American Legion Building, Orlando, Florida, The City Beautiful

postmarked November 7, 1925

November 6, 1925

We reached this city today.  It is dreadful warm here.  They are going without coats.  I have to put my lightweight coat on as soon as I got here.  We have just come from the Phillips Theatre.  It has a musical comedy.  We are staying at the Hotel Satsuma. 

Mother

Mrs. Harry Davie

10 Fort Street

East Norwalk, Conneticut 

The American Legion has had a presence in Orlando since 1919, when Mayor Beardall (who has a senior center named after him) commanded Post 19's formation.  The American Legion has been leasing a building near Trotter's Park off Lee Road for decades, and I can't seem to find any mention of this building still existing in Orlando, which in my opinion is a shame.  

When I read about Mother seeing a musical comedy at the Phillips Theatre in Orlando, I went to the Sandborn Fire Insurance Company Maps from 1919.  (If you don't know what Sandborn maps are, go here.)   The Phillips Theatre was started by Braxton Beacham, who built the Angebilt Hotel and Beacham Theatre, both of which are still standing.  As is the Phillips Theatre.  

Built in 1916 on the rubble of Orlando's first bank, it operated as the Philips Theatre until 1929 when it was renamed the Ritz Theatre.  The Ritz stayed open for five years, eventually becoming the department store W.T. Grants which closed in 1970.  Eventually, the theatre space became Janie Lane's Sunset Strip, and Bar Orlando until 2009, when SAK Comedy Lab returned the space to its musical comedic glory.  

Hows that for history hitting close to home?  All from a small house that may still stand in East Norwalk, Connecticut, one of the state's first colonial settlements.