Albin Polasek’s lakefront Winter Park property was his retirement home from 1950 until his death in 1965 and the place where the internationally renowned sculptor completed 18 major works despite suffering a paralyzing stroke shortly after moving there. Born in 1879 in Frenstat, Moravia, now Czech Republic, he immigrated to the United States in 1901 at age 22, became an American citizen while studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and later served as Head of the Sculpture Department at the Art Institute of Chicago for nearly 30 years. Designed by Polasek and built in phases between 1949 and 1961, the property includes a residence, studio, chapel, and a 3.5-acre sculpture garden containing more than 30 of his works. In 1961, Polasek and his wife, Emily Muska Kubat Polasek, established a foundation to share his life’s work with the public, and the site is now the Albin Polasek Museum & Sculpture Gardens. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000, and Polasek was named a Great Floridian 2000 and inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame in 2004.