservation. Its story began with a family that was devoted to Winter Park and the city’s focus on culture, and committed to making art accessible to the community.
Founding the Museum: A Fire and More
Charles Hosmer Morse (1833–1921) was one of the wealthy industrialists who spent winters and retired in Winter Park, a planned community developed in 1881 as a Floridian version of a town in New England. Morse loved the town, and his philanthropic efforts included donating Central Park (still the heart of downtown) and supporting Rollins College, founded there in 1885. Morse’s granddaughter Jeannette Genius McKean (1909–89) visited his Winter Park home, decorated in Arts and Crafts style. The Chicago-based Genius family collected Tiffany glass and American Impressionist paintings, and these styles remained a lasting influence on Jeannette. She attended Rollins College and was an interior designer, painter, and businessperson who settled in Winter Park.
In 1942, Jeannette established what was then called the Morse Gallery of Art on the college campus, naming Rollins art professor Hugh F. McKean (1908–95) its director, and in 1945 the two married. He had an interest in Tiffany too: in 1930, The Tiffany Foundation had selected McKean and other artists to work at Laurelton Hall, Tiffany’s art-filled country estate near Oyster Bay on Long Island. The couple’s 1955 exhibition Works of Art by Louis Comfort Tiffany was the first major show of Tiffany’s then-unfashionable work since his death in 1933.
In 1957, one of Tiffany’s daughters told the McKeans about the fire that had gutted the abandoned mansion. Visiting the ruins, Jeannette said to Hugh, “Let’s buy everything that is left and try to save it.” This rescue became the core of the Morse Museum’s wide-ranging collection. The Morse Museum’s current home opened in 1995 on Park Avenue, Winter Park’s main street. It receives no public funds but is owned and operated by the Charles Hosmer Morse Foundation with support from the Elizabeth Genius Morse Foundation.
Visiting the Museum
The Morse Museum focuses on American decorative and fine arts from 1850 to 1920, with its Tiffany holdings the star attraction in an array of multi-hued lamps, pottery, art glass, furniture, jewelry, metalwork, and leaded-glass windows. It also presents special exhibitions such as the aptly titled Fascinating Clutter: American Taste during the Age of Queen Victoria (through fall 2026) and the upcoming Arts and Letters and World’s Fairs Vignette (both opening March 4, 2025). A free cell phone audio tour and in-depth paper gallery guides give context, and visitors can watch helpful films about the museum’s history and the Tiffany Chapel before or during a visit.
The son of Charles Lewis Tiffany, founder of luxury jeweler Tiffany & Co., Louis Comfort Tiffany trained as a painter but had a fascination with glass that began in his twenties; he also worked in interior decoration. In 1885 he founded his first glassmaking firm, and after his father died in 1902 he became art director of Tiffany & Co. and also established Tiffany Studios (1902–32) for his designs. Tiffany patented Favrile glass, known for its iridescence and opacity, in 1892, and developed other styles of glass used in objects from leaded-glass windows to vases to lampshades for electric lamps. Inspired by nature and influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement and Art Nouveau, Tiffany sought to bring beauty into the home and other spaces. Skilled artisans and designers including women such as Clara Driscoll and Agnes Northrop were essential to his enterprises.
The Morse Museum displays the Tiffany Chapel, designed by Tiffany for the 1893 World’s Columbian exposition in Chicago. The intricate mosaics and glowing glass—including a massive, green glass electrified chandelier—in the 1,000-square-foot, Byzantine-inspired chapel galvanized interest in Tiffany’s work. In 1916 Tiffany installed the damaged chapel in an outbuilding at his Long Island home. Jeannette and Hugh McKean, who purchased it after the 1957 house fire, spent decades searching for chapel furnishings that had been sold off earlier. In 1999, the restored chapel opened at the museum.
Immersive galleries occupying 6,000 square feet display items and architectural elements rescued from Tiffany’s 84-room, Art Nouveau–inspired Laurelton Hall, a house in which Tiffany oversaw every detail. Opened in a new wing in 2011, the ten galleries include some dedicated to individual rooms such as the living room and dining room, as well as the Daffodil Terrace, with 11-foot-high columns crowned with glass daffodils. (New York’s Metropolitan Museum displays flower-topped columns from a terrace loggia at Laurelton Hall, a 1978 gift from the McKeans.) Other galleries examine the designer’s life and legacy. The popularity of Tiffany’s designs waned in the 1910s and 1920s as decorative tastes changed in favor of Art Deco, and although the designer himself was wealthy, Tiffany Studios filed for bankruptcy in 1932, a year before his death. But time has confirmed Tiffany’s reputation as one of the era’s most creative and productive designers.
Community Programs
Admission to the museum is free on Friday nights November through April, with live music, from jazz to classical, adding to the experience. Three seasonal free film series show documentaries and movies about art and design at noon on Friday. The museum also donates books to the Winter Park Library relating to the films. A Wednesday lecture series by scholars and museum professionals examines art topics relevant to the Morse Museum’s collections. Families can reserve space in summer family programs, such as special Tuesday family tours and a Friday family film program with a gallery tour and art project.
Each year on one evening in early December, the museum co-sponsors Christmas in the Park with the city, lighting up a number of its Tiffany windows in Central Park and sponsoring music by the Bach Festival Choir and Brass Ensemble. It also offers free admission during certain holiday periods and during this arty city’s popular events, such as the Winter Park Arts Weekend in February and the prestigious juried Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival in March.
Side Dishes
Winter Park’s tradition of supporting art means other stops here are worthwhile, including the Albin Polasek Museum & Sculpture Gardens, a member of Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios. The Czech-born Polasek (1879–1965) was well known as a representational sculptor, in part for religious works. He also headed the sculpture department at the Art Institute of Chicago. For his retirement, in 1950 he designed a colorful, distinctive house and studio on 3.5 acres along Lake Osceola. After a stroke in 1951, Polasek learned to sculpt with one hand, an inspiring example of challenges the artist overcame. A house tour provides context, and visitors can stroll the serene grounds and see three dozen artworks.
The Alfond Inn in Winter Park, owned by Rollins College, is an art hotel like no other, with rotating selections from a 600-piece collection of stellar global contemporary art on display in public areas such as the conservatory, café, lounge, lobby, and hallways. Artists represented include Jeffrey Gibson, Vik Muniz, Tomás Saraceno, and Kara Walker. The collection is part of the Rollins Museum of Art, another great stop. Take in coffee or a meal along with the art: Hamilton’s Kitchen serves modern Southern fare, and the café is a good pre- or post-museum stop for a light meal, dessert, or an evening drink.
Linda Cabasin is a travel editor and writer who covered the globe at Fodor’s before taking up the freelance life. She’s a contributing editor at Fathom. Follow Linda on Instagram at @lcabasin.
Featured Photo: The Morse Museum is in the heart of downtown Winter Park. Courtesy of Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art, Winter Park, FL
