Orlando History – Orlando Citizen

Arnold Palmer at the 2013 Masters Tournament. Photo: Dan Perry, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Palmer’s name sits on a golf club, a March tournament and a children’s hospital. An honest account of what he actually built in Orlando — and what still runs on his standard.

Neighborhoods

November 14, 2026 Staff Reports

From Nashville Retreat to Palmer’s Kingdom: The History of Bay Hill

Bay Hill began as a Tennessee businessmen’s golf retreat in 1961. Then Arnold Palmer played it once, leased it, bought it — and a neighborhood grew in his orbit.

Camping World Stadium from the air, with Lake Lorna Doone at its edge, Parramore. Photo: Poomfang, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Tips & Guides

November 14, 2026 Staff Reports

Lake Lorna Doone and Parramore’s Parks: Where the Neighborhood Plays

In 1955 Lake Lorna Doone Park hosted the first integrated Little League game in the South; rebuilt in 2021, it anchors a park system that includes Z. L. Riley Park’s youth-built mosaics and Lake Dot. Parramore’s green story.

Neighborhoods

November 14, 2026 Staff Reports

One Building, Three Lives: Jones High, Callahan Elementary, and the Center That Carries Both Names

At 101 N. Parramore Avenue, one brick building was Orlando’s only high school for Black students, then its only elementary school closed by desegregation, and is now the Dr. J. B. Callahan Neighborhood Center. Its story, and its 2025 state marker.

Neighborhoods

November 14, 2026 Staff Reports

Parramore, Read Whole: A Guide to Orlando’s Historic Black Neighborhood

West of Division Avenue sits Orlando’s oldest and largest historically Black neighborhood — the Wells’Built, the Callahan center, Jesse’s ribs and two stadiums. How to do Parramore properly: history first, lunch second, respect throughout.

Neighborhoods

November 14, 2026 Staff Reports

The Wells’Built: The Hotel That Held Black Orlando’s History

Built in 1926 at 511 W. South Street so Black travelers had somewhere safe to stay, Dr. Wells’s hotel hosted Ella Fitzgerald, Jackie Robinson and Thurgood Marshall. Now a museum on the National Register — and Parramore’s essential first stop.

Belle Isle City Hall. Photo: Michael Rivera, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Neighborhoods

November 14, 2026 Staff Reports

Incorporated Twice: The City That Exists to Save Its Lakes

Belle Isle incorporated in 1924 to stop Orange County draining Lake Conway — and when the county tried again in 1954, residents reincorporated and did it twice. The full story.

Neighborhoods

November 14, 2026 Staff Reports

The Brick Road That Built Conway

Fort Gatlin, a British citrus colony and a brick highway in 1914 — Conway’s layers run from the Seminole War to the ranch-house lake suburb of today.

Photo: Chris Gent, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Flickr (Openverse).

Neighborhoods

November 14, 2026 Staff Reports

Conway: Orlando’s Original Lake Country, Done Properly

Settled in the 1850s, replanted by British citrus growers and tied to town by a 1914 brick road — Conway is a lakeside suburb that predates the suburban era. How to do it well.

Photo: Dclemens1971, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Neighborhoods

November 14, 2026 Staff Reports

Baldwin Park: The Navy Base That Became a Front Porch

A boot camp of 650,000 sailors became Orlando’s walkable village of porches, restaurants and a lake loop. How Baldwin Park was built, and how to do it well.