Discover Palm Cottage, a relocated 1880s house and six-acre garden where 3,000+ plant species were tested, shaping Florida horticulture forever.
Category: Orlando History
Orlando High School: Sixty Years at the Heart of a City
Orlando High School shaped downtown Orlando for 60 years. Discover the people, buildings, and traditions behind the city’s original public high school…
Northgate 4: Orlando’s Beloved Edgewater Drive Cinema
Northgate 4 was the beloved four-screen cinema tucked inside Northgate Plaza on Edgewater Drive, a cheap-ticket paradise for north Orlando families from 1971 to 1993.
Merita Bread: The Orlando Factory That Made I-4 Smell Like Home
The Merita Bread factory perfumed Orlando’s I-4 for over 50 years. Here’s the story of the bakery, its workers, and the neon sign that lives on.
The Cherry Plaza Hotel: Orlando’s Most Storied Building You’ve Never Heard Of
The Cherry Plaza Hotel on Lake Eola hosted Walt Disney’s secret 1965 announcement, a presidential overnight, and Orlando’s best parties.
Morrison’s Cafeteria: The Steam-Table Sunday Tradition That Fed a City
Morrison’s Cafeteria shaped Orlando life for decades, from its 1932 downtown opening on West Central Ave. to suburban spots in Altamonte Springs and Kissimmee.
The Old Packing House: From Oranges to a Woolly Mammoth Foot in Winter Garden
The Old Packing House in Winter Garden is turning a 1909 citrus plant into a food hall, fossil museum, and community market.
Orlando’s Kress Building: The Wildest Résumé of Any Building in Downtown
The Kress Building in downtown Orlando has been a dime store, a civil-rights battleground, a medieval dinner theater, and a steakhouse…
Orlando Family Stage at 100: The Unlikely Century of a Children’s Theatre That Refused to Quit
Orlando Family Stage has been staging plays for Central Florida families for 100 years.
The Tinker Building: How a Baseball Legend Left His Name on Downtown Orlando
The Tinker Building at 16–18 W. Pine Street is one of downtown Orlando’s most storied landmarks…