Unbelievably Real: Orlando's Story Told Through Two Murals

In the spring of 2023, Visit Orlando and the Orlando Economic Partnership unveiled a downtown mural with the slogan “Unbelievably Real." Designed by Clark Orr and painted by muralist Kristi Burke, the artwork was the product of what the Orlando Economic Partnership called a first-of-its-kind collaboration to appeal simultaneously to leisure visitors, meeting planners, business leaders, and prospective residents.

The mural occupies the same block that once featured a very different work of public art. In 1985, the Orlando Downtown Development Board commissioned artist Don Reynolds to paint a mural depicting historic scenes along Pine Street on the side of the O'Connell Building. After the building was destroyed by fire in 2005, the mural disappeared with it. The vacant lot is now slated to become a City of Orlando pocket park.

Viewed side by side, these two murals—created nearly four decades apart—tell a revealing story. One celebrated the history of downtown Orlando; the other promotes the city's brand. The shift in subject matter reflects a broader change in how Orlando sees itself, and may offer clues about the future direction of downtown.

Magnolia Hotel, photo from Mike McGinness, Historic Orlando Facebook Page

A Busy Corner

Long before it became the site of competing visions of Orlando, the corner of Orange Avenue and Pine Street was one of the city's busiest gathering places. In the 1880s, Thomas "Big Tom" Shine built the Magnolia Hotel between Pine Street and Central on the west side of Orange Avenue. Orlando historian Eve Bacon described the two-story hotel, with its spacious porches, as the "social center of the day." The second-floor veranda even served as a bandstand for concerts by the Orlando Coronet Band.

The McElroy block was at Church Street and Orange Avenue. 

As downtown grew, so did the value of the property. Rather than demolish the Magnolia Hotel, Shine had it moved about 150 feet north to make way for a three-story commercial building built by Dr. James McElroy, whose pharmacy stood across Orange Avenue. According to Bacon, the relocated hotel was eventually incorporated into the neighboring Elijah Hand Building and used as warehouse space.

Elijah Hand arrived in Orlando in 1885 and partnered with E. A. Richards in a furniture and undertaking business on Pine Street. His brick commercial building still stands today, and the change in brickwork along its side hints at where the Magnolia Hotel was once attached.

The Elijah Hand Building's eastward facing side

By 1903, the corner itself was occupied by the Empire Building, according to the Sanborn Fire Insurance maps. The building housed a succession of businesses, including a telephone exchange, a bicycle repair shop, a real estate office, and, according to historian Steve Rajtar, the Abernathy Drug Company. The neighboring Hudnal Building—later known as the Estes Building—became home to Estes Drug Store after Dr. Virgil W. Estes purchased an interest in the pharmacy following his arrival in Orlando in 1907.

Today, little on this corner suggests the layers of history beneath it, making the contrast with the modern mural all the more striking.

Montage of ads of businesses open in the Empire Building 

Sanborn map detail showing the Empire Building next to the Hudnal Building

Corner of Pine Street and Orange Avenue, 
photo from Mike McGinness, Historic Orlando Facebook Page

Sentinel images showing the corner of Pine and Orange in different eras

Postcard shows Empire building and Estes Drugs on left. Historic Orlando Facebook page.

Lighting Up Downtown Orlando

Downtown Orlando has always reinvented itself. Businesses came and went, buildings rose and fell, and economic booms were followed by periods of decline. When I moved to Orlando in the late 1980s, outside of Church Street Station and Lake Eola there were few reasons for most residents to venture downtown. City leaders had spent years trying to change that.

In 1969, Orlando created the Downtown Development Board (DDB), a special taxing district charged with revitalizing the city's urban core. By the early 1980s, the DDB had embraced a strategy that combined new investment with an appreciation for downtown's historic character.

Orlando Sentinel, March 1969

One of its signature events was Light Up Orlando, launched in 1983 to showcase downtown's revival. Visitors toured newly renovated buildings, explored historic preservation projects, and joined walking tours led through the downtown historic district. As the Orlando Sentinel observed, the festival was intended to demonstrate "the process of renovation and the successes," with architects on hand to explain how older commercial buildings had been adapted for new uses.

"Festivalgoers will be able to take at look at downtown's new buildings and some of the historic preservation work. Elizabeth Chave, city of Orlando historic-preservation officer, says that five, possibly six, buildings that have been renovated within the past two years will be open for inspection. The project architects of each will be on hand to talk about their work. "It's an educational opportunity," Chave says.

"The intent is to show the process of renovation and the successes." Information sheets, with historical vignettes and maps marking historic-preservation sites, will be handed out to visitors. All of the renovated buildings that will be open - from 7 to 9 p.m. - are commercial buildings, most of them law offices. The Junior League of Orlando/Winter Park will conduct a 6:30 p.m. walking tour through the downtown historic district." –Orlando Sentinel, November 1, 1983

Map for Light up Orlando, 1983

Photo of downtown during Light up Orlando, circa 1987,
by Todd Mondak from Historic Orlando Facebook Page

I have fond memories of those evenings. Downtown streets were filled with people, live music echoed from temporary stages, and for a few nights each year the city celebrated not only where it was going, but where it had been.

The Pine Street Story

That philosophy found lasting expression in 1985 when the DDB commissioned artist Don Reynolds to paint a three-story mural on the former Empire Building, then known as the O'Connell Building. Rather than advertise Orlando as a destination, Reynolds told the story of the city itself. His mural depicted pioneer settlers, citrus groves, railroads, and the bustling commercial district that grew along Pine Street. A Florida Cracker driving an ox cart formed the centerpiece beneath elegantly painted "Orlando" lettering that continued across the building's windows in wrought iron—a memorable detail that blended art with architecture. Towering pine trees framed the composition, while an Atlantic Coast Line locomotive crowned the mural, reminding viewers of the railroad that transformed a frontier settlement into a thriving city.

The mural was more than decoration. It reflected the Downtown Development Board's belief that preserving and interpreting Orlando's history was an essential part of revitalizing downtown. Four decades later, that vision stands in sharp contrast to the city's contemporary emphasis on branding and tourism.

Reynolds mural on O'Connell Building; Historic Orlando Facebook page

Pine and Orange before mural; Historic Orlando Facebook page

From the State Archives of Florida

Artwork for Gertrude's Walk created by artist Don Reynolds

The Past Goes Up in Flames

In the early morning hours of February 19, 2005, the O'Connell Building caught fire and was destroyed. The businesses inside—including a tattoo studio, Quiznos, Kathmandu gift shop, and Steve's Southern Music Co.—were all lost. More importantly, so was one of downtown's historic commercial buildings and Don Reynolds' mural.

The Orlando Sentinel quoted Cindi Parker, then chair of Orlando's Historic Preservation Board, lamenting the loss: "We just hate to lose another one, especially on Orange Avenue; they're all we have." She wasn't simply mourning a building. More than a century of Orlando's history disappeared with it.

For more than two decades, the site has remained vacant. After the city acquired the property, it became an accidental archaeological exhibit. Layers of terrazzo, tile, and concrete flooring remained exposed, hinting at the many lives the building had lived. Today the lot is covered with gravel, although plans are underway to transform it into a pocket park.

Orlando Sentinel, February 20, 2005

From the Historic Orlando Facebook page

Activating the Corner

Even as an empty lot, the site has continued to tell new stories. During Creative City's Immerse festival—a twenty-first-century successor in spirit to Light Up Orlando—the space became a venue for temporary public art.

Artist and writer Brendan O'Connor helped reimagine the corner with two memorable installations. Giant inflatable pigeons perched atop the neighboring Elijah Hand Building, while the restored Merita Bread sign, preserved by the Morse Museum, returned to public view on the vacant lot. Perhaps the most evocative moment came when O'Connor, performing as his drag persona "Brenda from Bithlo," DJed beneath the open sky where Reynolds' mural had once overlooked Pine Street.

It was an unexpectedly fitting use of the space. By pairing a restored piece of Orlando's visual history with contemporary performance art, the installation demonstrated that honoring the past and embracing the present are not competing ideas. They can coexist—and, together, create something uniquely Orlando.

Unbelievably Real? Brenda from Bithlo

No Past in the Pocket Park

The Hudnal—later Estes—Building survived the 2005 fire and still stands on Orange Avenue. In 2023, its south wall became home to the "Unbelievably Real" mural, facing the vacant lot where the O'Connell Building and Don Reynolds' history mural once stood.

The Estes Building on Orange Avenue

The artwork is beautifully conceived and expertly executed. It brings much-needed color and energy to a downtown still recovering from the pandemic. Its imagery celebrates Orlando's strengths: innovation, technology, a growing culinary scene, and the tourism industry that powers the regional economy. Yet among its many visual references—a water slide, the convention center, a lazy river, the Orlando Eye—the only image connecting the mural to downtown itself is a swan gliding in front of the Lake Eola fountain.

That omission says something about how Orlando increasingly chooses to tell its story. 

Standing at Orange Avenue and Pine Street, one occupies ground where nearly 150 years of Orlando history unfolded. It was once the site of the Magnolia Hotel, where the Orlando Coronet Band entertained crowds from its veranda. Then came the Empire Building, the Estes Drug Store, and businesses that served generations of residents. Across the decades, trains delivered visitors to what boosters once called the "Phenomenal City," and artists later transformed the same corner into a celebration of Orlando's past.

Those stories are every bit as "real" as the city being marketed today.

Saving the Real Orlando

Later this year, the City of Orlando plans to transform the vacant lot into a pocket park with public art, water features, shade structures, and space for gathering. It's an exciting opportunity. Rather than creating another attractive public space that could exist almost anywhere, why not create one that could exist only here?

Pocket Park rendering from the Bungalower.com

Imagine interpretive elements telling the story of the Magnolia Hotel, the Empire Building, and Don Reynolds' lost mural. Imagine artwork inspired by Pine Street's railroad, citrus, and commercial heritage. Visitors could enjoy a modern public space while discovering the history beneath their feet.

Orlando has repeatedly demonstrated that preservation and innovation can work together. The Great Southern Box Company, East End Market, the Orange County Regional History Center, Aloft Orlando, Mathers Social Gathering, and countless other adaptive reuse projects prove that historic places can become some of a city's most vibrant destinations.

For decades, downtown revitalization recognized that history gave Orlando character. Somewhere along the way, the conversation shifted toward branding instead of identity.

Theme parks have made Orlando famous by creating imaginary worlds. But the Real Orlando is not imaginary. It is found in neighborhoods with distinct identities, in buildings that have adapted across generations, and in the stories that unfolded long before today's skyline.

Progress does not require erasing the past. In fact, Orlando's future will be stronger if it embraces the people, places, and history that make this city unlike anywhere else.

That's what makes Orlando unbelievably real. #SaveRealOrlando

From the Historic Orlando Facebook page

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 1889 railroad depot; my second was in the Bumby Hardware building, built in 1886. 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. The image showed that the familiar structure of what would become the Rosies O' Grady's night club. 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.

From the Historic Orlando Facebook page

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. 

UPDATE: Thanks to Susan Detrick, who shared this on Facebook: "Yes, the Slemons Store was my great great grandfather’s store. The Slemons family has been in Orlando for 140 years!"

Courtesy Susan Detrick

Rudi Heinrich shared that American Ghost Adventures was the most recent occupant of the Slemons Building with offices on third floor. They would conclude their ghost tours of downtown on the third floor of the building, and some people refused to go up there. 

Ironically, the only sign of life on Church Street in recent years has been ghost tours.

Same window, Sunday, June 28, 2026