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.