From Dry Goods to Good Times: Downtown Orlando's Slemons Building

My love of history can be traced to my time working at the Church Street Station attraction in downtown Orlando. My first office was in the historic railroad depot; my second was in the Bumby Hardware building. The administrative offices of the nighttime attraction were located on the north side of Church Street above Rosie O' Grady's in the Slemons Building. I remember giving tours around the complex, pointing out antiques that were carefully collected by Bob Snow, such as the phone booth made from a church confessional or the enormous table said to belong to Al Capone in Lilis. I knew that Rosie's was formerly the Slemons Department Store and we had a photograph showing the interior and from it one could discern the bones of what would become Rosies. And to borrow a phrase from HGTV, that building had "good bones." And it still does today. 

The Slemons Building at 129 W. Church Street was designated a local landmark in 1978

Pioneer Merchants

William M. Slemons transported dry goods to frontier Orlando from Jonesboro, Tennessee in 1886 and the family business survived until 1950.  His first store was on the south side of West Church Street next to Bumby Hardware, and it was nicknamed the "Tennessee Store." A year later he moved into the W.G. White Goods Store on the corner of Church Street and Orange Avenue after White had passed away. White was Church Street's first merchant who had "ventured into the woods and erected a building at the corner of Church and Orange” and established a trading center” in 1880, according to historian W.R. O'Neal.

Slemons started his business with his bother-in-law, J.C. Taylor

 

Morning Sentinel ad for Slemons, October 17, 1914

 

From the Orlando Evening Star, November 28, 1924

Orlando Sentinel, August 1, 1927

By 1924, Slemons was ready to build his own space, so he hired the J.C. Hanner Construction Company of Orlando to construct a tan brick building to house his store. Slemons and his sons, Jim and Phil, also owned several stores at different locations throughout Orlando, which many others from this era did as well. The original pressed-metal ceiling, as well as the staircase and mezzanine, familiar details from Rosie O' Grady's, all date back to Slemons. The third floor of the building was the Orlando Hotel; years later rooms on that floor still had their hotel room numbers on the doors, including the room where Rosie's band members would jump on the fire pole to make their entrance on the stage below. I tried it once and to reach the fire pole required a little jump to reach the pole, a small act of faith.

 

 

Ad from the Orlando Evening Star, 1926

The elder Slemons died in 1933 at the age of 86. His sons carried on in his absence and in 1937 to celebrate 51 years in operation, they created a Pioneer Day promotion, awarding a brand-new Stetson hat to the oldest living male member of Central Florida pioneer families. Advertised as the "largest shipment of Stetson hats ever shipped to Central Florida" the promotion promised that honorees could pick out any hat the entire store.  The photo published in the newspaper shows 23 pioneers lined up on the steps inside the Church Street store including Phil and Jim Slemons.

From the Orlando Sentinel, October 6, 1937

 

Published October 23, 1937

In 1944, Phil Slemons and fellow businessman John Rowland appeared at a County Commission meeting to appeal for the preservation of the red brick Orange County Courthouse, built in 1893? "We saw the old courthouse built and we don't want to see it torn down," Slemons said, "That building is to Orange County Crackers what Independence Hall is to Philadelphians. Can you imagine anyone tearing down Independence Hall?" 

From the Orlando Morning Sentinel, November 17, 1944

A 1949 Sentinel ad again shows the Slemons leaning into their pioneer roots, the text of the advertisement reads:

"FOR 63 YEARS SLEMONS STORE HAS SERVED THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL FLA. FAIRLY AND FAITHFULLY people of Central Florida have provided abundantly and well for For 63 years the Slemon's family, for which we are most grateful. 

Slemon's has had from the ocean to the gulf, from the south tip of the state north Back before the roads paved and the branches bridged, the people of East customers to the Georgia line. were Orange County used to make a three day trip to Orlando, camping [Lake Greer overnite is at where the Greer, airport shopping is now]. Lake in Orlando the following day, and driving home the next day. During the past 63 years, our friends and customers have used many forms of transportation. They have come by ox-cart, Florida horse and wagon, horse drawn street cars, the early the old-time automobiles, and today by sleek luxurious cars, and some customers even fly their planes to Orlando to trade."

The ad concludes "If you are an old timer, come and meet your friends; if you are a new-comer, come and If you are an old-timer, come meet of the old and timers, floods; some people of the finest people in the world, people who have gone through the freezes, droughts, and stay right on."

Orlando Evening Star, May 25, 1949

Phillip Slemons, who arrived during the pioneer days of Orlando as a four-year-old, died in November of 1949, ending the era of the family-owned store on Church Street. On February 2, 1950 a full-page ad in the Sentinel notified the public of the grand opening of the Belk-Lindsey department store in the Slemons Building. Owners and operators of more that 300 stores, the department store chain was started in Ocala in 1924 by Colin Lindsey and grew quickly, with a base of operations in Tampa. 

Orlando Evening Star, February 2, 1950

A front-page photograph shows Belk-Lindsey founder Colin Lindsey shaking hands with Church Street merchants including the Bumbys and Purcels, who operated retail businesses on the south side of the street. First National Bank president Linton Allen was also in attendance. 

Orlando Evening Star, February 3, 1950

The Belk Lindsey stint downtown was short lived, however, as the retailer announced plans five years later to build a million-dollar store in the Colonial Plaza shopping center, as Orlandoans made a shift from shopping in downtown stores to indoor malls in the what was then the suburbs. The 80,000 square-foot store was to be Orlando's largest retail space. Downtown retail would never be the same.

Goodwill Industries moved into the Slemons space in 1960, staying until 1968 when they moved across the street to the former Bumby Hardware building, just west of the tracks. 

Orlando Evening Star, June 15, 1955

 

Orlando Sentinel, November 7, 1960

 

The Slemons Building before renovation  (image: Orange County Regional History Center)

Three Decades of Good Times

The fortunes of the building took a positive turn when Bob Snow, a former U.S. Navy pilot and professional jazz musician arrived on the scene in 1973 and remade the former department store into a roaring nightclub from another era, Rosie O' Grady's Good Time Emporium. Snow had transformed an old tobacco warehouse into a thriving entertainment hub that help revitalize downtown Pensacola. The entertainment complex developed organically from the Rosie O’ Grady’s nightclub to an entire district called the Seville Quarter that would include the familiar establishments of Apple Annie’s, Phineas Phogg’s and Lili Marlene’s also present in Orlando. The good times still roll there today.

Orlando Sentinel, July 16, 1973

Snow's Orlando empire would begin with those good bones of the Selmons building. He manifested a New Orleans Bourbon Street ambiance which would eventually encompass the entire block. Rosie's opened in the summer of 1974 with a $1 admission fee.  After a May 1974 Rosie’s preview, Jerry Chicone, president of Orlando Central Business District, would say "“I think we created a monster.” A year later, in 1975 Snow added that Rosie’s “had done 150 percent of my wildest expectations” with over half a million guests the first year. 

The entertainment consisted of incredible live Dixieland Jazz, bartop can can dancers, and singing waiters, and more, creating an experience the likes of Central Florida had never seen.  The whole show was high energy – while sirens raged the band members would come down the fire pole and then the Red Hot Mama would make a grand entrance from the Slemons mezzanine. When reaching the stage, the Rubenesque blonde would belt out her trademark line, "if you can't hide it, decorate it." A Louie Armstrong look-a-like named Bill White would wail out the classic songs in a husky voice and the colorful spectacle would conclude with the appearance of Uncle Sam on stilts. 

(image: Orange County Regional History Center)

Flaming Hurricanes were the specialty cocktail of the house, another tip of the hat to Bourbon Street.  The popular Wednesday night Nickel Beer promotion, started in 1975, but only for the Ladies. In 1976 it was Nickel Beer for men was added on Mondays. In 1977 an ad proclaimed, "Henceforth and forevermore, Men and Women alike will be able to buy nickel beer from 4:30 to 8:30 on Wednesday." And it was good. 

From the Orlando Sentinel, January 25, 1976

The Slemons family leased the building to Snow at a favorable rate so that he was able to use the earnings from Rosie's to further develop other buildings on Church Street. He built Apple Annie's next door in 1976, Lili Marlene's in 1977, and completed the north side of Church Street with the creation of Phineas Phogg's in the old Teele Building in 1978. By the mid-1980s Church Street Station was the state's fourth largest attraction, drawing over 1.7 million visitors a year. The Bob Snow-era lasted until 1989, when he sold his remaining interests in Church Street Station to Constellation, the real estate subsidiary of Baltimore Gas and Electric, for $21 million dollars. He had sold half of his share to the organization a year prior for $40 million. By that time he had developed the south side of Church Street as well as the Exchange shopping complex to the north. When I joined the Church Street Station staff, Snow's attention was on re-creating the complex in a third location, Las Vegas.

The north side of Church street under construction

Bob Snow in Rosie O' Grady's 

Orlando Sentinel, June 22,1989

 

The Good Times Fizzle

After BG&E, a series of different owners would attempt to capture Snow's magic – with little success – including ENIC PLC, local real estate investors, Robert Kling and boy band mogul Lou Pearlman, and Tremont Reality Capital.  The last show in Rosie's was on August 1, 2001 during the Kling era.  

In 2010 the Slemons Building was purchased for $2.2 million dollars and leased out to investors who opened Mojo Bar & Grill. After struggling for two years, Mojo's closed and Harry Buffalo sports bar moved in. 

2010 interior renovations of the Slemons Building, Orlando Sentinel

Harry Buffalo, a chain with several locations in Ohio, lasted until the spring of 2023, when it posted this on Facebook: "If you haven’t heard….Harry Buffalo Downtown Orlando will be closing its doors for good this week. Saturday night will be our last night of operations. It’s unfortunate but our lease is up and the new owner of the building has different plans for the block. Before you ask - we have zero idea what they are." The building has been vacant ever since.

From Facebook

From the City of Orlando Facebook page

Leaps of Faith 

When William Slemons brought his family to frontier Orlando just a few years after the railroad had connected the town to the outside world, it was enormous leap of faith. Years later his sons would lean into their pioneer roots, and their store was where Orlando's pioneer families shopped and came together to share their experiences of building a city together.

For Bob Snow it was a different kind of a leap of faith; where others saw a dilapidated, decaying downtown, he saw potential. He recognized the good bones and the potential for using Church's Street's historic past to create a new kind of experience, steeped in nostalgia, but anchored in authentic spaces embellished with Snow's style and showmanship. He took huge financial risks but almost single-handed resurrected a derelict downtown.

This week, the city of Orlando passed a three year moratorium allowing developers to bypass the normal review by the Historic Preservation Board in the Downtown Historic District. I attended the meeting and argued that this hastily prepared ordinance put historic buildings, like the Slemons Building at risk. I argued that we owe the people who built this city – and the generations that follow – better. Those in favor of the ordinance believe that the HPB has provided obstacles for development downtown, which is currently in a down phase with many shuttered and unoccupied buildings. The city, who has a mixed record on preserving its historic buildings, is asking its residents to take a leap of faith and trust that developers will do what's best for downtown. We'll see where this risky path leads us. 

Orlando's first Black school

According to author and Jones High School graduate Leroy Argrett Jr., education for Black residents of Orlando dates to 1886 at a school called “Orlando Black.” The school, located at the southwest corner of Garland Avenue and Church Street was “not much of an organized school” but it set the precedent for formalized education for the Orlando African American Community. He lists four principals who oversaw the school from 1886 to 1894:

• P.T. Dodson (1886-87)
• S.A. Williams (1887-89)
• C. Jackson (1889-91)
• J. T. Shuften (1891-94)

In 1895, the school was relocated to the corner of Jefferson and Chatham streets and renamed the Johnson Academy.[1] According to the Jones High School Historical Society webpage, the Academy was named after Lyman Johnson, who was principal from 1895 to 1906, and supervised the move to the new location.[2]

Differing dates

There is some disagreement, however, in the date that the school opened. Mark Andrews, history columnist for the Orlando Sentinel, wrote in a 1994 article that according to William Blackman’s History of Orange County Florida, the first Black School in Orange County dates to 1877. He also notes that educator and historian Thelma Dudley asserted in her 1993 doctoral dissertation that in 1871 a school was created in Orange County for the education of Black youth.[3] But in another Andrew’s article citing Dudley’s research, he states that the “Orlando Colored School was founded in 1886.”[4]

Jim Robison clarifies that the first documented school in Orange County opened in 1877 near Sorrento at a settlement called Benton Prairie. He reveals that in 1877, all of Seminole County plus parts of Lake and Osceola Counties were part of then-Orange County. [5]

But according to a 1982 article about attempts to raise money to restore the old Callahan School, “the first Orlando Colored School was approved by the Orange County School Board” in 1882, four years before Argrett’s date of 1886.[6] A further contradiction appears in the notice about the Board of Public Instruction in the Orlando Evening Star from Dec. 1884 that notes that the “salary of assistant teacher of Orlando colored school was set at $35.”[7] It could be that the school board approved and set the salary a couple years before the school officially opened in 1886.

School board ledgers

The school board ledgers in the collection of the Orange County Regional History paints a compelling picture of the Orlando Colored School, which is abbreviated as “Orlando Cold” in the first volume. Designated School No. 35, the 1886 school year under P.T. Dodson went from October through March and averaged about 20 students a day. The following year principal S.A. Williams experiences a large increase in the number of students, rising to an average of 157 students over 7 months. As result total teacher salaries increases from $187 in 1886 to $1,400 in 1887. The first ledger goes through 1893 school year, while a second shows Lyman Johnson in charge in 1895. An 1893 entry shows that there were 6 teachers in addition to the principal teaching grades one through three. 

Masonic Hall on Garland and Church

The 1887 Sanborn fire insurance map confirms that there was a school at the time on the southwest corner of Garland Avenue and Church Street. The map also shows a Masonic Hall in the same space.[8]  E.H. Gore’s History of Orlando explains that the “first fraternal lodge in Orlando was Lodge No. 69 Free and Accepted Masons, which received its charter January 13, 1876” and their first Masonic Hall was located at Garland Avenue and Church Street. According to Gore, the lot was donated by Orlando pioneer William Patrick, and the hall was built “thereon April 1, 1882.”[9] According to the Lodge’s website, the structure was to be a 26’X40’ two-story building made of “rough lumber and unplastered interior walls.” The text on the website explains that the upper floor was used as the Masonic Lodge the lower floor was “given to Public Schools, where three grades met.”[10]

In the first volume of Orlando: A Centennial History, Eve Bacon wrote that the first floor of the Lodge was empty until it was loaned to the city for use as a schoolroom. “Three grades and three teachers were moved into the building” she writes, “all three grades occupied the same room, but were arranged in groups by grade.”[11]

According to the Lodge No. 69 website, the Masons sold the Church Street property in 1888 and moved to a new location on Pine Street.

Conclusions

Several contemporary newspaper articles reported that by 1884 “seven of Orange County’s 94 schools were dedicated to teaching black children.”[12] As mentioned before that the area of Orange County was much larger than it is today, as Lake and Osceola Counties were formed in 1887 from portions of Orange County, and Seminole was not created until 1913. Bacon states that in 1884 there were 292 students living inside the Orlando city limits and fifty-eight living outside of its boundaries.[13] Although that number seems high, Orlando experienced meteoric growth during this period due to the arrival of the railroad, going from a population of just 200 in 1880 to 2,000 in 1886. The ledgers at the History Center show that the Orlando Black/Orlando Colored School was operating in 1886. It moved in 1895 and renamed the Johnson Academy which would become Jones High School in 1921. 

Although none of the sources that connect the Masonic Hall to its use as a school mention that it was a school for Black children, there are multiple sources listing the location of Orlando Black/Orlando Colored School as Garland and Church, so one can conclude that the Masonic Hall was site of what may have been Orlando’s first school for African American children. 

Figure 1:

Photo from How Distant Seems Our Starting Place Black history exhibit at the Orange County Regional History Center

Figure 2: Page from a brochure in the collection of the Orange County Regional History Center shows the full uncropped photograph used in the How Distant Now Seems Our Starting Place Black History exhibit.

 

Figure 3: Detail of School Board Ledger showing entries for School No. 35 (Orlando Cold) for 1886 and 1887

Figure 4: Sanborn Map Company, Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Orlando, Florida, showing the location of the “School” and  “Masonic Hall” at the intersection of Garland Avenue and Church Street

Figure 5: Screen capture from the history page of the website for Orlando Lodge No. 69 Free and Accepted Masons

Figure 6: J.T. Shuften, the fourth principal at the Orlando Colored School, was also the publisher of The Colored American, the first Black-owned newspaper in Georgia. He is one of the first Black journalists in Florida and was the first Black attorney to practice law in Orlando.

Figure 7: Notice from the Board of Public Instruction from the Orlando Evening Star published on Thursday, December 18, 1884 stating that the salary for assistant teachers at the Orlando colored school was fixed at $35.

Contemporary view of the intersection of Church and Garland

---

[1] Leroy Argreet, Jr., A History of the Black Community of Orlando Florida, p. 30.

[2] https://joneshighschoolhistoricalsociety.org/principals/

 

[3] County’s earliest black schools were established on a shoestring, Orlando Sentinel, May 22, 1994, p. 210 

[4] Teacher researches the struggle of segregated Jones High, Orlando Sentinel, Feb. 28, 1993, p.81

[5] Educator’s legacy still thrives, Orlando Sentinel, Feb. 6, 2005, pK2

[6] Party to raise funds to restore Callahan School, Orlando Sentinel, April 28, 1982, p. 3

[7] Board of Public Instruction, Orlando Evening Star, Dec. 18, 1884, p.3

[8] http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g3934om.g3934om_g013221887

[9] E.H. Gore, History of Orlando, p. 47

[10] https://orlandomasons.org/lodge-69-history/

 

[11] Eve Bacon, Orlando A Centennial History, Vol. 1, p. 114

[12] Establishing the 1^st school district was an education itself, Orlando Sentinel, p. 167

[13] Bacon, p.114

Mural Mystery Solved (Mostly)

With the help of friends, I was recently able to solve a mystery that I first stumbled across in 2009 connected to a photograph from 1937. I first came across the image while I was diving into the archives of the Joy Postle Collection to source images for an article to be published in Reflections magazine. Thanks to Denise Hall, the collection at UCF is quite extensive and includes artwork, photographs and even the artist's diary she kept during the 1930s. The photo that intrigues me so much was of a group of dignified people, gathered in front of a large painting of a Seminole Indian. On the back in pen is written:

1937

W.P.A. Art Project

Trip to U. of F. Gainesville

Joy P. Don Emory

M. Runyon in Center

Special Collections & University Archives Libraries

University of Central Florida

I recently returned to the archives while researching Joy Postle's Casa Iberia mural on the Rollins College campus and was reminded that I had never figured out the location of the image, who painted the beautiful artwork, or who the rest of the people in the photo were. So I reached out to Flo Turcotte at the Archives at UF and she enlisted the help of fellow archivist Sarah Coates.  It was she who discovered the location of the image:

"Found it! It was over the fireplace in the Bryan Lounge that was in the Florida Union, now Dauer Hall. I have no idea if this painting is still there, nor do I know what the old Bryan Lounge was turned into once the building was no longer the Florida Union.

 She also sent links showing the space with the painting: 

https://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00046690/00001/images

https://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00029575/00001/images

https://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00029862/00001/images

https://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00044644/00001/images/0

To find out if the painting was still hanging on campus, I turned to Pam Marlin, an Instagram contact who works at UF and has done incredible then and now photo work on campus – you can explore her site here. Here was her response to my inquiries about the paintings whereabouts: 

"I don’t believe the painting is still hanging in the building. I’ve been to Dauer Hall many times over the years, mostly for events at the Keene Faculty Center (created when Dauer Hall was renovated in the 1990s).  The room with the fireplace and painting may have been part of today's faculty center, however, this particular area has been subdivided. It is now configured into multiple rooms that house the Classics Department (with the Religion Department upstairs). 

I walked over to Dauer today and captured a photo of the SE corner of the building where I think the original fireplace and painting were (see attached).  Visible in the photo is an exterior view of the large bay window (seen in the old interior photos) and exterior chimney stacks (suggesting a fireplace).    I also walked into the Classics Department area specifically looking for the bay window and the fireplace, but the space is now divided into many rooms, some wood-paneled, with no fireplace or a view of the large bay window. My guess is that the fireplace was either covered or removed during renovation, and possibly the painting along with it.  The beautiful interior arches have been removed as well."

Courtesy Pam Marlin

Pam later went inside Dauer Hall and reported:

"I walked over to Classics again and talked briefly with Robert Wagman, former Classics department chair (2009).  His office is located along the same wall as the fireplace (between the fireplace and the bay window) and it has the original dark wood paneling.  He told me that there is a wall over the fireplace, and likely the mural as well.  He took me to the room where it was located and tapped on the hollow wall.  He mentioned that when he was chair he encouraged them to open the wall, which they did not.  I have attached a photo (it is the back wall)." 

Courtesy Pam Marlin

As disappointed as I was that the painting is no longer viewable on campus, I was thrilled when both Pam and Sarah discovered the name of the artist who painted it: Fred Madden. Madden both attended and taught at UF. He painted the mural in 1936, the year before the photograph was taken. I found an article with photos of both the mural and a photo of the artist, and that allowed me to identify him in the group photo, standing front and center, just left of Joy Postle. 

From the Miami News, Oct. 1945

Madden, apparently an accomplished muralist like Postle, taught art at Camp Roosevelt, as did Postle, so it is likely they knew each other. Sorting out the other folks in the photo is a bit of challenge. Artist Manny Runyon, mentioned in the inscription on the back, appears to be the bearded fellow near the center of the image. O. C. R. Stageberg, UF professor of art and architecture could be the be to the right of Runyon, but it is difficult to be sure. It's also possible that Eve Alsman Fuller, an important figure at Camp Roosevelt, and an acquaintance of Postle, is one of the women on the left. Other possible people in attendance include Warren Doolittle, Van H. Ferguson, and William F. Lockwood. That aspect of the mystery still remains unsolved!

Halifax Historical Society

Don W. Emery

UPDATE: While attending a reception at the Halifax Historical Museum in Daytona Beach, I noticed several striking murals on the wall signed by "Don J." and "Don W. Emery." There was a display of the work by Don W., who was the son of Don J., but none of the photos matched anyone in my UCF image. But museum docent Carol Ann Moritz knew exactly where to look in the archives, and we found an image of Don W. He is standing behind Joy Postle, to the right. Another piece of the puzzle found!