Saving the Black Bottom House of Prayer
A century-old church in Parramore becomes a rallying point for preservation, partnership, and neighborhood renewal. By Susan Moynihan from the Fall 2025 edition of Reflections Magazine Driving a friend home in Orlando’s Parramore district in 2015, Pastor Dana Jackson wasn’t thinking about buying real estate. Her son had recently died,
Turnbull’s New Smyrna: The Rise and Fall of an 18th-Century British Settlement in Florida
By Rachel Williams The coquina foundation found at the intersection of North Riverside Drive and Washington Street in New Smyrna Beach is a relic of an 18th-century structure, often referred to as the “Old Fort Ruins” or “Turnbull Ruins.” This site holds significant historical value, as it dates back to
Weather, Water, Railroads, and Good Roads: Orlando Tourism Before Disney
By Joy Wallace Dickinson and Rick Kilby from the Spring 2025 Edition of Reflections Magazine “With the coming of the railroad Orlando’s days as a pioneer town were numbered,” historian Eve Bacon wrote about the event that made Orlando accessible from Sanford and in essence all points north, by train
Orange County Library System Shares Orlando’s History
By Scottie Campbell You would have to live under the Linton E. Allen Memorial Fountain in Lake Eola to not know that the City of Orlando is celebrating its 150th year. The Orange County Library System has marked the occasion with a trio of blog posts exploring different aspects of
Back to School
by Rick Kilby from the Summer 2014 edition of Reflections Magazine As students throughout Central Florida return to school, here’s a sampling of then and now images from a few of Orlando’s historic schools.
The History and Transformation of Baldwin Park in Orlando
By Brendan Bunting O’Connor from the Spring 2025 Edition of Reflections Magazine Baldwin Park, located just minutes from downtown Orlando, is a vibrant and picturesque community that combines modern living with a deep sense of history, and just a dash of Stepford-like planned-community plastic falseness. One of the things that
Jonestown’s Silent Remembrance: Uncovering the History of Orlando’s First African American Community
By Sarah M. Boye, from the Spring 2025 Edition of Reflections from Central Florida On a breezy fall day, a group of tour attendees stood solemnly by the grave of Osborne Brooks in Orlando’s Greenwood Cemetery, listening as the tour guide explained his family’s connection to the city. Like many
Will Wallace Harney: Central Florida’s Pioneering One-Man Chamber of Commerce
By William S. Morgan V. from the Spring 2025 Edition of Reflections from Central Florida In the tumultuous years following the Civil War, a man arrived on the Central Florida frontier with a vision of how its untamed wilderness might be transformed. Where others saw only dense forests, swamps, and
Beyond the Veil: Oral Histories from Cassadaga
By Adedoyin Adekunle and Justine Truc, 2024 University of South Carolina Oral History Fellows The Orange County Regional History Center’s oral histories cover a wide range of topics, including narratives from the Volusia County community of Cassadaga, sometimes called the “Psychic Capital of the World.” Such narratives are recalled in
Orlando’s Suburban Shift: Colonial Plaza and the Evolution of the City’s Retail Landscape
By Rachel Williams from the Spring 2025 Edition of Reflections Magazine “The one-stop shopping center of tomorrow that’s here today” – that was the tagline in the Orlando Sentinel when Colonial Plaza officially opened on Jan. 31, 1956. What might seem like an ordinary shopping center to 21st-century residents was