Angebilt Hotel Skyline Across Beautiful Lake Eola

postmarked January 22, 1954, Orlando, Fla.

arrived 10 P.M. Tuesday night.  Left Newark Airport 6P.M. and was here in 4 hrs.  Did not stop until we reached Orlando.  Some speed Flew 20 thousand feet.  

Do write.  

Love, Marion

Very warm.

Mrs. Frank L Mason

70 Chestnut Street

West Haven, Conn

Hopefully Marion is not on amphetamines, and is talking about her flight.  If you were flying from Orlando to Newark today, the 938 mile journey would take you a little over 2 hours, averaging a flight speed of 434 mph.  So think of how much progress has been made, from jet airliners that fly around 35,000 feet, all to save two lousy hours!

I thought the recipient's name was "Mason," but Google corrected me with the right spelling.  The recipient is Mrs. Frank Nason, and she is a graduate of Wellesley College in 1882, with a Bachelor of Science.  Marion probably knew her best as Thalia Painter.  Frank Nason was a mining engineer, and they had at least one son, Alexis, who died fighting for the Canadians in World War I.  According to his commanding officer, Private Nason was killed while leading his men in the attack on a machine gun post.

A View of Lake Eola Bandshell and Downtown Orlando

A view of the Lake Eola Bandshell and downtown Orlando, Florida.

postmarked February 25, 1984, Orlando FL

Dear Marion and Fred

Little cool today- 75 degrees.  Went shopping in Altamonte Mall.  After lunch at "Denny's" in Longwood.  Bought a steak for supper Saturday and a roast for Sunday.  Will be coming home as planned 3/11/84.  Miss you both- nice to get back home.  Wrote most all of my cards.  See you next week.  Hope Fred feels better.

Love, Betty

Mr. and Mrs. Fredrick Blokland

218 Bullard Street

Holden, Mass. 01520

Here's a great view of downtown Orlando with a few less high rise condos and one less Suntrust Center, which was built 4 years after this postcard was sent.  According to Wikipedia, Denny's had expanded into all 50 states in 1981, almost 30 years after its 1953 California beginnings, so Betty's air-quotes around Denny's may actually denote the newfound Florida presence of the restaurant chain.  Altamonte Mall had been open for ten years, so I guess Betty didn't feel the need to introduce the concept to the Bloklands.  

Speaking of the Bloklands, Frederick and Marion Blokland bought the property at 218 Bullard in 1951, where they live until Frederick's death from cardiac arrest in 1989.  Shortly thereafter, Marion moved to Lake Orion, Michigan, where she still is today at the age of 93.  They had at least one son, Frederick, Jr. who still lives in the town of Holden, so perhaps we'll be able to find out who Betty was!

(Big thanks to the Worcester County Reigstry of Deeds, who has a great public records search!) 

Hotel Lucerne, Orlando, Florida

Orlando is the seventh city of Florida and the largest inland city in the State.  It is the county seat of Orange County and located in the very heart of Florida's brick highway system, the heart of the citrus belt, and the heart of the lake region of central Florida.

postmarked January 18, 1956

Hotel Lucerne Box 1793

Wednesday. Jan. 18.

You are not sick are you?  I hope not- but I've missed hearing from you.  

Guests are arriving in full numbers now tho it is not too warm here.  What is the news in Beverly?  Mildred Horne writes that she plans to come to Florida later this spring.  

Mabel? Hicks

Mrs. Robert O. Small

70 Dane St.

Beverly, Mass

Ms. Hicks is a doomsayer!  Great numbers of snowbirds!  Run!

A closer and later view of the Hotel Lucerne, which was fairly large for the burgeoning city of Orlando.  

Beverly, Massachusetts is an historic resort and manufacturing town of about 40,000 people today.  It is one of two cities that claim to be the birthplace of the U.S. Navy.  The tidy white house at 70 Dane St is still there, just blocks from Mackerel Cove.  Robert O. Small, an 1896 graduate of Bowdoin University, and served as Deputy Commissioner of the Massachusetts Board of Education, as well as the Beverly Library Trustees Board.  

So it's weird that there aren't property records in Essex County, or a mention of his wife.  Or Mabel Hicks.  

Lake Lucerne, Orlando, Fla.

postmarked November 30, 1905, Winter Park, Fla

Dear I.,

How are you this Thanksgiving Day?

PAC

Miss Ida Hawkins

East Greenwich, Rhode Island

A lovely photograph of how Lake Lucerne appeared over a hundred years ago.  You can see the Historic Inn on the other side of the lake, unobstructed by the Spessard L. Holland East-West Expressway.

East Greenwich, Rhode Island is a town of about 13,000 people today.  It was a waterfront town with a prominent mill built by one of the early developers of steam mill technology, Charles Tillinghast James.  It turns out that Ida Hawkins was his niece.

According to her gravestone in Glenwood Cemetery,  Miss Ida Hawkins was born in 1873.  She attended the East Greenwich Academy, a prominent boarding school, graduating in 1893, then went on to Brown University complete her Bachelor's in education at  in 1897.  She was 32 when she received this card, which would be well after she started her career in teaching at an undetermined high school and before she was married to Alexander Morrison.  After a long life of teaching, she passed away in 1944 at the age of 71.  

Let's hope she was well on this Thanksgiving Day, whoever P.A.C. was. 

Main Office First Federal Savings and Loan Association, Orlando, Florida

Main Office

First Federal Savings and Loan Association

Orlando, Florida

Our new main office building located at the corner of Magnolia and Church will offer the ultimate in Savings and Loan Facilities.

First Federal Branch Offices are located in Dixie Village, College Park and Apopka.

This is where we have our house mtg. and savings.

Undated, and most likely sent with other postcards in a long ago lost envelope, this postcard shows a fairly intact street corner of downtown Orlando.  In fact, I drive by this building every time I come downtown on my street parking search from Dixie Village (which is what SoDo used to be called.)   The buildings tenants have changed, but this edifice and attached parking garage, built sometime in the mid 1960's, are still vibrant centers of commerce.  First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Orlando, known as "The First," was a casualty of the Savings and Loan scandals that brought many thefts, like the 57 year old institution, to their knees.  

Through sheer coincidence, I know where the College Park branch was located.  I have a small collection of artifacts from Orlando's past, and I just happened to pick up a small glass tray emblazoned with a sketch of the old building, which still stands today.   In fact, if you have a Chase (or most recently a Washington Mutual) account, you may have been to this place at 2424 Edgewater Drive:

Rodeway Inn, Orlando, Florida

Rodeway Inn

5827 Caravan Court

Orlando, Florida 32805

Phone (305) 851-8300

Dining Room + Coffee Shop + Cocktail Lounge + Children's Playground + Meeting Facilities

Nine miles from the main entrance at Disney World

At I-4 and Florida 435.  First interchange south of the Florida Turnpike.

Hi This is where I am staying.  Spent the day at Disney World.  Still don't believe some of it.  See you soon.

Love,

Helen

Mary Rhodes E. Baker

33 Auburn St.

Framingham, Mass. 01701

This Rodeway Inn became a Days Inn sometime in the 1990's, but it's still around in all of its budget motel glory.  Florida Highway 435 is known to Orlando residents as Kirkman Rd, the major artery leading folks to Universal Studios Orlando, Valencia College's West Campus and the communities of Orlo Vista and Pine Hills.  This 1973 postcard was long before Universal Studios, so you can notice the seemingly unending stretch of orange groves behind the motel beyond the interstate.  

The town of Framingham, Massachusetts is If Mary Rhodes Baker lived in the squat apartment buildings that Google maps shows, then her former residence is still standing.  

The Hotel Fort Gatlin, Orlando, Florida

postmarked May 19, 1946, Saint Petersburg, Fla.

Having a nice trip.  Should like to hear from you.  

B. Napier

Box 5141

New Orleans, 15

La, U.S.A.

Mrs.  Dorris Bremner

Vernon Street

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Canada

The Hotel Fort Gatlin was a place where guests could enjoy the famous "golden fried chicken" dinner as well as a comfortable stay in the mid-century City Beautiful.  Our writer must have been so full that he/she forgot to write to Mrs. Bremner until arriving in St. Petersburg, which before I-4 was a half day trip.  The building along Orange Avenue was bought and demolished in 1965 by the Orlando Sentinel who was expanding their operations.  

Doris Bremner was probably born in 1910, and may have been related to the family owned Bremner's Plumbing and Heating of Halifax, Nova Scotia.  The town of about 400,000 was amalgamated into a regional government in 1995.  

Crescent Court, 1721 N. Mills St., Orlando, Florida

Recommended by AAA

CRESCENT COURT

1721 N. Mills St.- on route 17-192

Orlando, Florida

32 Rooms - Air Conditioned _ Electric Heat _ Wall-to-Wall Carpets _ Room Phones

Free Television - Swimming Pool

Phone GArden 2-4482

postmarked February 4, 1960.

Here since last Thursday.  Rain most of the time.

Love, Florence

Mrs. Herbert Bruce

98 Willow Road

Nahant, Mass.

This motel, one of many dotting U.S. 17-92 and other major highways through Orlando, provided a place for weary travelers driving on the pre-Interstate routes through Florida.  (You can find many still in existence on the Orange Blossom Trail, such as the Parliament House.)  Most of these motels had similar construction- a long building divided into small rooms with a courtyard and perhaps a pool out front.  Crescent Court was torn down in the 1990's to make room for the Orlando Immunology Center.

Nahent, Massachusetts is a small town of about 3,000 people in the northern part of the state.  The hues at 98 Willow Ave sits on Dorothy Cove, an inlet of Massachusetts Bay.  Herbert Bruce was listed in the "Who's Who on the Northern Shore of Massachusetts Bay- 1916."  It looks as if Herbert Bruce's wife was named Mildred Bruce, and they had at least one son, Herbert, Jr. who granted the property to someone in 1997.  Mildred was listed as deceased.  What a friend of a fairly prominent family in Massachusetts was doing in an Orlando motel for an entire week is unknown.  At least she had free television.

Central Avenue, Looking West from Court House, Orlando, Fla.

postmarked February 10, 1922

2/9/22

In the centre of the city there is an open space where the men play croquet, cards, pitch quoits or just sit around all hours of the day.  It certainly looks strange.  There are three fairly good sized banks here, but I don't know how good they are.  Remember me to Mrs. Congdon.

Madeline

Mr. W. H. Congdon

Oak Lawn

Rhode Island

Madeline gives us a report on the daily activities of 1922 Orlandans, and of course the quality of the area banks.  It certainly is strange for our writer to choose the pitching of quoits (similar to horseshoes but with a ring) and the area banks to W.H. Congdon, who was a poultry judge and Treasurer of the Rhode Island Poultry Association in 1893.  

This view was most likely taken from the intersection of Court Street and Central Avenue, looking west as the card describes.  The gabled structure is the Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks lodge, with unknown retail shops and the San Juan Hotel in the background.  None of these buildings survive today, with the exception of what must be the Yowell-Duckworth building on the south side of the street.  

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.  

Lake Lucerne, Orlando, Fla.

Postmarked March 14, 1907, Jacksonville, Fla.

Mrs. Philip DeLeon?

East Greenwich, Rhode Island

East Greenwich, Rhode Island is a community in Rhode Island of about 13,000.  Founded around 1686, the town has the the highest per capita income in the state.  It's hard to make out the name of the recipient, so records for her are scant.

This card is the first of many featuring my new hometown.  I'll see if I can augment these posts with some present day photos, so you can see how time has treated buildings like the Historic Inn at Lake Lucerne seen in the distance on this card.

Park Lake, Orlando, Florida, Showing Park Lake Presbyterian Church, "The City Beautiful"

Park Lake, Orlando, Florida, showing Park Lake Presbyterian ChurchSurrounded by beautiful homes and a palm-lined boulevard.  Park Lakes is one of the thirty-three beautiful lakes within Orlando’s city limits.  There are 1,500 fresh water lakes of varying size in Orange County of which the city is the county seat.

Orlando, Fla. August 18, 1943

We are having a fine time.  Both Luella & Carroll look fine.  Enjoyed our trip very much. 

Sadie & Ralph

Mrs. Ida Shofe?

Aberlin, Pa.


The Park Lake neighborhood in Orlando is nearly as old as the city itself, and features the home used as an office by the renowned architect Ida Annah Ryan.  Working in the Prairie School under Frank Lloyd Wright, Ms. Ryan and her partner Isabel Roberts designed many buildings in central Florida, some of which are still standing today.

Sunshine Park, Orlando, Florida

Sunshine Park, Orlando, FL

Orlando, Fla.  February 2, 1940

We have not played as much shuffleboard as we did before the cold.  Even with the sun beaming on you, you could freeze to death.  Today was lovely and in a few days well will have forgotten the cold.  All the flowers are gone but soon there will be others to take their place.  Carolyn Mara is entertaining us tomorrow night.

Love,

S. Downing

Mrs. Harold Holbrook

Arch Street

Dover, N.H.


Google Maps will show a Sunshine Park in Orlando, but it was a National Guard Armory from 1938 to 1983, and is officially known as the Orlando Downtown Recreation Complex, with no shuffleboard courts in sight.  Shuffleboard as a sport started in Daytona in 1913, reaching its peak in the 1940's, especially among the growing retired population in Florida.  According to the Florida Shuffleboard Association, there are no teams currently playing in Orlando anymore, and I can't recall any surviving courts within the city limits.  If you want to know more about the sport, the blog Visual Epherma tackles the question of preserving this sport seriously and thoughtfully, along with photos of existing (and sadly deteriorating) courts around central and south Florida.

Dover, New Hampshire has been a thriving commercial center since the 1700's.  Through shipbuilding, cotton and brick manufacture, and the University of New Hampshire, the city has flourished for centuries.  (at least that's what the city's website implies.)    The Social Security Death Index lists a number of Harold Holbrooks who would be an appropriate age to receive this postcard in 1940, and there is a Harold Holbrook scholarship at the University of New Hamsphire's Whittemore Business School that started in 1972 in a memorial to the former banker.  There's also an honorable mention of a Harold Holbrook in minutes from the city in 1945 that praise Mr. Holbrook for his war bond efforts.

Coincidentally, there is a prominent photographer in south Florida named Carolyn Mara.  She is most likely way to young to have entertained our writer.

Florida Sanitarium, Orlando, Florida

Orlando, Fla. February 18, 1954

1419 A W. Smith Ave., Orlando

Dear Marian

Arrived here safely but not my suit case.  I waited five days.  It was a big joke to live in my same clothes.  Marion wears size 12.  Yesterday I had a letter from Arthur telling us Jeanette is in the Wilhemmem Hospital.  I have also had to go but hoped she would wait until I got back.  So I have something to think about.  Hope everything will be O.K. Marian & Harry fair.

Love, K. D. T.

Miss Marian Clarke

1343 Rockland St.

Phila. 41

Pa.

The house at 1419 W. Smith Ave is still standing, and according to Orange County Property records, was sold in 1985 by a Kelda D. Thatcher.  Ms. Thatcher is most likely the "KDT" writing the postcard, but the trail goes cold, even with her unusual first name.  The same can be said about Marian Clarke, whose common name is plentiful in Philadelphia.  

Florida Sanitarium is better known today as Florida Hospital.  Opened in 1908 with $9,000 and four patients, the Florida Sanitarium treated tuberculosis patients by providing them with sunshine and fresh air based on the sanitarium model utilized in Battle Creek, Michigan in the late 19th century.  By 1970, the small 20 bed farmhouse had grown into a campus with state-of-the-art medical equipment and was renamed Florida Hospital Orlando.  

A Natural Hedge of Flowers, Flame Vine and Hibiscus, Florida

In Florida bright flowers are found,The Flame-Vine and Hibiscus abound;While orange groves of fadeless green,With fruit of gold make gay the scene.

Hollywood, FL, February 21, 1934

Dear Alice,

We are leaving the fifth of March and going through Tampa and will stop in to see you from there.

Art S.

Mrs. A. B. Green

505 E. Amelia Ave.

Orlando, Fla.

Gay doggerel aside, there is nothing natural about a hedge of flame vine.  Introduced to Florida in the 1920’s, this Brazilian plant has been spread by hummingbirds and bees all over south and central Florida.  Sure, it’s pretty, but ask a tree getting smothered by this plant how pretty it is.

Wait, trees don’t talk.  

The original house at 505 E. Amelia Avenue has been replaced with a newer, presumably larger house built in 1991.  The new structure was bought and sold by Orlando real estate mogul Phil Rampy for a handsome profit in 2000.  The Orange County Property Appraiser doesn't list any other owners before Mr. Rampy, so perhaps he has a recollection of the original structure and perhaps the inhabitants.

"Greetings from Orlando"

Postmarked Orlando FL 328, November 27 1976

11/26 75 degrees

Dear Emma

Have you gotten rested from your busy Sunday and Thanksgiving?  Hope so!

Weather’s fine and we’re having nice visit, shopping and eating.  Enjoyed a quiet Thanksgiving.

See you soon,

Love

Mary Francis

Mrs. Edw. O’ Brien

727 North Avenue

Syracuse, New York 13206


Orlando readers will know that this postcard features a view from the Kahler Plaza Hotel on Rosalind that became the Metropolitan at Lake Eola.  Actually, according to the Lake Eola Historic Walking Trail Guide,  the Robert Meyer Hotel opened in this location on May 15, 1963.   On December 1, 1972, the Robert Meyer Motor Inn became the Kahler Plaza Inn, was later the Harley Hotel, and then joined the Sheraton chain. It was later converted into the Metropolitan.

Also, the bandshell depicted is the third in a series of four, the last being the Walt Disney Amphitheater, built in 1989.  And you've probably noticed that Lee's Lakeside and Apartments are the only building in view.

I did find an O'Brien genealogical forum, so I will update if I find out about that busy Sunday.

A Beautiful Park in Orlando

A Beautiful Park in Florida

Delray Beach, Fla

February 27, 1954

We are having a nice vacation and we both have been feeling very well.  We’ll have to be on our way home soon.  Have been away since the 23^rd of January.  Plan on being home by April 1^st.  Hope you have been very well since we seen you last. 

Love,

Harry and Agnes

Mrs. Marie B. Sinclair

106 11^th Street

Garden City- L.I.

NY

Looks like Harry and Agnes have over a month left in Florida, unless this is the continuing groundwork for the most patient April Fool's prank ever!

Garden City was founded in 1869 by Alexander Turney Stewart, a merchant millionaire.  The city flourished in the early 20th century, and now boasts a population of over 21,000.  Marie B. Sinclair does not turn up in a basic search of public records, nor does her original house.  The current structure was built in 2004 and is valued at $1.6 million.  Judging from the neighborhood, Marie must have been doing very well for herself.  Strangely enough, a September 11, 2011 bulletin from the St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Garden City lists a Harry and Agnes Young under a schedule of Mass Intentions.

Harry and Agnes traveled over 200 miles from buying to sending this postcard.  Keep in mind, the postmark predates the construction of the Florida Turnpike by just 3 years.  (Whether our travelers had to fend off "kill the Pike" demonstrators, we'll never know.)  That would make the journey to Delray Beach and arduous and lengthy process by today's standards.  Maybe Harry and Agnes were secret civil rights organizers going to meet with Solomon D. Spady.

Orange Avenue as seen from the roof of City Hall, Orlando Florida

Winter Park, December 12, 1962

Dear Folks-

Thought I would send you a card to let you know what Orlando looks like now- I arrived here last Wednesday will probably leave Friday- The Company here that is building some equipment for our office has very strict cleaniless control- when I go in to look at the equipment I have to take of my shoes and put on a special white uniform and a hood over my head.

Best Regards 

Fred

Mr. and Mrs.  W. E. Faulkner

Route #3

Athens, Ala.

Either Fred is involved in some high-tech endeavors, or the Klu Klux Klan in Florida was suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.  Points for the unintentionally ironic statement “this is what Orlando looks like now” from nearly 50 years ago.


Athens, Alabama was founded in 1818, and has a population of about 21,000 people today.  The city is part of the Huntsville-Decatur metropolitan area, and sits in Limestone County.  Nothing of the Faulkners or the Route #3 where they lived seems to turn up in a search.  There is a White Pages listing for a Frederick Faulkner in Ormond Beach, so maybe that's where old Fred retired after working with sensitive computer equipment in the 1960's.

For my Orlando readers, this view has obviously changed a lot.  You may be able recognize the Angebilt Hotel in the distance on Orange Avenue, but the buildings in the forefront have been torn down for the Suntrust Tower and the Grand Bohemian.  

Colonial Plaza's new MIllion Dollar Air-Conditioned Shopping Mall

Colonial Plaza’s new Million Dollar Air Conditioned Shopping Mall.  The largest in the South.

Color:  Jack McCullom, Orlando

Sister Bay, WI, August 10, 1981

Dear Lauretta & Red

A whole week gone already.  Got here fine & enjoying every day even tho we aren’t doing much.  Played bridge with the neighbors & also had the Shrevenbergers? over for dinner & they had us over last nite.  Had a terrific storm last nite & it rained almost all day today.  They need it here.

Thanks again for every thing.

Mr. & Mrs. F Neidelbach

926 W. MacArthur

Eau Claire, Wis. 54701

Since you can barely make out the circle over the writing that was probably an Orlando postmark, I’m going to assume that the Sister Bay, WI postmark was a receiving one, and not a failed attempt by the anonymous writer to fool our friends Lauretta and Red Neidelbach into thinking that she was braving the oppressive Orlando summer. 

It’s ironic that the dry summer was noticeable, since a week after this postcard was received, Hurricane Dennis brought significant rainfall as it traveled north along the entire Florida peninsula.

For longtime residents of Orlando,  Colonial Plaza Mall was the mall, (actually until 1973 it was the only mall.)  Other malls opened, and the property was sold to a development company that built the outdoor shopping center, Colonial Plaza Market Place by tearing down most of the mall's structure, including iconic Orlando restaurant Ronnie's.

Eau Claire, Wisconsin is a city of about 65,000 people.  It's hard to tell if the little house at 926 W. MacArthur is still standing from Google Streetview, and there is little evidence of a Neidelbach, or Neiderbach residing in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.  Since the card isn't that old, it is conceivable that someone knows the recipients, or someone is still playing bridge with the Shevenbergers in sunny Orlando.

Lake Eola, Orlando, Fla.

Lake Eola, Fla.

Postmarked March 11, 1905 Received March 14 1905 Northhampton, Mass.

March 10

We have been in Orlando since Wednesday, but shall stay but one week so direct your next to Jacksonville, Gen. Del.  Papa is better but I think the water in Tampa was not good for him.

Mama

Miss Beaulah Wells

Albright House,

Northhampton, Mass.

As a Tampa native living in Orlando, I can attest to the lesser quality of Tampa’s water system, and I am not surprised that Papa suffered some as a result. 

Northhampton, Massachusetts is a town of about 23,000 people with an eclectic social history.  It's been home to a Great Awekening, Transcendental Abolitionism, Industrial Age and Rust Belt Decline, and now vibrant music scene and large LGBT community.    Albright House is a dormitory still in use today at Smith College, and there is a mention of a Beulah Wells in the October 1905 Smith College Monthly newsletter (archived here) that informs us that Miss Wells went to Rochester, N.Y. to work at the Rochester Business Institute.  From there, the trail grows cold.

On a tangent, if that's a receiving postmark from Northhampton, then that shows it took three days en route through our Postal Service.  Before optical character recognition and ZIP codes.  Before Interstate Highways.  Wow.

Here's the game I invite all my Orlando readers to play with me.  Try to find the correct shore of Lake Eola that corresponds with this photo.  My guess is the camera is located on the northwest shore looking south, which would put the structure in the photo where the bandshell is today.  I welcome your thoughts and photos, with which I will update this blog to compare the two!