Butler Chain
Thirteen lakes, one small town
Windermere sits on an isthmus in the middle of the Butler Chain — Outstanding Florida Waters — and deliberately keeps its downtown streets unpaved. Both facts explain the place.
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The local angle
Built between the lakes, on purpose
The town was chartered in 1925 on the isthmus between Lake Down and Lake Butler, at the center of a 13-lake chain the state designates Outstanding Florida Waters — its highest water-quality protection. Public access runs through Orange County's two launches, at R.D. Keene Park and Lake Down, and the county's Water Atlas tracks every lake in the chain.
The famous dirt streets aren't neglect — the town maintains its original sand-and-clay grid deliberately, as preservation and traffic calming. One more local nuance: many "Windermere" mailing addresses sit outside the small incorporated town, in unincorporated Orange County.