Freedom Walk 2025 – Looking for the Heart of Orlando

 

This morning, I did my usual Fourth of July freedom ride/walk. There are two reasons I chose this day for a photo safari: there’s very little traffic on a holiday, and nothing feels freer than walking around or cycling around while taking pictures.  People are sleeping-in knowing that they have an evening ahead of obnoxious fireworks and badly burned frankfurters. This year I set out once again on foot. My main objective was to check out Church Street, in particular the property that used to be my former work place, Church Street Station.

I got to downtown early. It was mostly the unhoused and a few caffeine-addicted, coffee seekers. Despite the City’s best efforts, Orlando has never solved its homeless problem and when there are not downtown workers present it’s even more obvious. 

This year I’m not feeling patriotic. The so-called Alligator Alcatraz in the Everglades shows the cruelty and inhumanity present in our country and I am repelled by it. Trump's big, beautiful bill is going to harm a bunch of his big beautiful people and send this country further and further backwards. It’s hard for me to feel rah, rah, go America! these days. So, my initial foray onto Church Street does nothing to help my feelings of doom and gloom (my voice transcription app wrote “demon glue” instead of doom and gloom.)

My memories of youthful days as a member of the good time gang –  partying with abandon in beautiful showrooms – surrounded by beautiful people – are slapped hard by the reality of the decay around me.  Not a single building in the entire Church Street Station complex is currently being utilized. The only hint of commerce is a sign for a ghost tour.

Orlando's 19th-century growth was closely tied to the arrival of the railroad in 1880. This is the third depot erected at this location; the first two were made of wood. Orlando's first tourists stepped off the train here. Today it is lost within a sea of high rise buildings and ill-placed signs. It seems like there is visual cutter everywhere...

The reason for this foray into my past is that I’ve been thinking about Church Street (constantly) since I agreed to do a talk at the History Center later in July. I’ve learned through my research that the amount of history that occurred in this one short block in downtown Orlando is astounding, and I keep finding more to confirm that. But I am appalled by the little regard given to this historic street these days. When Bob Snow came to town in the early ‘70s, he was able to see beyond the urban decay to find the good bones underneath a crumbling veneer. He was able to build on that foundation and make something the likes of which Central Florida had never seen before – an adult wonderland of nostalgia, wrapped in the rhythms of the past, that grew into a bottomless mug of good times. (A beer metaphor seemed appropriate.) I feel like the good bones of his creation are still intact, but the skin is sagging, and age marks are starting to appear. It's time for the next Bob Snow to step up and bring Church Street back to life again.

The City's pretty new banners for the 150th anniversary of incorporation contrast starkly to the magic of my memories made in these now empty buildings.

I worked hard to find vestiges from the Church Street attraction where I came of age. I'm sure part of my metaphysical angst about the condition of the buildings are tied to fears of my own aging... 

As I left Church Street to continue exploring downtown, this sign along the track seemed fitting for the aging complex: "SEEK HELP/FIND HOPE."

Moving beyond Church Street, I found more evidence of the downtown that used to be the playground of my youth combined with the historic buildings that I have learned to love. The Tinker Building, built by a Hall of Fame Major Leaguer who brought the big leagues to O-town, looks dwarfed by the 21st century. The Rose Building also looks squeezed between the Angebilt on the right and another high rise on the left. Rose was a State Senator, developer of 1920s neighborhoods, and was influential in the creation of several of Orlando's wonderful parks. 

As I worked my way towards Lake Eola, the site of tonight's big fireworks display, I notice my mood started to improve, unburdened perhaps of the weight of my memories.  People walked dogs, tourists posed for pictures, and food vendors moved into position along the lake. The population of swans, however, still exceed the number of early morning Fourth of July visitors – in my opinion, we have enough swans now. Time to stop collecting. 

When I first moved to Orlando, even before I started working at Church Street, I would visit the newly-renovated Lake Eola to jog. I was miserable, friendless and dateless, removed from my family for the first time in my life, and a visit to the park lifted my spirits. Working at Church Street permanently removed me from that funk, and I can connect the dots from where I am today, to my time working there. That's why I am so saddened to see the entire Church Street block in a funk.

But on this day, Lake Eola is starting to work its magic. As diverse groups of people start to congregate, I remember that this place is really the heart of Orlando. At least on the Fourth of July. 

Happy Independence Day! Let the Good Times Roll!

• Freedom Walk 2023
• Freedom Ride 2010
• Freedom Ride 2012
• Freedom Ride 2013
• Freedom Ride 2014
• Freedom Ride 2015
• Freedom Ride 2017

Jernigan's legacy

Aaron Jernigan was Orlando's original settler. Jernigan moved here in 1843 from Georgia with 700 head of cattle after the government offered free land to anyone willing to settle the wilderness that was then Central Florida. He headed up the local militia, built a fort to protect the settlers from the pesky Seminoles, represented Orange County in the state legislature and was the area's first postmaster. Jernigan, was apparently a bit of a scoundrel too, as he had several brushes with the law and eventually left the Orlando area after being indicted for murder!

Today I attended the dedication the new restaurant in the new Amway Arena named Jernigan's after the city's scoundrel founder. The building of the gazillion dollar palace of basketball was quite controversial, and my guess is that someone thought it would be a good PR move to give the upscale eatery located there some local flavor. So in addition to naming the place after the city's founder, they decorated it with historical imagery and memorabilia from Central Florida.

My friends at the Orange County Regional History Center provided many of the images used in the decor. Many of my favorites, like "citrus girl", were reproduced in large scale, plus some new images I've never seen in their archives. They also provided reproductions of vintage citrus labels used in the creation of a huge piece of art in the stairwell.

Much of the memorabilia was purchased when the owners of Church Street Station auctioned off what was left of the grand downtown attraction, located just a block to the east of the new arena. Church Street's current businesses are hoping the foot traffic from concerts and basketball games will provide a much needed economic boost.

There was also some contemporary artwork – re-interpretations of vintage photos and postcards in a painterly technique plus traditional Florida landscapes scenes painted on actual basketball court flooring by Highwayman painter Robert McClendon.

On hand was a who's who of Orlando politics plus many representatives from "old Orlando", including the "Great American Hero" Joe Kittinger. Fifty years worth of Orlando mayors were in attendance and the politicos played nice as they commemorated this gorgeous space with great views of the hardwood below. I thought the food was pretty good too.

Years after escaping incarceration, Aaron Jernigan returned to Florida to find the settlement bearing his name was now called Orlando. His role in starting our city has been relatively obscure up until now. Perhaps the pioneer's colorful legend will have a Magical rebirth thanks to this fancy new establishment.

Change & constancy in downtown Orlando

When Orlando exploded with growth after the Mouse came to town in the early '70s, much of the of the city's historic architecture was lost in the name of progress. Preservationists never recovered from the loss of an entire downtown block to a wrecking ball minutes after a quick vote in city hall was railroaded through the city council. As I pedaled my bike through downtown Orlando on the bike trip I started documenting on a previous post, I found some great architectural gems in transition, and some enduring despite great odds.

As I approached downtown from the north, I stopped at one of Orlando's best Streamline Moderne structures, the former WDBO building, which has sat vacant for quite some time now. WDBO, which began broadcasting at Rollins College in Winter Park in 1924, built the studio on Ivanhoe Blvd. in 1947 and broadcast there for almost forty years. The AM station continues to broadcast today from another location, while the building sporting its call letters continues to decay.


Who says fur is dead? LaBelle Furs has been in business since in Orlando since 1919. I've never seen the elegant condensed font of their neon sign lit up, but it's one of my favorites and one of very few neon signs left in downtown.


Further south St. James Cathedral is starting to show the original Donovan Dean designed facade after years of being covered up. The modified Romanesque design was completed in January 1952 and the current restoration has a $10 million dollar price tag.


Located nearby is the charming Dr. Phillips Building, a Mediterranean Revival style commercial building named after Dr. Philip P. Phillips. The Dr. Phillips website claims "once considered the largest citrus producer in the world, Dr. Phillips left a legacy that has spanned several generations culminating in the establishment of Dr. Phillips Charities, comprised of The Dr. P. Phillips Foundation and Dr. Phillips Inc." The Dr. Phillips Charities is gigantic force for good in Central Florida, but I can't figure out why their namesake building sits closed up like this.

This building, adjacent to the 1920s Autrey Arcade, (and perhaps part of it), looked destined for demolition last year but now appears to be undergoing renovation.


The Tinker Building, built in 1925 by Hall of Fame baseball player turned developer Joe Tinker, is on the National Register for Historic Places. According to Orlando History in Architecture, it has a "bold, small, highly contrived facade using all the popular building materials of the day: brick, cut and pressed stone, colored glazed tile, stained glass and wood." This beautiful little building, renovated in 1980, is currently for rent.



On Church Street, the former Slemons Department Store, known more recently as Rosie O'Grady's Goodtime Emporium, awaits a buyer. After the attraction known as Church Street Station shut down, the individual buildings comprising the complex were leased out and the one time Dixieland Jazz haven became a comedy club. Despite the apparent success of the tapas restaurant Cerviche in the space formerly occupied by Apple Annie's Courtyard and Lili Marlene's Aviators Pub & Restaurant, Rosies sits vacant. My guess is that as the new zillion dollar basketball arena located just on the the other side of the interstate nears completion, someone will see an opportunity in opening a club or restaurant in the historic space.


In addition to the arena, the other project the city wants to build is a new performing arts center and this mid-century masterpiece is in the way. The Central Florida Modern group organized a competition in 2008 "for the preservation of the precast concrete curtain wall of the American Federal building aka the Coral Gables building." There were some incredibly creative entries submitted from all over the world, and the winner received the appropriately round figure of $360. The organization's intent was to "inspire the City Of Orlando, owner of the building, to take care and save the pre-cast brise soleil pieces by removing them off the building prior to demolition so that private funds can be raised to implement one of the winning designs." I have heard no plans by the city to preserve any part of the building, as Orlando's downtown constantly evolves in an ever unpredictable fashion...

This stuff matters

I recently had the opportunity to review items that will be put up for auction from Church Street Station. The downtown Orlando complex formerly highlighted antiques collected by its founder, Bob Snow. Over the years he amassed an amazing collection of antique automobiles, architectural elements, furniture, paintings, sculpture, etc. He also hired a talented woodworking crew to create hand-crafted quality wood pieces that helped to integrate the antiques into the attraction in a seamless manner.

Bob Snow sold Church Street Station to Baltimore Gas and Electric who tried for years to make it a profitable operation. When they tired of trying to re-coup their large investment they unloaded it and a series of bad owners insued, each one seemingly worse than the last. Finally recording industry mogul Lou Perlman, who ultimately ended up in prison, cannibalized much of what was left of Church Street. And what he did with Church Street Station's furnishings was a crime as well.

The newest building on the complex was a 3 story shopping mall called The Exchange built in 1988. Beneath this beautiful Victorian structure was a basement used for storage and the uniform department when the attraction was in its prime. Mr. Perlman, who embezzled millions from his clients, piled all the furnishings, antiques and contemporary pieces, 6 feet high in the basement. Many incredible items were damage beyond repair.

The Exchange Shopping Emporium in the late 1980s

The person in charge of cleaning up Perlman's mess and preparing salvageable material for auction, is an acquaintance of mine who knew me from my almost 9 years of working at Church Street Station. Thinking that I might find sentimental value in some of the ephemera that would be thrown away, she allowed me to peruse room after room of what is left. Hundreds of chairs, tables, lamps, and paintings await auction. Seeing the potential to collect material to document this sliver of Orlando's history, I brought the curator from the History Center with me as well. I salvaged some collateral and ephemera, but more importantly we were able to find some interesting artifacts for the History Center.

So I guess this leads me to question whether I am trying to hold on to the past by collecting old postcards, photos and menus from this an attraction that will more than likely never re-open again? As an avid collector of ephemera from old Florida attractions, I say while I may be sentimental, there is a tangible value in preserving reminders of this significant era in Orlando's past. Over its 30 year run thousands of people visited the attraction and made priceless memories there. Couples got married in its beautiful showrooms. The banquet rooms were sites for political rallies and several presidents visited. Legendary entertainers played on its stages, from the Allman Brothers to Tammy Wynette. For a time Church Street Station was the heart of the city. And mementos of that provide a unique window into an incredible time to have lived in Central Florida.

Postcard with "Old Duke" locomotive and "Al Aboard" the train conductor. The locomotive has reportedly been sold.

This stuffed Grizzly Bear once greeted guests at the entrance to the Cheyenne Saloon but was badly damaged beyond repair before the Cheyenne briefly re-opened recently.

Crackers Oyster Bar and the Wine Cellar in the background. Cellars are extremely rare in Central Florida due to the high water table.

Bill White performed his Louis Armstrong tribute in Rosie O' Grady's Goodtime Emporium nightly.

This elaborate stained glass window was purchased by the Orlando Magic for the new arena.

Phineas Phoggs Ballloon Works was a discoteque where Michael Jackson would visit incognito after his trips to Disney and where Charles Barkley hurled a patron through a plate glass window.

The century old train depot is one of Orlando's most historic structures.

This sign once hung outside of Lili Marlene's Aviator's Pub and Restuarant which for many years was one of the highest grossing restaurants in the entire United States.

Top of a custom made trade show booth for the attraction, which now has a new home in the Orange County Regional History Center.