The Story Of Mount Dora Florida

Mount Dora is known for its southern charm and New England look, yet its history is just as engaging. The "Festival City" began with the arrival of pioneer families such as the Drawdys, Simpsons and Tremains. In the 1880s, it became a popular destination for Chautauqua events, when visitors gathered beside Lake Gertrude and Lake Dora for educational and cultural enrichment. In the twentieth century, Mount Dora weathered economic setbacks and racial conflict before becoming a premier city of the arts. Today, this beautiful lakefront community welcomes thousands of visitors to its numerous festivals, events and active shopping village. Join authors Gary McKechnie and Nancy Howell as they celebrate the intriguing history of their town.

Located approximately 50 miles north of Disney World, the small community of Mount Dora, Florida, has become a peaceful oasis in the bustling region, offering a respite to the weary traveler and a refreshing connection to an earlier time. The town rests on the shores of the beautiful Lake Dora, named for early settler Dora Drawdy by government surveyors in the 1840s. Looking at the quaint city streets, placid lake, and turn-of-the-century homes, it's easy to imagine life long ago in Mount Dora as inordinately idyllic, but like all communities, Mount Dora has faced challenges to its growth and prosperity. The collapse of the real estate boom in the mid-1920s was quickly followed by the Great Depression, ruining lives and fortunes in Mount Dora and around the state. But from the beginning, one of Mount Dora's strongest assets has been its inviting lake, an advantage that has helped a thriving tourism industry to develop in this small town. Visitors flock to Mount Dora, not only for the tranquil setting, but also for the community's old-fashioned charm, antique district, and architectural distinctiveness.

How a unique small town in Florida has thrived since the 1870s. The Central Florida town of Mount Dora grew with oranges and retirees. It survived killing freezes and the expansion of nearby Orlando to become an oasis of charm and attractiveness, a real community rather than an accidental collection of transients. How did Mount Dora get its name? Who settled there and why? How did the white and black races get along? How did its people make their living? What is it about Mount Dora that attracts thousands of visitors every year? How did it avoid succumbing to automobile traffic? How has it managed residential and commercial growth? How did it keep its downtown attractive and profitable? How does it expect to retain its traditional character? Book jacket.

"Here is the book lover's literary tour of Florida, an exhaustive survey of writers, books, and literary sites in every part of the state. The state is divided into ten areas and each one is described from a literary point of view. You will learn what authors lived in or wrote about a place, which books describe the place, what important movies were made there, even the literary trivia which the true Florida book lover will want to know. You can use the book as a travel guide to a new way to see the state, as an armchair guide to a better understanding of our literary heritage, or as a guide to what to read next time you head to a bookstore or library."--Publisher.

From Fort Pickens in the Panhandle to Fort Jefferson in the ocean 40 miles beyond Key West, historical travelers will find many adventures waiting for them in Florida. In this new updated edition the author presents 74 of his favorites—17 of them are new to this edition, and the rest have been completely updated. Along the Gulf Coast, see Henry Plant's Moorish jewel of a hotel in Tampa; John Ringling's home and art and circus museums in Sarasota; and the humble homes of Cuban and Italian cigar workers in legendary Ybor City. Up in north Florida visit Civil War battlefields; stroll the University of Florida campus; and see buffalo and wild Spanish horses on Paynes Prairie. In central Florida explore Eatonville, home of writer Zora Neale Hurston, and listen to carillon music as you stroll the gardens around Bok Tower. Down in the keys find the 250-year-old wreck of the San Pedro, a "living museum in the sea" and the Key West home of famous author Ernest Hemingway.

“An extraordinary real picture of human beings numbed by catastrophe but still driven by the unconquerable determination of living creatures to keep on being alive.” —The New Yorker “Alas, Babylon.” Those fateful words heralded the end. When the unthinkable nightmare of nuclear holocaust ravaged the United States, it was instant death for tens of millions of people; for survivors, it was a nightmare of hunger, sickness, and brutality. Overnight, a thousand years of civilization were stripped away. But for one small Florida town, miraculously spared against all the odds, the struggle was only just beginning, as the isolated survivors—men and women of all ages and races—found the courage to come together and confront the harrowing darkness. This classic apocalyptic novel by Pat Frank, first published in 1959 at the height of the Cold War, includes an introduction by award-winning science fiction writer and scientist David Brin.

More than a college or a summer resort or a religious assembly, the Chautauqua movement was a composite of all of these, and for five decades after it began in 1874, Chautauqua dominated adult education and reached millions with its summer assemblies, reading clubs, and traveling circuits. This critical study weaves the threads of Chautauqua into a single story and places it at the vital center of fin de siecle cultural and political history.