Located along the shoreline of picturesque Little Lake Harris, the quaint town of Howey-in-the-Hills is only a half-hour drive from the major metropolis of Orlando, Florida. Like Howey-in-the-Hills, the history of Orlando is very fascinating. The city itself first emerged during the mid-19th century, although the Timucua and Seminole people inhabited the space for generations prior. (The same is true for the greater Orlando metropolitan area, including the modern-site of Howey-in-the-Hills.) However, Orlando was then just a small community that had materialized around a remote U.S. Army base known as “Fort Gatlin.” Residents had even originally called the nascent village “Jernigan” after the region’s first Euro-American settler, Aaron Jernigan. Growth stayed stagnant for the next several years, too, with just a handful of families settling in the town. But the settlement finally rose in prominence once state legislators opted to place a county courthouse downtown during the 1850s. Renaming the municipality as “Orlando” in 1857, local officials began reconstructing its street grid to accommodate its newfound political significance. The name “Orlando” itself was derived from Orlando Reeves, a U.S. soldier who was killed while fighting in the earlier Seminole Wars.

This development nearly came to an abrupt end when the American Civil War erupted, as the Union naval blockade of Florida greatly reduced the commerce Orlando enjoyed with neighboring coastal towns. Nevertheless, Orlando subsequently underwent a period of prosperity that lasted for decades in the years following the conflict. Often remembered as the city’s “golden age,” Orlando saw its economy expand rapidly thanks to the emergence of the famous Floridian citrus industry in the surrounding countryside. Dozens of people established their own fruit groves on the periphery of the city’s borders, making the area one of the prime locations for citrus cultivation. Numerous other operations opened as a result, such as juice refineries, packaging plants, and shipping companies. Great wealth flowed into Orlando in turn, which helped enlarge its size considerably. Unfortunately for the city though, the dominant era of Orlando’s citrus industry came to a close when a damaging cold front overtook the region amid the winter of 1894—1895. (Historical sources have since remembered this time as the “Great Freeze.”) Many private farmers never recovered from the weather event and relocated to communities elsewhere in Florida. In their wake arrived a few business tycoons, who gradually consolidated the remaining farms under their control.

With only a handful of large citrus farms left in operation, movement to Orlando had slowed yet again by the beginning of the 20th century. But the mounting popularity of land speculation in Florida managed to reverse the city’s sagging economic fortunes. Real estate magnates had started to gradually acquire large tracts of wilderness, which they cleared to build a variety of commercial and residential structures. Orlando became one of the most active areas for this construction, in part due to its tranquil climate and proximity to numerous lakes. The community thus turned into a popular holiday destination, with many upscale hotels and resorts dotting its skyline. (Other areas nearby, such as Howey-in-the-Hills, were affected by this economic activity, too.) Although the outbreak of the Great Depression temporarily blunted this transformation, Orlando nonetheless continued to be a major travel hotspot for the rest of the century. Perhaps the greatest event affirming Orlando’s status within the tourism industry was the decision of The Walt Disney Company to debut its Walt Disney World entertainment complex nearby in 1971. Walt Disney World soon gained an renowned international reputation for its extensive services, eventually becoming the most visited vacation compound in the world during the early 21st century.

Orlando itself has remained one of Florida’s most exciting places to visit, entertaining countless guests from across the globe every year. In fact, some 74 million people travel to Orlando annually, leading to many people identifying the city as the top tourist destination in the whole United States. Central to this enduring legacy are the celebrated theme parks that reside in Walt Disney World, as well as its comparatively newer competitor, Universal Orlando. However, the city boasts a number of other outstanding amusement facilities, such as SeaWorld Orlando, Legoland, and Fun Sport America. Even though some of those locations are historic in their own right, more conventional cultural heritage attractions exist within Orlando, as well. Among the best historic sites in Orlando include the Harry P. Leu Gardens, Lake Eola Park, the Orlando Museum of Art, and the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art. But many more places to explore are situated right outside the city, too, such as the Central Florida Zoo & Botanical Gardens in Sanford and the historic Howey Mansion complex in Howey-in-the-Hills. Cultural heritage travelers are certain to experience a memorable trip when visiting the greater Orlando area as such.

When Nick Beucher went about renovating the Floridan Country Club during the 1960s, he chose to institute Spanish Colonial Revival architecture throughout the entire compound. Also known as “Spanish Eclectic,” Spanish Colonial Revival-style architectural form is a representation of themes typically seen in early Spanish colonial settlements. Original Spanish colonial architecture borrowed its design principles from Moorish, Renaissance, and Byzantine forms, which made it incredibly decorative and ornate. The general layout of those structures called for a central courtyard, as well as thick stucco walls that could endure Latin America’s diverse climate. Among the most recognizable features within those colonial buildings involved heavy carved doors, spiraled columns, and gabled red-tile roofs. Architect Bertram Goodhue was the first to widely popularize Spanish Colonial architecture in the United States, spawning a movement to incorporate the style more broadly in American culture at the beginning of the 20th century. Goodhue received a platform for his designs at the Panama-California Exposition of 1915, in which Spanish Colonial architecture was exposed to a national audience for the first time. His push to preserve the form led to a revivalist movement that saw widespread use of Spanish Colonial architecture throughout the country, specifically in California and Florida. Spanish Colonial Revival-style architecture reached its zenith during the early 1930s, although a few American businesspeople continued to embrace the form well into the latter half of the 20th century.