Compelled to Create: Meet the Figurehead Five
Poster designers helped put Orlando indie music scene on the map By Rick Kilby, from the Fall 2022 edition of Reflections Magazine When I moved to Orlando in the late 1980s, the city was in the midst of a boom that had started with Disney World opening in 1971 and
Nancy Rosado’s Story of 9/11
by Aleksandra Ciecielag-Floto, Ph.D. from the Fall 2021 edition of Reflections magazine Advisory: This article includes explicit language within quoted material. Nancy Rosado has been a community activist in Orlando for more than a decade. Her education in social work, with a specialization in suicide prevention and traumatic stress, as
WPRK: The Best in Basement Radio and the Voice of Rollins
By Wenxian Zhang from the Fall 2022 edition of Reflections magazine Often called “the best in basement radio and the voice of Rollins,” radio station WPRK has been on the air in Central Florida for 70 years. It is not the first station to broadcast from the Winter Park college, however.
Can’t Stop the Music
By Whitney Barrett, History Center Archivist From the Spring 2022 edition of Reflections From Central Florida Although you might not think of Orlando as a popular music destination, many of the great singers of jazz, blues, and gospel music passed through the city during its history. Big names such as Ray Charles,
Orlando’s Pioneering Drive-In Movie Theater
By Lesleyanne Drake Across the nation, there is one industry that appears to be flourishing during the pandemic: drive-in movie theaters. Orlando’s first drive-in movie theater opened on February 7, 1940, at 1001 South Orange Blossom Trail. Originally called “The Drive-In Theater” and later renamed the Orlando Drive-In, it was
Historic Orlando House Threatened
Today, Sam Robinson’s substantial residence, which fronted a vast orange grove in 1885, has become an imposing four-columned mansion on a heavily traveled downtown street.
Downtown Orlando’s Civil Rights Sit-Ins
On March 9, 1962, eleven Black students were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct for simply refusing to vacate a whites-only lunch counter during a peaceful sit-in demonstration at Stroud’s Rexall Drugstore on Orange Avenue and Church Street.
“I’m the Gay Pastor of the Gay Church”
Joy MCC is part of the Metropolitan Community Churches across America, congregations that actively promote acceptance and understanding around issues of sexuality, gender, and race, to name a few key initiatives.
Muslim Community Response to the Pulse Nightclub Shooting
Part one of two focusing on religious response to the Pulse nightclub shooting and featuring oral histories from the History Center’s collection.
Frank Billingsley awarded the 2021 Donald A. Cheney Award
Congratulations to Frank Billingsley, the 2021 recipient of our Donald A. Cheney Award, which each year honors a Central Floridian who embodies a lifelong dedication to preserving the area’s history.