THE FACES OF
PRESERVING CENTRAL FLORIDA HISTORY
L to R: Rick Kilby, Managing Editor | Courtney Burns, Assistant Curator of Education
Lavon Williams, Orange County Community & Family Services Deputy Director | Rachel Williams, Historian
Kristofer Kest, Historical Society of Central Florida Board Vice President | Azela Santana, Executive Director
Orange County Regional History Center
In September, the Orange County Regional History Center marked 25 years in its home in downtown Orlando, a former county courthouse built in 1927 in the Neoclassical Revival style. The museum’s opening in that location in 2000 signified a homecoming of sorts. The History Center can trace its history back to a small exhibit about pioneer times that members of the community put on display in 1942 at almost
the same spot but in an earlier courthouse – the grand brick Victorian building with a clock tower that once occupied the land in front of the History Center’s current location. The site is literally the heart of Orlando, the place from which the city limits were platted.
Over time, the museum’s survival and growth inspired a unique partnership between the nonprofit Historical Society of Central Florida and Orange County Government. Among its many accolades through the years, in 2019 the History Center received the prestigious National Medal from the Institute for Museum and Library Services.
To mark the 150th anniversary of the City of Orlando’s incorporation, the History Center opened Orlando Collected earlier this year. It is perhaps the museum’s most ambitious exhibition to date, telling the city’s history through 150 objects, most of which have rarely been displayed. In keeping with the History Center’s 1942 origins, 50 percent of the objects were curated by members of the community such as Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings and local radio personalities Tom & Dan.
Orlando Collected is on display until January and will be followed by Animationland, a kid-friendly traveling exhibition from the Oregon Museum of Science and industry. True to its mission of sharing Central Florida’s continually unfolding story, the Orange County Regional History Center will augment that exhibition with content about our area’s ties to the art of animation.
Contrary to common perception, a museum is an evolving organism that includes permanent exhibitions. For example, the staff is currently researching and designing a section focused on Central Florida’s military history to be unveiled to coincide with our nation’s semiquincentennial, or 250th anniversary, in July 2026.
65 E. Central Boulevard Orlando, FL 32801 | Phone: 407-836-8500 | thehistorycenter.org