Orlando City Hall and its Evolution From 1875 to 1958
The Orlando City Hall is the physical manifestation of the growth, prosperity, and evolution Orlando has endured since its incorporation as a town in 1875. In the span of 10 years, Orlando was incorporated as a city, paving the way during its golden era for economic growth and where growth in economy comes people come with it. Orlando's population has only increased over the decades and the City Beautiful needed a central location where their public servants could have access to the city's mayors and officials so they could better serve their city and the people residing in it.
The focus of this exhibit will be Orlando City Hall during the early 1900s through the 1950s. The first City Hall was built in 1885 near preent-day Wall Street, close to where the Orange County Regional History Center (OCRHC) stands. This location served Orlando until 1919, when City Hall moved to the top floor of the Orlando Armory building around Jefferson Streetand Orange Avenue; however, this location only lasted about four years.
In 1924, the City Hall relocated once again. Orlando was experiencing another large boost in population and City Hall needed to expand its office space. At Jackson Street and Orange Avenue, a school building became available for purchase and the City of Orlando purchased it for $115,000. The convenience of this move was that the new City Hall was now inside the same building as the Orlando Police Department (OPD); in fact, the jail was just downstairs in the basement of this building. One would assume the productivity of public service to go up due to the efficiency of this location and it did just that.
In 1958, the demand for more personnel to control the city's infrastructure was apparent and with that the third official City Hall was built. Located very close to where the current City Hall sits, this building was a significant upgrade from the old school building and the top floor of the Armory. The 1958 City Hall was quite large in stature housing the Orlando Utilities Commission inside its basement and first floor. It had a fully-automatic telephone system, which was quite a leap forward at the time and even had a full air conditioning system that allowed specific areas temperatures to be controlled without disrupting the building's system as whole.
Despite having advanced technological units, this new site also had more than enough space, according to many on site personnel who said the top two floors of the building were left completely empty to allow room for "future expansion purposes;" however, this hall too would see the end of its usefulness. Not going down subtlety the 1958 City Hall was imploded in 1991, this implosion in fact can still be seen today within themotion picture called Lethal Weapon 3, starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. Indeed, a grand exit for a grand building that allowed Orlando's city government and public servants provide the service Orlando needed for over 32 booming years.
Bibliography
Benedick, Robin. "Orlando Fancies New City Hall As Downtown Gem." The Orlando Sentinel, August 7, 1988. Accessed February 3, 2016. http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1988-08-07/news/0060090163_1_city-hall-complex-orlando-downtown.
Homan, Lynn M., and Thomas Reilly. Orlando in Vintage Postcards. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2001. Accessed February 3, 2016.
Fishman, Charles. "Orlando City Hall A Building Gives Up The Ghost, Without Giving Up Its Ghosts." The Orlando Sentinel, July 14, 1991. Accessed February 3, 2016. http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1991-07-14/news/9107121105_1_new-city-hall-stanton-orlando.
Dickinson, Joy Wallace. Orlando: City of Dreams. Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2003.
Orlando City Hall Brochure (Orlando: The City of Orlando, 2016), accessed 3 Feb. 2016, Http://Www.Cityoforlando.Net/Wp-Content/Uploads/2014/04/Cityhallbrochureprint.Pdf.