Orlando City Hall, 1958

Orlando City Hall, 1958

Orlando City Hall

Orlando (Fla.)

City halls--United States

The newly constructed Orlando City Hall in Downtown Orlando, Florida, as it looked in 1958 upon its completion. Located on the southwest corner of South Orange Avenue and South Street, construction of the new city hall began in 1956 with the building fully operational two years later. Under the administration of Mayor William Beardall (1890-1984), plans for the construction of a newer and larger city hall had been in the works since as early as 1950, with the city received an advanced grant of $28,500 for what would eventually become a $1,052,500 facility. Totaling a span of 85,000 square feet, the building was eight stories high with the infrastructure required for the possibility of an additional six floors. Designed by architect Richard Boone Rogers, it would go on to replace the old Orlando Public School Building on South Orange Avenue as the main residence for the city government. The Orlando Public School Building had served as Orlando’s City Hall since 1924. On October 24, 1991, the building would be imploded to make way for the current city hall. The moment of implosion was captured on film and the footage of the blast famously used in the 1992 film Lethal Weapon 3.

Original 9 x 11 inch black and white photographic print, 1958: Orlando Remembered Exhibit, Orlando City Hall, Orlando, Florida.

1958

Digital reproduction of original 9 x 11 inch black and white photographic print, 1958.

Orlando Remembered Exhibit, Orlando City Hall, Orlando, Florida.

Orlando City Hall Collection, Orlando Remembered Collection, Orlando Collection, Orange County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.

image/jpg

292 KB

9 x 11 inch black and white photograph

eng

Still Image

Orlando City Hall, Downtown Orlando, Florida

Donation

History Teacher

Civics/Government Teacher

Geography Teacher

Copyright to this resource is held by Orange County Regional History Center and is provided here by RICHES of Central Florida for educational purposes only.

Orlando Remembered

Alexander, Mercy

Cepero, Laura

Antequino, Stephanie Gaub, and Tana Mosier Porter. Lost Orlando. (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2012), 118.

Bacon, Eve. Orlando: A Centennial History. (Chuluota, FL: Mickler House, 1975), 165.

Owens, Sherri M. "Rogers' Structures Seen All Over Orange." The Orlando Sentinel, February 16, 1998. http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1998-02-16/news/9802160102_1_rogers-orlando-university-of-florida.