The Water-Themed Attractions of College Park
College Park, the Orlando neighborhood that was originally home to citrus and pineapple growers, also has a history of water-themed attractions including Orlando’s very first water park, a mystifying sinkhole, and a spouting well. Discover Russell’s Pavilion, the Mystery Sink, and the Fairview Geyser.
Carl Dann’s Dubsdread
Ownership of Dubsdread remained in the Dann family until the City of Orlando purchased it in 1978. The course has seen a variety of changes over the years, almost all of which resulted in making the course shorter to allow for more residential growth.
Father Nelson Pinder and the Jones High School Class of 1962
Father Pinder led the fight to integrate Orlando’s restaurants and lunch counters, stores, playgrounds, parks, and schools. He helped to persuade the Orlando Sentinel to eliminate its “Negro Section” and to cover African Americans in the main edition of the paper.
Orlando Changes
The change Disney created in Orlando surely qualifies as the most dramatic and complete, with the most far-reaching consequences, but it was definitely not the first. Historian Tana Porter lists other significant events that shaped the City Beautiful.
Orlando’s First Hospital and the Rivalry That Transformed a Community
Being sick or injured in early 20th-century Orlando was a much different experience than it is today. If you could not afford to pay a doctor to make a house call, you might have found yourself in a lantern-lit hospital ward, cooled only with fans blowing over crushed ice.
Screening of “Marching Forward” Tells Inspiring Orlando Story
In honor of Black History Month, Mayor Jerry L. Demings and the History Center proudly presents a special showing of the award-winning documentary film “Marching Forward.”
Orlando’s Earliest Library
National Library Weeks happens in April, and you might be interested to learn that the current iconic Orlando Public Library at the corner of Central Boulevard and Magnolia was not the first public library in our city.
Orlando’s Lethal Weapon Cat-Tastrophe
On October 24, 1991, the evening of the implosion, nearby office towers hosted exclusive implosion parties, and thousands of people gathered along Orange Avenue and other vantage points outside the six-block safety zone to watch the spectacle.
Historical Society honors the late Joseph Wittenstein
Wittenstein's longtime community service included membership on the board of the Orange County Historical Society (now the Historical Society of Central Florida).
The Roots of Orlando’s Vietnamese Community
A new limited-run exhibition, Leaving Vietnam: Building a New Life in Central Florida, is on display at the Orange County Regional History Center through November 5.