Orlando History

[spenser1058]

A celebration of Frederick Law Olmsted’s 200th birthday is underway nationwide, but you don’t have to go to New York’s Central Park or Boston’s Fenway to participate.

Bok Tower Gardens, with its incredible “Singing Tower” high atop The Ridge in Lake Wales, sits in an excellent garden setting designed by Olmsted’s firm.

It’s in neighboring (Imperial) Polk County and well worth the trip if you haven’t yet seen this century-old landmark its founder called “the Taj Mahal of America”.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/os-fe-joy-wallace-dickinson-0220-20220220-5izfuyf2ivek3oba65pevwfgny-story.html
 

From The Sentinel’s Joy Wallace Dickinson (of course)

Edited February 21, 2022 by spenser1058

[eq1974]

A snapshot of where we once were. Publishing date: 09/30/1980

[JFW657]

7 hours ago, eq1974 said:

A snapshot of where we once were. Publishing date: 09/30/1980

I was gonna post that later tonight.

Ya beat me to it.  

[spenser1058]

It’s like a game from Highlights magazine to pick out all the missing stuff in the pic, especially at Lake Eola.

[JFW657]

2 hours ago, spenser1058 said:

It’s like a game from Highlights magazine to pick out all the missing stuff in the pic, especially at Lake Eola.

Or, in one particular instance, something in the picture that's gone now.

What could it possibly be???  . 

[JFW657]

 

I think this next one is the building at Robinson and Rosalind where the gym is. 

[spenser1058]

6 hours ago, JFW657 said:

Or, in one particular instance, something in the picture that's gone now.

What could it possibly be???  . 

Is the microwave tower there? I couldn’t tell. It should be if they didn’t airbrush it out.

Royal Sundries looks more like The Strand on Mills to me than George Stuart (and I’m pretty sure GS was in the building on Robinson before ‘76).

Edited February 28, 2022 by spenser1058

[jrs2]

12 hours ago, JFW657 said:

Or, in one particular instance, something in the picture that's gone now.

What could it possibly be???  . 

I'm thinking the 1950's Courthouse Annex and the San Juan Hotel...

Interestingly, the Sheraton twins are at the horizon in that shot...

[JFW657]

5 hours ago, spenser1058 said:

Is the microwave tower there? I couldn’t tell. It should be if they didn’t airbrush it out.

Royal Sundries looks more like The Strand on Mills to me than George Stuart (and I’m pretty sure GS was in the building on Robinson before ‘76).

 

1 minute ago, jrs2 said:

I'm thinking the 1950's Courthouse Annex and the San Juan Hotel...

Interestingly, the Sheraton twins are at the horizon in that shot...

Nope and nope.

It's something in the park itself.

5 hours ago, spenser1058 said:

Royal Sundries looks more like The Strand on Mills to me than George Stuart (and I’m pretty sure GS was in the building on Robinson before ‘76).

George Stewart was at Robinson and Magnolia.

Someone who commented on the post in the FB group is certain that Royale Sundries was located at Robinson and Rosalind as they used to frequent the establishment and knew the owner.

[codypet]

Johnny Reb

[JFW657]

4 minutes ago, codypet said:

Johnny Reb

Nope.

And I think that's him down near the bottom left corner of the picture.

[angela1117]

From 2000-2003 (or thereabouts) the health department office I worked in relocated from Central and Westmoreland to the 4th floor of the bank (?) building at 1 North Orange (just past present day Wall Street Cantina area in this photo).

Our parking lot was at Washington St. and the train tracks...not terribly convenient when you had a lot of stuff to schlep into the office. But the office was a pretty great spot to watch the Citrus Parade from every year. 

This was also the time of the great mouse invasion in Apopka and I remember we had to form a bucket brigade to quickly off load cases of mouse bait from a coworkers pick up truck blocking traffic at Central and Orange. 

We eventually landed back on the main campus of DOH on Central.

[jack]

3 hours ago, JFW657 said:

Nope.

And I think that's him down near the bottom left corner of the picture.

No gazebo. 

[codypet]

16 hours ago, JFW657 said:

Or, in one particular instance, something in the picture that's gone now.

What could it possibly be???  . 

Something in the picture that's gone now in the park, and its not Johnny Reb?  Got me.

[JFW657]

OK.

There's something in that late 70's/early 80's aerial photo of Eola Park that is no longer there. 

Some valiant attempts have been made to guess what it is but as yet, no cigar is forthcoming.

So what was it?

  

It was a small, old concrete block building that used to sit on the south shore of the lake along Central, right around the mid point of where the tiered concourse area is now.

Not sure exactly what it housed, but I know it had something to do with the fountain.

Probably water pressure control valves and stuff.

As I recall, it sat far enough back that the sidewalk around the lake had to alter its path a little bit to go around it.

It was kind of unnerving to walk behind it even in the daytime because the bushes between the park sidewalk and the Central Blvd. sidewalk were pretty overgrown so you never knew who might be lurking around back in there.

Bad enough in the daytime, but I wouldn't have even considered walking along there at night.

Making it even creepier as I recall, was the filthy graffiti that used to be scrawled all over it.

Mostly derogatory in nature to members of a certain ethnicity and practitioners of a certain lifestyle. 

Anyway, it came down in '84 or '85 when the sidewalk around the lake was torn up and widened. 

[spenser1058]

2 hours ago, codypet said:

Something in the picture that's gone now in the park, and its not Johnny Reb?  Got me.

How soon we forget (even if FOX News tries soooo hard).

 

12 minutes ago, JFW657 said:

OK.

There's something in that late 70's/early 80's aerial photo of Eola Park that is no longer there. 

Some valiant attempts have been made to guess what it is but as yet, no cigar is forthcoming.

So what was it?

  

It was a small, old concrete block building that used to sit on the south shore of the lake along Central, right around the mid point of where the tiered concourse area is now.

Not sure exactly what it housed, but I know it had something to do with the fountain.

Probably water pressure control valves and stuff.

As I recall, it sat far enough back that the sidewalk around the lake had to alter its path a little bit to go around it.

It was kind of unnerving to walk behind it even in the daytime because the bushes between the park sidewalk and the Central Blvd. sidewalk were pretty overgrown so you never knew who might be lurking around back in there.

Bad enough in the daytime, but I wouldn't have even considered walking along there at night.

Making it even creepier as I recall, was the filthy graffiti that used to be scrawled all over it.

Mostly derogatory in nature to members of a certain ethnicity and practitioners of a certain lifestyle. 

Anyway, it came down in '84 or '85 when the sidewalk around the lake was torn up and widened. 

Yep, that was the pump house. They incorporated most of that stuff in the innards of the fountain in the redo.

[jrs2]

1 hour ago, JFW657 said:

OK.

There's something in that late 70's/early 80's aerial photo of Eola Park that is no longer there. 

Some valiant attempts have been made to guess what it is but as yet, no cigar is forthcoming.

So what was it?

  

It was a small, old concrete block building that used to sit on the south shore of the lake along Central, right around the mid point of where the tiered concourse area is now.

Not sure exactly what it housed, but I know it had something to do with the fountain.

Probably water pressure control valves and stuff.

As I recall, it sat far enough back that the sidewalk around the lake had to alter its path a little bit to go around it.

It was kind of unnerving to walk behind it even in the daytime because the bushes between the park sidewalk and the Central Blvd. sidewalk were pretty overgrown so you never knew who might be lurking around back in there.

Bad enough in the daytime, but I wouldn't have even considered walking along there at night.

Making it even creepier as I recall, was the filthy graffiti that used to be scrawled all over it.

Mostly derogatory in nature to members of a certain ethnicity and practitioners of a certain lifestyle. 

Anyway, it came down in '84 or '85 when the sidewalk around the lake was torn up and widened. 

interesting...but I noticed that the Bandshell itself was missing.  The stage is there but not the canopy building.  cigar? cig? roach? butt? hookah?

[JFW657]

1 hour ago, jrs2 said:

interesting...but I noticed that the Bandshell itself was missing.  The stage is there but not the canopy building.  cigar? cig? roach? butt? hookah?

It's there, it's just not the same one that's there now.

It's the one they demo'd in the 80's to build the current one.

Cigar remains in my possession. 

[spenser1058]

2 minutes ago, JFW657 said:

It's there, it's just not the same one that's there now.

It's the one they demo'd in the 80's to build the current one.

Cigar remains in my possession. 

That’s the one we played concerts in during junior high. We also had a couple of extemp contests there in my NFL days (National Forensics League).

[JFW657]

12 minutes ago, spenser1058 said:

That’s the one we played concerts in during junior high. We also had a couple of extemp contests there in my NFL days (National Forensics League).

I saw Doc Severinsen do a show  there.  

[spenser1058]

The lost history of Tinker Field, gone forever:

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/central-florida-history/os-ne-tinker-field-1972-spring-training-game-photo-20220307-2gnorejee5ednis5iwaovd3eh4-story.html

From The Sentinel 
 

[JFW657]

On 3/7/2022 at 6:26 AM, spenser1058 said:

The lost history of Tinker Field, gone forever:

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/central-florida-history/os-ne-tinker-field-1972-spring-training-game-photo-20220307-2gnorejee5ednis5iwaovd3eh4-story.html

From The Sentinel 
 

I remember going to Cocoa (Astros) Stadium when I was a kid in 1967 - 68.

We lived right across the highway from it, so we'd just walk.

The ticket booths would close after the 2nd or 3rd inning, so we'd just walk in for free. 

Slightly bigger than Tinker and has the canopy over the stands.

Sat in the exact same spot this photo was taken from....

Looks exactly the same as I remember it.

Used to be much more crowded, though. 

[JFW657]

 

[spenser1058]

Oh so trendy but short-lived on East Colonial just before Fashion Square opened, Willoughby’s sought to be the place for boomers who were too cool for their parents’ La Cantina:

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/central-florida-history/os-ne-orlandos-former-willoughbys-open-hearth-restaurant-drew-diners-drama-20220314-2gslpbr6ivh27oa7j4tqdwcf6a-story.html 

From The Sentinel

[spenser1058]

Joy Wallace Dickinson at The Sentinel seeks out sculptures of important Central Florida women in addition to the one of Daytona’s Mary McLeod Bethune which will soon represent Florida in the US Capitol (along with Dr. John Gorrie, the inventor of air conditioning, which made modern Florida possible).

Some are everyday folks who accomplished big things working on everyday projects like Kissimmee’s Bette Sprinkle, who worked tirelessly on downtown restoration (unlike another town native who shall not be mentioned), going as far as watering the downtown plants.

Others you might not know had ties to the area like Annie Oakley (think Ethel Merman in “Annie Get Your Gun”) in Leesburg. It’s a great read:

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/os-fe-joy-wallace-dickinson-0320-20220320-puh2vucdoneqvopgukaftaumhi-story.html
 

Edited March 20, 2022 by spenser1058