Altermese Bentley: The Significance of Baked Cornbread
By Keauna Brantley from the Spring 2026 Edition of Reflections Magazine Early Black settlers played essential roles in developing the economic and social infrastructure of Central Florida. In the Sanford area during the antebellum period, these settlers were primarily composed of two groups: those who fled from enslavement on northern
The Church Street Melting Pot
By Rick Kilby from the Fall 2025 Edition of Reflections Magazine The infamous Great Freeze of 1894-1895, which devastated the Orlando area’s citrus crop, was an enormous setback for the young city. It took fifteen years to recover, but Orlando’s population still doubled from 1910 to 1920, to over 20,000.
From Service to Celebration
By Cheyenne Stastyshyn from the Spring 2026 Edition of Reflections Magazine A veteran, community builder, and keeper of history, Dorothy Turner Johnson exemplified a life shaped by service and sustained by purpose. The year 2026 marks the commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the United States of America. As we
Beyond the Skyline: Black History, Entrepreneurship, and Change in Parramore
By Kylee Encarnacion, from the Fall 2025 edition of Reflections magazine From humble beginnings to its role as a booming tourist center, Orlando encompasses many layers of deep history, connected by its communities and by the way their residents made a living. Beginning in the 1880s, one such community, the
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,
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
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
Commodore Rose and the River of Freedom
By Rick Kilby from the Spring 2024 Edition of Reflections Magazine Who Was Commodore Rose in Pioneer Florida?” reads a February 1975 headline for Marian Godown’s “Here’s Florida” feature in the Fort Myers News-Press. Godown invited readers to take a quickie quiz: was the Commodore the owner of a steamboat
What Remains: A Land Called Wewahotee
By Kelly D’Ambrosio Land changes hands and names as the years pass, extending its story with each transaction. In the case of a lost Central Florida community named Wewahotee – now often spelled Wewahootee – an expansive story has become muddled by time and land ownership. Even its exact location
Rosa Lee Jones: The Mother of Cocoa
By Marissa Bellenger, HERstory: Women in History Intern at the History Center for fall 2022 The Space Coast certainly has its share of significant history, including notable women, but you may not have heard of one of the most remarkable: Rosa Lee Jones. Her life was dedicated to activism and