*Reposted from Orlando Sentinel 07/07 Letter to Editor
Visitors to the Orange County Regional History Center often asked whether there had been anything here before Disney. Of course, Orlando was a thriving city nearly a century before Disney World opened, and we have the Angebilt Hotel, two elegant department stores, and two blocks of history on Church Street, including the all-important 1890 train station, as proof that such a place existed. With some imagination and creative adaptive reuse, it could still exist.
Original commercial buildings from Orlando’s first growth period in the 1880s remain standing on two blocks of Church Street on either side of the former South Florida Railroad. The 1890 train station, the main catalyst for that growth, still stands along the tracks where it welcomed newcomers and visitors for nearly half a century.
Pictures tell the story, but the buildings themselves bring it to life. We don’t put historic buildings in museums, because the buildings are living museums. They provide tangible connections with the past, links that enable people of any age to experience the past as it really was. Historic houses, churches, schools, and blocks of business establishments help us understand and celebrate more than 150 years of Orlando’s development. May they still be here for the next milestone.
— Tana Mosier Porter, Orlando