Orlando

I

Introduction

Orlando, city in central Florida, seat of Orange County, whose metropolitan area is one of the world’s premier tourist destinations. The greater Orlando area draws more than 40 million visitors annually with its several major theme parks, a balmy climate, and extensive convention facilities.

Orlando’s evolution is divided into two eras: before and after the opening of the Walt Disney World theme park in 1971. Prior to that year, the quiet town functioned mainly as a service center for the surrounding citrus-growing region and as the seat of sparsely populated Orange County. Following the opening of Disney World, the Orlando area quickly transformed into a booming metropolis that was home to both a major tourist playground and high-technology industry.

Orlando is located near the center of the low-lying Florida Peninsula in the heart of a lake-studded region. The city’s climate is humid subtropical. Winter daytime temperatures in the lower 20°s C (lower 70°s F) have contributed substantially to the area’s tourist industry. But Orlando’s interior location—about 80 km (about 50 mi) from the cooling breezes of the Atlantic coast—gives it some of Florida’s hottest summer temperatures. Daytime temperatures in the summer are in the lower 30°s C (lower 90°s F) and are accompanied by high humidity and frequent afternoon thunderstorms. The city’s annual precipitation is 1,200 mm (48 in), and the months with the most rain are June through September.

The city is named for Orlando Reeves, a soldier who was killed during the second of the Seminole Wars (1835-1842).

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II

People

The population of the city of Orlando was 185,951 in 2000, up from 164,693 in 1990. In 2006, it was estimated at 220,186.

The four-county Orlando metropolitan area includes Orange, Seminole, Lake, and Osceola counties. It has grown rapidly as well, increasing from 1,224,852 in 1990 to 1,984,855 in 2006. In 2000 nearly eight out of every nine metropolitan residents lived outside Orlando’s city limits.

According to the 2000 census, whites made up 61.1 percent of the city’s population, blacks 26.9 percent, Asians 2.7 percent, Native Americans 0.3 percent, and Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders 0.1 percent. People of mixed heritage or not reporting race comprised 8.9 percent of the population. Hispanics, who may be of any race, made up 17.5 percent of the people. The Hispanic share of Orlando’s population more than doubled between 1990 and 2000.

III

City Landscape

Orlando is situated at the heart of a rapidly growing metropolitan region spreading outward from the city center. In the face of rapid suburban expansion, the city has tried to maintain a downtown that will continue to attract visitors. Downtown Orlando is characterized by brick streets, landscaped gardens, and oaks draped with Spanish moss. The focal point of downtown is Lake Eola and its surrounding park. However, new facilities outside the city, especially Downtown Disney, completed in the late 1990s, compete with downtown Orlando for business because they are located much closer to the hotels and motels that accommodate most of the area’s tourists.

Although the city of Orlando proper is rather modest in size, with a land area of 174 sq km (67 sq mi), its metropolitan region sprawls across Orange, Lake, Osceola, and Seminole counties, with a land area of 9,041 sq km (3,491 sq mi). Within the region are a number of prominent municipalities: Kissimmee has a huge motel complex serving nearby Disney World; Celebration is a planned town established by the Disney corporation in 1994; Winter Park is known for its 19th-century mansions; and Maitland has become one of Florida’s leading business districts. Several northern suburbs—including Altamonte Springs, Longwood, and Lake Mary—contain affluent and prestigious new residential developments.

IV

Educational and Cultural Institutions

The area’s two major institutions of higher learning are the University of Central Florida in Orlando and Rollins College in suburban Winter Park. The area also has three large community colleges. Noteworthy museums, all in Loch Haven Park, are the Mennello Museum of American Art, featuring the paintings of American folk artist Earl Cunningham; the Orlando Museum of Art, focusing on 19th- and 20th-century American art; and the Orlando Science Center, with a variety of hands-on exhibits and a planetarium. The Orange County Regional History Center, located in downtown Orlando, contains artifacts of the Seminole people and displays on the city’s history. The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art in Winter Park features one of the world’s largest collections of art nouveau stained glass by Louis Comfort Tiffany. Orlando also has ballet and opera companies and several theater groups, including the Orlando Shakespeare Theater.

Metropolitan Orlando is also a mecca for outdoor recreation, much of it on the area’s many freshwater lakes and rivers. The Harry P. Leu Botanical Gardens, on Lake Rowena, is one of the major parks. Cocoa Beach on the Atlantic Coast lies less than one hour away to the east via the Bee Line Expressway.

Central to the Orlando metropolitan landscape are the vast theme parks of the Walt Disney World resort. These include the Magic Kingdom, Epcot (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow), Disney-MGM Studios, and Animal Kingdom. The resort also includes numerous golf courses, water parks, restaurants, and hotels as well as Downtown Disney, a complex that provides dining, shopping, and entertainment. Other theme parks in the area include SeaWorld Orlando, which focuses on marine life, and Universal Studios Florida.

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