A Lake County landmark is getting a fresh coat of paint this week that will restore it to the way it looked when it was one of Central Florida's top tourist destinations.
Greg Homan has owned Clermont’s Citrus Tower since the mid-1990s and considers himself its caretaker.
“You call anyone in the country and they don’t know where Clermont is, but they know if they’ve been to that Citrus Tower,” Homan said.
Despite the tower’s perch over Lake County for nearly six decades, the owner said this is a view a lot of people still haven’t seen.
“Always had something else to do, something else always came up and we never got to see the tower before,” said Terry Oldham, a visitor.
“I hear that all the time,” Homan said. “I hear people say they’ve lived 10 to 15 years and never gone up to the top.”
It’s not just tourists who are fading away, but so is the 226-foot-tall tower’s paint.
Homan decided to sink another $80,000 in an attempt to restore Florida’s highest observation point.
The first thing you’ll notice from miles around are the bright orange stripes that adorned the tower during its heyday.
“I think it’s going to be pretty good for anybody who wants to come and see outside, not like this but maybe from inside,” said painter Francisco Tapia.
After 25 years, Oldham and his friend finally decided to check out the eight county view and 2,000 square miles of surrounding landscape.
“I love it,” Oldham said. “This area is really going to be growing.”
Homan said he hopes to one day sell the tower to the city to make sure it stays open to the public.
Painting should be complete sometime next month.
There is a small fee to travel to the top of the tower, which Homan said helps offset maintenance and other costs.