{"id":6530,"date":"2026-07-05T11:07:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T11:07:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=6530"},"modified":"2026-07-05T11:07:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T11:07:22","slug":"orlando-sentinel-150-after-ups-and-downs-can-downtown-orlando-rise-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=6530","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Sentinel 150: After ups and downs, can Downtown Orlando rise again?"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Orlando first incorporated 151 years ago \u2014 just one year before Rufus A. Russell founded an Orlando Sentinel predecessor called the Orange County Reporter \u2014 there were few signs the cow and citrus town of 85 residents would one day become one of the world\u2019s most recognizable destinations.<\/p>

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Twenty-two registered voters decided to form the town, centered on the courthouse that once stood at present-day Magnolia Avenue at Heritage Square. The new municipality\u2019s boundaries spanned just one mile north, south, east and west.<\/p>\n

Today, Orlando has grown to be Florida\u2019s fourth-largest city and the center of one of the nation\u2019s largest metropolitan areas. Its borders sprawl for miles to the south and east,\u00a0tens of thousands have moved here from all over the world, and hundreds of millions more have vacationed at resorts and theme parks known around the globe.<\/p>\n

But historians fear that continuing, explosive growth could endanger the buildings and landmarks \u2014 some of which date back to the city\u2019s founding \u2014 at the very place it all started, downtown Orlando.<\/p>\n

Origins<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The first settlers were drawn here by the presence of military bases from the Seminole Wars. A trail \u2013 what is today Magnolia Avenue in downtown \u2013 connected Fort Gatlin in south Orlando and Fort Mellonville in what is now Sanford.<\/p>\n

The village soon became the center of business and political life \u2013 even becoming the county seat over Sanford, which as a port city was more consequential. In the 1856 election to determine the seat of government, local boosters drew in soldiers from nearby forts to vote for the soon-to-be Orlando with the promise of a picnic dinner.<\/p>\n

Later, Jacob Summerlin, a cattle rancher, citrus farmer and Orlando forefather, outmaneuvered General Henry Sanford at a meeting of the county commissioners in 1875 by offering to pay to build a new courthouse for $10,000 after Sanford tried to lure the government north.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think between stealing the county seat in 1856 and that trail coming through, it kind of determined that this was going to be the downtown City of Orlando,\u201d said the city\u2019s Historic Preservation Officer Jennifer Fritz-Hunter.<\/p>\n

Two years prior, Summerlin had purchased roughly 200 acres of land for 25-cents per acre, fronting a scenic lake. Today, even one acre of vacant downtown land could cost $20 million, according to data from the Orlando Regional Realtor\u2019s Association.<\/p>\n

Jacob\u2019s son, Robert Summerlin, ultimately named the body of water Eola after a friend of the family.<\/p>\n

In 1883, Jacob Summerlin donated a strip around the water to the city if it agreed to plant trees and add a driveway around the perimeter to create a park.<\/p>\n

Pine Street<\/h4>\n

In the generations since, downtown has grown into Central Florida\u2019s Central Business District, where more than 23,000 live and nearly 100,000 work, data shows. It\u2019s home to professional sports franchises, a world-class performing arts venue, high-rise buildings with more than 12 million square feet of office space, a commuter rail line and a one of the nation\u2019s busiest highways.<\/p> \n

But walking Pine Street can still give you a taste of the early days if you know where to look.<\/p>\n

The striking green Queen Anne-style Rogers-Kiene Building built in 1886 is today home to CityArts. It was originally home to The English Club, where early Orlandoans sipped spirits, and once was home to a predecessor of the Sentinel.<\/p>\n

Walking west, the Robinson Building \u2013 now home to the aptly named The Robinson cocktail bar \u2013 and the neighboring Lartigue Building were built in 1884 after a fire destroyed four of the area\u2019s wood buildings.<\/p>\n

On East Pine Street, the old Magnolia Hotel still stands as the oldest building in downtown Orlando, Hunter said, though it\u2019s not in its original location.<\/p>\n

The brick building with marble accents, now home to Allure Restaurant & Lounge, was first built by \u201cBig Tom\u201d Shine on the west side of Orange Avenue between Central and Pine Streets, according to historian Eve Bacon\u2019s book, \u201cOrlando: A Centennial History.\u201d But later it was moved by Elijah Hand to make way for his embalming business, Hunter said.<\/p>\n

Continuing west, the train tracks today follow the same path as the original South Florida Railway, which ignited the first population boom and put the city on the map.<\/p>\n

In 1880, the city\u2019s first railway was completed, connecting Sanford to what became called The Phenomenal City, creating a new, much quicker gateway for settlers to find Orlando. With that, \u201cOrlando\u2019s days as a pioneer town were numbered,\u201d Bacon wrote.<\/p>\n

Prior to the train, a new settler headed for Orlando would usually take a riverboat down the St. John\u2019s River from Jacksonville to Sanford, and walk, ride a horse or take a carriage on a two-day trek to Orlando.<\/p>\n

But when the South Florida line opened, early schedules show the trip was shortened to under two hours, Bacon wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt put us on the map, it got our goods out and it truly helped us become the orange capital of the world,\u201d Hunter said.<\/p>\n

The results were immediate. In 1880, the city\u2019s population totaled about 200. By 1890, it had grown to 2,856.<\/p>\n

A train depot which opened on Church Street in 1890still stands on the east side of the tracks. In recent years it housed a series of restaurants, but has sat unused since the last one, Ferg\u2019s Depot, closed in 2018.<\/p>\n

Business is booming<\/h4>\n

The early downtown economy was built on two things: citrus and cattle. Pineapples were widely grown, and oranges and various hybrids soon followed.<\/p>\n

But real estate and retail also took off. By 1884, a map of the Central Business District shows hotels, saloons, dry goods shops, cigar manufacturers, and stores selling everything from shoes, to jewelry and even a winemaker.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe commercial areas develop near the courthouse because that\u2019s where people came to do business,\u201d said local historian Joy Wallace Dickinson.<\/p>\n

As decades progressed, neighborhoods began to form around the numerous lakes dotting the map surrounding downtown.<\/p>\n

At Lake Lucerne, just south of downtown, an English settler named Charles Lord bought four swans to put on the lake \u2013 a pair of Royal Mutes and a pair of Australian Black Swans \u2013 including one who became the city\u2019s first iconic bird, Billy.<\/p>\n

Billy The Swan ultimately proved to be a territorial bully and the two Australians had to be moved to nearby Lake Eola for their safety in 1922, kicking off more than a century of the birds being synonymous with what became the city\u2019s signature park. Billy The Swan ultimately died in 1933 and is taxidermied at the Orange County Regional History Center.<\/p>\n

A flock of swans remains at Lake Eola, though it\u2019s expected its days are numbered. Earlier this year, after a bout with the avian flu and criticisms that conditions at the lake weren\u2019t appropriate for the fowl, city officials announced they\u2019d be moving the birds away and suspending their swan program.<\/p>\n

At least some of the birds that live at the lake are wild \u2013 the majority are owned and maintained by the city \u2013 and will remain if they choose to.<\/p>\n

The 20th century<\/h4>\n

In the booming 1920s, Orlando\u2019s population tripled in the course of one decade to about 30,000.<\/p>\n

The \u201920s also brought Orlando\u2019s first three skyscrapers. The 11-story Angebilt Hotel was built in 1923, and a year later, two more 10-story skyscrapers were built in the Orlando Bank & Trust Co. building and the State Bank of Orlando.<\/p>\n

While the Great Depression slowed development, it didn\u2019t completely come to a halt it like in other parts of the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see the number of building permits or the cost of construction going way down, but it does not stop,\u201d said Richard Forbes, the city\u2019s former historic preservation officer. \u201cSome places in the north, it just stopped. Here it just kind of kept going.\u201d<\/p>\n

World War II brought a revival of Orlando\u2019s economy, as\u00a0manufacturing plants and businesses contributed to the war effort and more than 9,000 assault ships were produced in Orlando, according to the Florida Archive.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who came to Florida to serve in the military and people who were stationed in Florida at that time, after the war they decided to come back and settle,\u201d Dickinson said.<\/p>\n

Much like rail opened Orlando up to rapid growth, so did the opening of Interstate 4 in the early 1960s, which brought highway traffic right through the heart of downtown.<\/p>\n

Progress came at a price, however. More than 500 homes and businesses in the historically Black neighborhood of Parramore were taken through eminent domain and bulldozed to build the interstate.<\/p>\n

The highway brought people to Orlando from across the country \u2013 and is credited in part with the region\u2019s most important new business.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen [Walt] Disney was flying over the area because it was new \u2013 the roads were brand new at the time, the Turnpike and I-4 \u2013 he said, \u2018that\u2019s it,\u2019\u201d Forbes said.<\/p>

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And in 1965, Walt Disney announced his vast theme park plan at the Cherry Park Hotel on Central Boulevard, at the southeast corner of Lake Eola. Today, it\u2019s the site of a World of Beer.<\/p>\n

Decline<\/h4>\n

Before the rise of the suburbs, downtown had been the region\u2019s commercial capital. Department stores anchored Orange Avenue, including rival giants Dickson & Ives and Ivey\u2019s.<\/p>\n

The two stores faced each other across Orange Avenue \u2013 but during the holidays, they came together to hang a giant light-up star between them.<\/p>\n

In 1957, one of the oldest business still remaining downtown, Labelle Furs, moved to its current location at 351 N. Orange Avenue. Arthur Labellman, 81, ran the shop started by his grandfather in 1919 for more than 50 years, selling mink coats and other products at the height of downtown\u2019s retail era.\u00a0His son, Alex, runs the fourth-generation family business today.<\/p>\n

The 1960s were good for business,\u00a0Labellman said, as jet travel opened Orlando up to the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt didn\u2019t matter if you lived in Orlando and it was November and it was 85 degrees \u2026 you could get on a plane and be in Colorado, or North Carolina to ski,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As a child in the 1950s, he remembered taking the bus to a downtown movie theater with his friends, and could be out of the house for hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Saturday matinee would be seven or eight cents. A bag of popcorn was a nickel. A coke was a nickel,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019d be gone from your house from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. \u2013 and I know a lot of mothers appreciated that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon, however, downtown retailers began to lose ground to newer, more modern shopping centers such as Colonial Plaza and Western Way.<\/p>\n

The key to their success was to capitalize on one of downtown\u2019s weaknesses: parking.<\/p>\n

\u201cParking has always been an issue downtown,\u201d Dickinson said. \u201cSo when Colonial Plaza was built in 1956 and built this big parking lot where you could park for free, ultimately that was the start of downtown being weakened as a commercial center.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1963, the head of a redevelopment board called downtown business owners \u201cout of touch\u201d for not wanting to subsidize free parking downtown.<\/p>\n

Amid the decline, Dickson & Ives closed in 1965 and Ivey\u2019s followed in 1976, shortly after the Fashion Square Mall opened. Now, long after the stores have gone, the City of Orlando itself hangs the renamed Jack Kazanzas Star each year.<\/p>\n

But the solution for the city\u2019s future, it turned out, was rooted in the past.<\/p>\n

Church Street<\/h4>\n

In 1974, entrepreneur Bob Snow opened what became one of downtown Orlando\u2019s all-time most famous attractions by converting a deserted rail station into Church Street Station, a collection of bars and venues that grew to attract millions to one of the city\u2019s oldest streets.<\/p>\n

Its hip, retro venues included Rosie O\u2019Grady\u2019s Good Time Emporium, the Cheyenne Saloon, Apple Annie\u2019s Courtyard, Lili Marlene\u2019s Aviator\u2019s Pub and Phineas Phogg\u2019s Balloon Works. Snow built the famous Church Street Station bridge over the road that resembled a train car.<\/p>\n

He was first drawn to the abandoned historic site while on a business trip to Orlando, ultimately buying seven parcels for $22 million. Visitation peaked at 3.5 million, Snow told the Orange County Regional History Center in a 2020 article before his death in 2025.<\/p>\n

One of the most famous escapades at Church Street took place in 1997. NBA legend Charles Barkley, who was in town for a preseason game, was drinking with friends and teammate Clyde Drexler at Phineas Phogg\u2019s when a patron threw a cup of ice at them. Barkley grabbed him and threw the 120-pound man through a plate-glass window, police said at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guy threw a drink at me, and I threw him through a window,\u201d Barkley said weeks later. \u201cI\u2019m not going to plead guilty. I\u2019m going to fight it.\u201d Ultimately, he settled the charges outside of court.<\/p>\n

Barkley was in town to square off with the Orlando Magic, who kicked off play in 1989 at the Orlando Arena, built for $110 million using entirely public money. The facility, later called the Amway Arena, was on West Amelia Street on what is now Creative Village.<\/p>\n

Orlando\u2019s current 9-story City Hall was opened in 1992 \u2013 and soon after, footage of the dynamite-demolition of the old municipal headquarters was used in the opening scene of the Mel Gibson blockbuster Lethal Weapon 3. The city inked a $50,000 contract with Warner Brothers to offset demolition costs.<\/p>\n

Triple Crown<\/h4>\n

Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer first ran in 2003 on a platform of revitalizing downtown and building a new performing arts center. He said he soon realized that the Magic\u2019s arena was in need of steep renovations \u2013 or a new building altogether \u2013 and the then-Citrus Bowl also needed modernizing to remain a premier bowl game destination.<\/p>\n

In a 2006 speech, he dubbed the effort the \u201cTriple Crown for Downtown.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next year, a $1.1 billion package was approved with a mix of funding sources ranging from Tourist Development Taxes, property taxes and private donations.<\/p>\n

Dyer, mayor for 23 years, says to this day the deal was the most complicated he\u2019s undertaken.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt had more moving pieces than anything I\u2019ve ever been involved with,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the $480 million Amway Center, now the Kia Center \u2013 nearly twice the size of its predecessor \u2013 was built on a city block at Church Street and Hughey Avenue.<\/p>\n

The Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts opened in 2014 on 9 acres across from City Hall at a cost of $614 million. Today, it features three theaters and a jazz concert venue and has vast expansion plans across South Street on land it purchased last year for nearly $11 million.<\/p>\n

It was a night-and-day upgrade from the\u00a0city\u2019s main performing arts facility,\u00a0Bob Carr Theatre, which was built in 1927.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think our community could not imagine Orlando without the venues,\u201d Dyer said.<\/p>\n