A tour of historic downtown Orlando is always a fun way to spend a lazy weekend. This episode features a tour of Church Street Station, the H.S. Kress Building, the Metcalf Building, the Angebuilt Hotel, the Rogers Building and the Cherry Plaza Hotel which is now an apartment building. TRANSCRIPT While my city may not have the tallest buildings or the storied avenues like New York, Toronto or Miami; Downtown Orlando, Florida still maintains a great number of the original buildings from its earliest days as a cattle and citrus town. They may not be grandiose, but they are every bit as historic, and each has a story to tell about the city beautiful. Let me guide you around historic downtown Orlando, Florida. Coming up next. First up on our tour is the historic Church Street Station, also known as the Old Orlando Railroad Depot. In October of 1880, the South Florida Railroad arrived in Orlando from Sanford about 23 miles north. The very first depot was an old wooden building, located at 4 Depot Place and West Church Street, constructed across from Bumby Hardware and Feed Store. Joseph Bumby, one of Orlando’s prominent businessmen, was the first station master and freight agent. You can learn more about him in my History of Orlando Series. In 1886, famed railroad magnate Henry Plant built a new Victorian-style depo which was dedicated in 1889 and which still stands in Downtown Orlando today. This depot was a symbolic step that Orlando was growing as one of Florida’s major cities. The story goes, that on the inaugural trip from Sanford, the South Florida Railroad mounted a canon on the rear of the train and fired it off all the way down the line in a boisterous celebration of its arrival into Orlando. Church Street Station continued to function as a ticket outlet, but by the 1970s, it had largely been abandoned. The station was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1976. In 2005, local restaurateurs signed a lease for the building but backed out claiming the building was haunted. In fact, a letter from their lawyer alleged construction workers had seen ghosts which the owners had failed to inform them. The landlord offered to have an exorcism performed and sued stating there were no ghosts in, on, above, below, or around the building. A ghost tour operator: however, asserted the building was haunted by the ghosts of children of prostitutes who worked in the Strand Hotel upstairs which had been a de facto brothel. Today the depot serves as a platform for the SunRail Commuter train through Orlando, and there are rumors of plans for large scale redevelopment. 00:00 Introduction 01:00 407 Original Clothing Ad 01:24 Church Street Station Tour 03:41 Kress Building Tour 05:30 Metcalf Building Tour 07:08 Angebuilt Hotel Tour 09:10 Rogers Building Tour 09:44 Cherry Plaza Hotel Tour 10:26 End Credits Get West End Girls (2018 Remaster) by Pet Shop Boys here https://t.lickd.co/301898857a1b46eeb40e9b2e91458a26 License ID: LmJAWweaAp8 Get this and other songs for your next YouTube video at https://lickd.co Get Are You Gonna Be My Girl by Jet here https://t.lickd.co/ca26d956e2194cc698733aaefd45ed7a License ID: XDjN8mV1Rl9 Get this and other songs for your next YouTube video at https://lickd.co Get Moments In Love by Art Of Noise, The Art Of Noise here https://t.lickd.co/789726789922440f8e8e55309ae98dbf License ID: 23NW6Mk2mg9 Get this and other songs for your next YouTube video at https://lickd.co Get Monday by Imagine Dragons here https://lickd.lnk.to/kXCtnTID!The%20Orlando%20Guy License ID: lXGAla7DO97 Get this and other songs for your next YouTube video at https://lickd.co Get Floating Through Space by Sia, David Guetta here https://lickd.lnk.to/YH51HaID!The%20Orlando%20Guy License ID: qlDJ3lKZE9R Get this and other songs for your next YouTube video at https://lickd.co Get True by Spandau Ballet here https://lickd.lnk.to/O4cR28ID!The%20Orlando%20Guy License ID: VOrloAJKbKP Get this and other songs for your next YouTube video at https://lickd.co The Orlando Guy: Episode 305 Historic Downtown Orlando Tour 💰 PayPal Me: https://www.paypal.me/theorlandoguy ☕ Merch: https://www.theorlandoguy.com/shop/ MAILING ADDRESS The Orlando Guy 4300 W Lake Mary Blvd. Suite 1010 PMB 312 Lake Mary, FL 32746