History of Lake Eola Heights, Florida

In the late 1800s, Orlando enjoyed what was remembered as its “Golden Era”  when it became “the size of Indian citrus” between 1875 to 1895. A single green square covered the downtown area. Orange Ave, which runs through downtown, got its name because it formerly ended in an orange orchard at the north end of town. But the Great Fire of 1894–95 forced many owners to lose their independent property, thus strengthening the hold in the hands of a few “citrus barons” who changed operations southward. Since this time, Jacob Summerlin, a wealthy and profitable member of Orlando’s early history, has donated 200 acres to Orlando’s agricultural city. Part of the donation went to Lake Eola Park, and the rest was organized by the city to be one of the first organized municipalities in Orlando, Lake Eola Heights.

Lake Eola Heights was a citrus plain, and a few clapboard farms were built between 1890 and 1911 as the city grew to a larger size. But since 1920, this country has become obsessed with property in Florida. The Florida Land Boom (1920-1926) sparked growth and high housing in downtown Orlando for the first time, with Lake Eola Heights first. Neighbors are various collections of Craftsman, Colonial Revival, Mediterranean Revival, Mission Revival, Minimal Tradition, and Art Deco created from 1905-1925. When the construction of the Florida Land Bubble erupted in 1926, it suddenly subsided, and in 1949 the rest of the neighborhood was completed.

While most neighborhoods include single-family homes with DIY home security systems, there are also schools and churches such as the Gothic Revival inspired by Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, located at 123 East Livingston St. and the St. James Cathedral School, located at 505 Ridgewood St., is one of the first Mediterranean revival schools built in Orlando in the 1920s and one of the best examples with its bell tower, entrance on the walls, and friezes beautiful. Thanks to a small group of neighborhood conservationists in the mid-1980s, the Lake Eola Heights area was the first historic district in the city of Orlando and has continued to grow as their homes have been restored for the last three decades. With the growth of Lake Eola Heights as a residential area, the installation of security systems in the area is paramount.

History of Lake Eola Heights FL