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
Orlando Changes
The change Disney created in Orlando surely qualifies as the most dramatic and complete, with the most far-reaching consequences, but it was definitely not the first. Historian Tana Porter lists other significant events that shaped the City Beautiful.
Creating Church Street Station
“When we were goin’ and blowin’,” Bob Snow says Church Street Station “had such a reputation.” In its prime in the 1980s, it was one of the premier attractions in Florida. Lili Marlene's Aviator's Pub and Restaurant was the "top-grossing restaurant in the state until Hard Rock.”
Land of the Lost Attractions
Central Florida has long been a tourism hot spot where roadside attractions that have come and gone. Some, such as Cypress Gardens, loom large in Florida’s history, while others have been largely forgotten. Here’s a photographic look back at just a few.