Downtown Orlando Walk

Welcome to Lake Eola Park, the green heart of downtown Orlando. Here's a surprise about the lake: it's actually a sinkhole. The deepest point is about 80 feet down, roughly 100 feet east of the fountain, which is the lake's famous centerpiece and changes colors at night like a light show. The lake covers 23 acres, and a path of just under a mile circles the water.

The park exists thanks to Jacob Summerlin, a wealthy resident, owner of the Summerlin Hotel and Orlando's first city council president. In 1883 he offered the land around the lake on one condition: that the city make it beautiful, plant trees and build a drive around it. The contract even let his heirs reclaim the land if the city failed, and at one point his sons threatened to do just that. On the west side is the Walt Disney Amphitheater, used for events year round, and on the east side is a Chinese pagoda.

This is the Orange County Regional History Center, housed in the historic 1927 Orange County Courthouse. It's a five-story neoclassical building, built for nearly a million dollars. The architect was Murry S. King, Orlando's first registered architect.

Construction began in May 1926, but King died that same year, and his son, James B. King, finished the job. It was dedicated on October 12, 1927. In those days the jail was on the top floor, with quarters for the jailer and his wife, and an infirmary.

The county built a new high-rise courthouse in 1995, and a task force of community leaders unanimously recommended turning this one into a regional history museum. It opened in September 2000. Inside, the exhibits cover local and regional history going back 2,000 years. On the fifth floor, the Joseph L.

Brechner Research Center houses its library and archives, free to the public by appointment.