In the year 1939, Franklin D. Roosevelt was president, most of Florida was without air-conditioning, Park Avenue was still often traversed by horse and buggies, and Dr. Wilbur Jennings opened the doors to his dental practice in downtown Winter Park. After graduating from Rollins College in 1929 (22 years before Fred Rogers) he spent some time selling vacuum cleaners before deciding to become a dentist. During his time at Rollins, he was one of 10 students to be selected for an exclusive club with none other than Rollin’s president, Hamilton Holt.
We have put a personal touch on every part of the dental experience to change the way that people think about and experience dental visits.
At Park Smiles Dentistry, our history is who we are. Our predecessors, Dr. Wilbur Jennings and Dr. Alan Price, both had great reputations which led to our success today. Good old fashioned word of mouth. Some of our patients are very influential in Winter Park today and it always fascinates me to think about who Dr. Jennings may have treated. Fred Rogers? Hugh and Jeannette McKean? Albin Polasek? Hamilton Holt, perhaps? All of these people lived in Winter Park while our practice was here. While we may never know if they were patients, we do know that our history is entwined with Winter Park’s.
At Park Smiles Dentistry, our history is who we are.
Dr. Jennings unknowingly made sure of that when he raised his family in what would become the now famous Winter Park home, the Capen House. The Capen House was built by one of Winter Park’s founders, James Capen. Dr. Jennings was the home’s longest owner (46 years.) In 2013, it was cut in half and moved across Lake Osceola to be saved from demolition.
Dr. Jennings had a role in shaping the landscape of downtown Winter Park as it stands today. In 1956, he sold the small cottage that our dental practice called home and built the New England Building. At the time, it was built to be a medical facility, housing doctors, dentists and a pharmacy. It was the first of it’s kind in the area and served locals for many years. It still sits on the corner of New England and Knowles Avenues today.
About a decade later, he constructed another building in Downtown Winter Park on the corner or Knowles and Welbourne Avenues. This is where Dr. Alan Price spent most of his career as a dentist and it is where our dental practice resided until 2019.
We have no gimmicks. Just honest people working hard to give you an easy trip to the dentist.
Following in Dr. Jennings’ footsteps, I built the fourth and final home of Park Smiles Dentistry on Fairbanks Avenue next to 4 Rivers Smokehouse. While it’s trendy these days for dental offices to sell out to corporations, we won’t do that. We have no gimmicks. Just honest people working hard to give you an easy trip to the dentist. While corporations focus on their profits first, we focus on people first. That’s how our founder was in 1939 and that’s how we are today. It was with those core principles that we set out to design our new office.
My wife, Julie, is an interior designer and we combined her design expertise with my passion for making dentistry easy to create a dental office which feels nothing like a dental office. We are very proud of it and we want to share it with our neighbors because we believe it is the type of dental office that Winter Park deserves.
No one typically likes going to the dentist. We are changing that.
We added all of the technologies and comfortable amenities that you would expect from a Park Ave business. For example, all of our dental chairs have massagers built into them and Apple TVs above them with noise canceling headphones. This way you could watch a movie or TV show while having your teeth cleaned. We also have a relaxation room with a masseuse grade massage chair and essential oils throughout the office. We have a family room for busy parents to reserve for their kids to wait during dental visits. We also have a photo studio for before and after shots of patients who are getting cosmetic smile makeovers done.
We have put a personal touch on every part of the dental experience to change the way that people think about and experience dental visits. We also put thought into giving the design a local touch. Each treatment room has a different Winter Park theme with photos that I’ve personally taken. For example, we have a Park Ave room, a Rollins College room and a Kraft Azalea Gardens room.
No one typically likes going to the dentist. We are changing that.
With our new home, we aim to do good for the community. It is our mission to host a free dental day once a year for those who are less fortunate. We also hope to use the facility to host community events and fundraisers in order to give back to the community which has given us so much.
Come see how different dentistry can be. We’ll make it a walk in the park!
Dr. Drew Byrnes
Owner
Park Smiles Dentistry
The fastest way to get ahold of us is to call or text us at 407-645-4645
