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.

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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.