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 |
