The City of Orlando will install a Florida Historical Marker at the site of the former home of past Nobel Peace Prize-winner John Raleigh Mott. The home was torn down in 2013 to expand Lake Eola Park.
Four historic homes were destroyed as part of the park expansion project, but one was left standing. The Eola House, which now serves as the main offices of Lake Eola Park staff. More information on the Eola House is available HERE.
John Raleigh Mott was a leader in the YMCA and the World Student Christian Federation, and helped to found the World Council of Churches in 1948. He held honorary degrees from six universities, including Yale, Edinburgh, Princeton, and Brown. Mott was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1946, in recognition of his humanitarian work with international Protestant Christian student organizations that promoted peace.
“”Evangelism without social work is deficient; social work without evangelism is impotent.”
– John Mott
Mott wrote a book called The Evangelization of the World in this Generation, which can be read in its entirety online, HERE. He was one of the most popular recruiters of college students to foreign mission work, ever.
Interesting side note, Mott was offered free passage on the Titanic but declined the ride.
City staff will be placing a Florida Historical Marker at the site of where Mr. Mott’s home once stood, in recognition of his life’s work. According to paperwork filed with the City, the cast aluminum marker will cost $2,200 and be paid for by Commissioner Patty Sheehan and private donations from two families; the Van Dusen and the Nollet families.
Save some final changes, the two-sided marker will read, roughly, as follows:
