The Fight for the Hungerford Land

Stand at the west end of Kennedy Boulevard and look at the fence line: roughly 117 acres of open land, the former campus of the Hungerford School, making up a substantial share of the entire Town of Eatonville. For three years that land has been the subject of lawsuits, packed meetings, a mayoral race and a nine-figure development argument — because in Eatonville, land is never just land. It is the thing the town was founded to hold. Here is where the fight stands.

How Eatonville got here

The Hungerford property passed from the school its founders built to Orange County Public Schools in the 1950s; the district closed the last high school on the site in 2009 and demolished the buildings in 2020. In February 2023, the Eatonville Town Council voted 4–1 against rezoning the property for a developer’s plan of more than 300 homes plus commercial space, and that developer’s deal collapsed later that year. The Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community (P.E.C.), represented by the Southern Poverty Law Center, sued the district over its stewardship of the land; a judge dismissed the suit, and in February 2025 the SPLC said it would not appeal. That spring and summer, a different deal took shape: Dr. Phillips Charities, the Orlando philanthropy, proposed buying the property and developing it with the town — housing, education, health and cultural facilities, green space, and some land returned to Eatonville.

The sale, and the split

On September 30, 2025, the Orange County School Board voted to begin the transfer to Dr. Phillips Charities, and on January 13, 2026, the board approved the sale itself: a $14 million price, structured as $1 million at closing with up to $13 million forgiven as agreed projects are built. The deal divided Eatonville’s government down the middle. Then-Mayor Angie Gardner, who had negotiated it, called it transformational and a shield against predatory development; the town council majority opposed it, voting 4–1 against the arrangement and accusing the process of shutting the town out. Hungerford was the defining issue of Eatonville’s March 2026 town elections, in which Gardner stepped down and ran for the Orange County Commission. The history behind the argument — the school, the Calhouns, the 1950s deed — is in our Hungerford School history.

What is planned now

Dr. Phillips Charities calls its plan the Eatonville Initiative. As reported through mid-2026, it centers on a cultural campus: an Eatonville Museum of Culture & History — a planned two-story, roughly 30,000-square-foot building with galleries, classrooms and interactive media — set in a Heritage Park, alongside an early learning center, housing including an affordable component, and the grocery store Eatonville has long lacked. In July 2026 the charity took the unusual step of applying for $60 million in Orange County tourist-development-tax funds toward an $85 million campus, ahead of an August closing; P.E.C. separately sought $53 million for an international museum concept, and the Town’s Community Redevelopment Agency sought $22.5 million for commercial-core revitalization and historic restoration. The charity’s draft schedule projected infrastructure work beginning in 2027, a Heritage Park opening in 2028 and the museum in 2030 — projections, not promises, in a process that has already surprised everyone twice.

What Eatonville is deciding, underneath the acreage and the dollar figures, is the same question it answered in 1887: who governs this place, and for whom? The town that freedom built has outlasted a highway widening, a National Trust endangered listing in 2024, and a century of pressure from the booming metro around it. The Hungerford acres are where the next chapter gets written. Follow the rest of the town’s story in our Eatonville hub — and if you visit, the fenced field on the Orlando Top Spots Map is worth a slow drive past, with the school’s story in mind.

Update — November 14, 2026: In October 2026 the Orange County Commission approved the tourist-tax spending plan that followed the applications described above, voting 6–1 to fund the Eatonville Museum of Culture & History at the $60 million Dr. Phillips Charities requested and the Town of Eatonville’s Heritage Tourism District at $20 million (the Community Redevelopment Agency had applied for $22.5 million). Sources for the update are in the block below.

Photo: FloNight (Sydney Poore), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Sources & notes

Key facts in this article were checked against:

• Orange County Public Schools — School Board work-session document — the September 30, 2025 memorandum of understanding (approved unanimously) and the draft sale agreement: a $14 million price, $1 million at closing, up to $13 million forgiven as agreed projects are built.
• 1887 First — “What Does Justice Look Like for Eatonville?” — the School Board’s January 13, 2026 approval of the sale and the same $14 million / $1 million / $13 million structure.
• GrowthSpotter (July 17, 2026) — the three tourist-development-tax applications: $60 million from Dr. Phillips Charities toward an $85 million campus including the planned two-story, 30,000-square-foot museum; $53 million from P.E.C.; $22.5 million from the Town’s Community Redevelopment Agency.
• Orange County Tourist Development Tax Citizen Advisory Task Force Report 2026 (county document) — the three Eatonville requests as filed ($60M / $53M / $22.5M).
• Central Florida Public Media (August 26, 2026) — the County Commission’s August 25, 2026 acceptance of the task-force recommendations.
• WFTV (October 20, 2026) — the Commission’s 6–1 vote approving $80 million for Eatonville: $60 million for the museum and $20 million for the Heritage Tourism District.

Filed under Development · Dr. Phillips Charities · Eatonville · Historic Preservation · Hungerford

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