Orange County 200th Anniversary

Mosquito County was the original name for a vast county that encompassed much of eastern Florida. Its territory included what are now Volusia, Brevard, Indian River, St. Lucie, Marion, Martin, Seminole, Osceola, Orange, Lake, Polk, and Palm Beach counties.

Built by troops under the leadership of Brigadier General Abraham Eustis on Christmas Day in 1837, Fort Christmas was one of 200 forts established across Florida during the Second Seminole War. By the end of the war in 1842, the fort was abandoned. While the original structure no longer exists, in the late 1970s, Orange County and the Fort Christmas Historical Society constructed an honorary replica about one mile south of the original location.

Fort Gatlin, established November 9, 1838, served as a military outpost during the Second Seminole War. Named for Army Assistant Surgeon John S. Gatlin, the state militia utilized the fort until 1849. In 1856, the community that settled around the fort became the county seat for Orange County.

In the 1830s, Mosquito County was home to native tribes, largely represented by the Seminole tribe, as well as over 700 white settlers. Considered the first white settler of what would become Orlando for his work in community building, Aaron Jernigan moved to what was then Mosquito County in 1843 from Georgia, settling on the northwest shore of Lake Holden. When Orange County was created out of Mosquito County in 1845, Jernigan was elected as the county's first representative to the state legislature. To protect local homesteaders from Seminole attacks in the late 1840s, he built a blockade, which would become a central point to the growing community and became known as the village of Jernigan - a precursor to Orlando.

When Florida achieved statehood in 1845, Mosquito County was renamed Orange County. As the population grew, new counties were carved from its territory, including Volusia, Lake, Osceola, and Seminole.

In the late 1800s, this region possessed a wealth of pine and oak trees for construction. David Lockhart, the town’s namesake, saw an opportunity and opened a sawmill. With work available, the town began to grow, and Lockhart quickly became an important location for the transport of lumber and citrus, its two biggest industries.

Orange County Public Schools was organized in December 1869, and its first schoolhouse was located on West Church Street. It was a two-room log cabin that also held church services. At the time of the first school board meeting, teachers were paid one dollar a month per student.

The Orange County Reporter, a precursor to the Orlando Sentinel, began in the mid-to-late-1870s. Its original printing press was on the corner of East Central Boulevard and South Magnolia Avenue.

The Orange County Jailhouse was built in 1884 and is located on the corner of Orange Avenue and Washington Street.

The original Pine Castle was a private home built by poet Will Harney, who moved to Central Florida from Ohio after the Civil War. Settling on Lake Conway south of Orlando, he built a castle from native pine trees, naming it “Pine Castle.” Harney wrote extensively about the region’s beauty and endured the challenges of pioneer life. Within a matter of just a few years, the entire community was referred to as Pine Castle.

Fort Maitland served as a military outpost starting in 1838 during the Second Seminole War. In 1871, the area saw its first permanent settler, Christopher Columbus Beasley. He converted a post office out of his home, which became the nucleus of the new town. By 1885, Maitland incorporated and became a hub for citrus production.

In 1885, Stanley Scott settled Windermere, building a home and planting orange groves. He named the Town Windermere after Lake Windermere in his homeland of England. While a community quickly grew around Scott’s settlement, the town did not incorporate until 1925.

Founded in 1885 by German immigrant Henry Hemple, the town of Gotha is the only German settlement in Florida. Approximately thirty German residents worked to establish the town, creating the Turnverein Hall for meetings, dances, and gymnastics. Gotha was also home to Dr. Henry Nehrling, a horticulturist with an experimental botanical garden who played a role in shaping Florida’s horticulture.

Founded in 1887, Eatonville is recognized nationally as the oldest black-incorporated municipality in the United States. It is also the hometown of writer, folklorist, and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston. In 1990, the town founded the Zora Neale Hurston Museum of Fine Arts and hosted the annual Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities. Eatonville earned official designation in the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.

Incorporated in 1887, Winter Park was founded as a resort community catering to wintering tourists from the north. In 1885, Florida’s first four-year college, Rollins College, was founded and remains an integral part of Winter Park's history and culture. Since 1938, Scenic Boat tours have been operating on Lake Osceola and navigating the Winter Park chain of lakes and manmade canals for residents and tourists.

Originally called the Old Orlando Railroad Depot, Church Street Station was built in 1889 to service the South Florida Railroad. In 1926, passenger services were transferred to the new station one mile south, what is now the Orlando Health Station. In 1974, Bob Snow opened Rosie O’Grady’s in the old depot, which became Florida's fourth most popular tourist destination. The entertainment emporium saw a decline throughout the 1990s and closed in 2001.

The fourth official Orange County courthouse was built in 1892, constructed of red brick in a Gothic Revival architectural style, and included a bell tower. The courthouse was located on East Central Boulevard, the current site of Heritage Park, in front of the Orange County Regional History Center. When a new courthouse was built in 1927 - the current site of the History Center - the old courthouse was used as a meeting space and housed displays of historical Orlando items. The building was demolished in 1957 to make way for the courthouse annex.

Before its incorporation in 1891, Oakland played an instrumental role in Central Florida during the Civil War. The Oakland post office was the only one to operate in the County between 1861 and 1867, helping to establish the area as a center of commerce during its early years.

Located on the southern shores of Lake Apopka, Winter Garden was first settled in the 1850s, but was not incorporated as a town until 1908. The arrival of the Orange Belt Railroad in the 1880s and the growing production of citrus, turpentine, and lumber drove the town's growth throughout the late 19th century and into the 20th. At one time, Winter Garden was one of the world’s largest citrus growing, processing and shipping centers.

Although Wewahotee appeared on Orange County maps starting in 1916, historical references suggest settlement activity as early as the 1880s. The Florida East Coast Railway also had a Wewahotee stop before this date.

The hospital system known today as Orlando Health opened in 1918 as Orange General Hospital. Originally, the building had two functioning floors with no gas, electricity, or air conditioning. Over the years, the hospital system has grown along with Orlando’s ever-growing population serving the southeast region of the United States in over 100 medical specialties.

Early settlers arrived at what would later become Apopka in the 1850s, shortly after Florida became a state, and began planting and trading crops, including cotton, corn, and sugar cane. By 1856, enough settlers formed a Masonic lodge, leading the community to be called The Lodge in its early years. It wasn’t until 1882 that the community was incorporated as a town. In 1919, it was incorporated as the City of Apopka.

In the 1880s, Ocoee was the home of the first citrus nursery in the United States. Early settlers platted the area and named it Ocoee after a river in Tennessee at the suggestion of Confederate Army Captain Bluford Sims. Ocoee was incorporated as a town in 1923 and a city in 1925. On November 2, 1920, the entire African American community of Ocoee was attacked by the Ku Klux Klan when two black men attempted to vote. This resulted in the lynching of July Perry and 24 black-owned homes burned down.

The Orange County Library System grew from a generous donation of Captain Charles Albertson’s genealogical library to the City of Orlando. In 1923, the Albertson Public Library opened on the corner of Central Boulevard and Rosalind Avenue and was maintained by the Sorosis Club of Orlando. By 1966, Orlando’s population outgrew the initial library building and a new library was built encompassing the entire city block.

Belle Isle (which means “beautiful island”) was first chartered as a town in April 1924 to avoid being incorporated into Pine Castle. Early Belle Isle settler and horticulturist C.H. Hoffner was the town’s first mayor. An advocate of the city’s beautification, Hoffner oversaw planting some 6,000 trees in Orange County between 1910-1927. In 1972, the State of Florida officially recognized Belle Isle’s charter, its City Hall was named “Dexter Hall” after Mayor Ross Dexter, the first mayor to pass away while in office.

In 1924, Wilbur and Rose Warren donated eight acres of land to establish the county's first public park. Additional land was donated by local families over the years, leading to the formal establishment of the Orange County Parks and Recreation Division in 1973.

Edgewood was incorporated as a town in 1924 and a city in 1973. The community began developing in the 1880s when the railroad from Orlando to Tampa was under construction. In the 1990s, Edgewood annexed several contiguous Orange County neighborhoods to double its size.

Since 1924, Great Oaks Village has provided a haven for children and young adults removed from their homes due to abuse, neglect, or abandonment. It remains one of Florida’s most historic residential foster group homes.

Developer Gordon Barnett founded Pine Hills in 1952 as a suburban community for workers at Martin Marietta's defense facility. It became one of the area's first planned suburbs.

An aircraft and aerospace manufacturer, the Glenn L. Martin Company first opened its Orlando office in 1956. The Orlando office was the main contractor for the U.S. Army’s Pershing missile. Over the years, the Martin Company has undergone a series of mergers, becoming what is known today as Lockheed Martin.

Originally named the Pine Castle Air Force Base, the McCoy Air Force Base was renamed in 1958 after Colonel Michael Norman Wright McCoy crashed his plane at the base to avoid crashing into a residential area due to a wing failure. During World War II, the base was utilized as a training facility for testing B-17 bombers and chemical munitions. In the 1960s, the base became a joint facility for civil and military use. In 1975, the airport transitioned to exclusive civil use and is now the Orlando International Airport.

Interstate 4 (I-4) spans the state from Tampa to Daytona Beach and connects many of Florida’s most visited destinations. The first section opened to motorists in 1959 and has since grown to 132.3 miles in length, notably running through downtown Orlando and the tourism corridor.

The City of Bay Lake, named after the nearby lake, was incorporated in 1967. Bay Lake has evolved to include the iconic Walt Disney World theme parks of Central Florida: Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom, as well as Blizzard Beach water park and Fort Wilderness Campground.

Lake Buena Vista was incorporated in 1967 as the City of Reedy Creek, which was controlled by Walt Disney Productions. In 1969, the city was renamed Lake Buena Vista after the street in Burbank, California, where The Walt Disney Company is headquartered. Several Disney resorts and the Disney Springs entertainment district are in Lake Buena Vista today.

Initially utilized as the Orlando Army Air Station during World War II, the Naval Training Center (NTC) was transferred to the Navy in 1968. It served as a training facility for more than 650,000 Navy recruits. The NTC closed in 1993, and Mayor Glenda Hood spearheaded the Base Reuse Plan, which transformed the site into the community of Baldwin Park.

Florida Technological University (FTU) opened in 1968 out of a growing interest in space travel throughout the 1960s. Initial majors offered at the university focused on science, technology, and engineering to benefit the space program at the nearby Kennedy Space Center. Over the years, the university grew to provide a more diverse catalog of majors and in 1978, the university changed its name to the University of Central Florida.

After years of anticipation, the Walt Disney World Resort officially opened on October 1, 1971. Disney’s offerings have continued to grow in scope over the years, with four major theme parks and scores of other entertainment, recreation, and hotel options for guests from all over the world. The company’s presence in the area has had an immense impact on the local economy and the general public's perception of Central Florida.

On December 15, 1973, SeaWorld Orlando (then known as SeaWorld of Florida) opened its gates and has been an enduring staple of Central Florida’s attraction scene ever since. Millions of visitors visit the property each year, which now includes Aquatica waterpark and Discovery Cove, an interactive marine life attraction.

Originally built for the U.S. military, the airport shifted to civilian use in 1981, opening its first passenger terminals and establishing itself as a key transportation hub.

Founded in 1989, the Orlando Magic has played in two downtown Orlando venues: the Orlando Arena (1989-2010) and the Kia Center (2010-present). Orlando’s first central professional sports team, the Magic, has won two Eastern Conference championships (1995 and 2009) and seven division titles.

Universal Studios Florida opened on June 7, 1990, offering a behind-the-scenes peek at movie production and a chance to experience attractions based on some of Hollywood’s most beloved films. Today, the theme park is part of the larger Universal Orlando Resort, which includes resort hotels, Universal Islands of Adventure, Volcano Bay Water Park, and the soon-to-open Universal Epic Universe. The resort also hosts the immensely popular Halloween Horror Nights each fall, attracting droves of tourists and locals alike.

The Orange County Medical Clinic began serving the community in 1993, providing primary healthcare to more than 10,000 uninsured and underinsured patients annually through a network of 12 facilities, hospitals, and social service agencies.

Opening at 425 N. Orange Avenue in 1997, the Orange County Courthouse is a 23-level courthouse tower, 416 feet high, with over 965,000 square feet of interior space. The courthouse is flanked by two buildings: Building A, occupied by the Public Defender, and Building B, occupied by the State Attorney. The building was the site of the noteworthy 2011 trial of accused murderer Casey Anthony.

Orange County has long been celebrated as one of the nation's most traveled destinations, known for its iconic theme parks, vibrant arts scene, diverse culinary experiences, and thriving cultural landscape. However, what truly makes us unique is our unwavering commitment to creating a community that works for everyone – where no one is left behind. Whether you're one of our 1.5 million residents or among the 74 million visitors who explore our community each year, welcome to Orange County.