The Eola Plaza in the early 50’s and the shores of Lake Eola 60 years later.
From Eola Plaza to the Cherry Plaza Hotel
This is story of apartment building (Eola Plaza) turned hotel (Cherry Plaza Hotel) and then turned back to apartments (Post Parkside). In 1950, a new, modern high-rise dominated the shores of Lake Eola. That year, Eola Plaza opened as one of the tallest buildings in the area and one of the first built with poured concrete. The surrounding area was largely two-story homes at the time. That soon changed as many of which became shops and inns when tourism and traffic increased.
Eola Plaza offered more than just apartments, but brought commerce to the area. Storefronts were on the street level of Eola Plaza. In a 2000 piece in the Orlando Sentinel, Joy Wallace Dickinson listed those early 1950’s businesses as being Eola Pharmacy, Plaza Petites, the Eola Plaza Flower Shop, Jeanne Elkins Dress Shop, Markham’s Restaurant, the Mary Bradshaw Beauty Salon, and The Eola Plaza Bamboo Room, a night club.
In the mid 50’s, William Cherry, chairman of Cherry Broadcasting company, owned radio stations WDBO-FM and WDBO-AM and WDBO-TV (currently Channel 6). He added this building to his portfolio, and the Eola Plaza became the Cherry Plaza Hotel. A 1200 seat convention facility, which included the Egyptian Room, was added making the hotel an attractive location for out of town groups and local community events.
Its time as the Cherry Plaza was the hotel’s most interesting. In the 60’s the hotel was in its prime and important guests visited and the many notable events were held in the Egyptian Room. One of these events could be considered Day One of Orlando becoming the world’s family vacation capital.
- Long before Walt Disney World was planned, the New York Times wrote about growing tourism in Orlando. Noting that over a quarter of a million people flew into Orlando in 1959, a 26% increase from the year prior. The number of hotel rooms in town had doubled in two years to over 1800. The Times wrote that more hotel rooms were added to Orlando when, during the conversion to Cherry Plaza, some Eola Plaza apartments were divided into multiple hotel rooms.
- President Johnson was the first U.S. President to spend the night in Orlando while in office, and he stayed at the Cherry Plaza in 1964. The Jones High School Band were part of the welcoming festivities. Greeted with a large crowd in front of the hotel, LBJ climbed onto the hood of a police cruiser to announce how happy he was to be in Orlando.
- That visit wasn’t LBJ’s first visit here. As a senator and a Vice Presidential candidate running with John F. Kennedy, he hosted Democratic campaign workers at a luncheon at the Cherry Plaza about five years earlier.
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Walt Disney walking into the Cherry Plaza to make an announcement that would forever change Orlando.
Source: floridamemory.comIn 1966, actor Danny Thomas hosted a reception in the Egyptian Room at the Cherry Plaza. Thomas was one of the original owners of the Miami Dolphins and had the players in Orlando for an event. He was in town building excitement about the new Dolphins, Florida’s first professional football team.
- The event with the greatest impact on Orlando was a November 1965 press conference also held in the Egyptian Room at the Cherry Plaza that included Walt Disney, his brother Roy, and the Governor of Florida, Haydon Burns. This was Walt’s only public appearance in Orlando. After secretly purchasing land in Central Florida, he announced plans for Disney World. He promised attendees that it would be grander than Disneyland and would employ 4000 people. Disney died a little over a year later without seeing the growth his announcement brought to this community.
- For a few years in the 1970’s, there was a Columbia Restaurant, part of the oldest restaurant in Florida, located in the Cherry Plaza. The family that owned the now 105 year old restaurant said a church objected to liquor sales and forced is closure. Later, Lee’s Lakeside opened in the same restaurant space overlooking Lake Eola. Restaurateur Lee Rose ran this local favorite for over 20 years. Lee’s Lakeside closed in 2005 not long after her death.
The Cherry Plaza Hotel’s story was too much for one blog post. The next post to Orlando Retro will be about the Cherry Plaza Hotel’s role in a part of Orlando history that is remembered with less delight than Uncle Walt’s visit.
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- Orlando Sentinel, 2/11/1992; 2/21/2010; 2/2/2000; 10/13/1985
- New York Times, 1/3/1960
- Daytona Beach Morning Journal, 2/27/1966
- Married to the Mouse: Walt Disney World and Orlando, By Richard E. Foglesong
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My grandparent’s home was a block away to the SE, at 613 Pine St. For LBJ’s 1965 visit, some of us (I cannot tell you which of my family members except my mom were there) walked over to see him arrive. I was 9 and got separated by just a few feet from her, and was caught up in the crush toward the President.
While bigger than most 9 YO’s, I was dwarfed by the adults around me, and I remember very clearly the inexorable press of people pushing me in, and the steely grips of the Secret Service as they linked forearms to try to create a little bit of space around him. In retrospect, I think how much of a nightmare that must have been for those guys, worrying about losing another chief executive to a sweaty crowd of Floridians on a cobblestone street.
There’s one picture I found of him in that crowd, and there’s a burr headed haircut on a young boy down below shoulder level that I know is me.
I love hearing that you remember LBJ’s visit. Thanks for leaving such a thoughtful comment.
My mom was a waitress there and shook hands with LBJ, she has fabulous group photos of the wait staff and cooks poolside in those crisp turquoise and black uniforms. They all look like movie stars with tiny waists and buiffont hairdos. I used to play at lake Eola playground and peek through the diamond shaped holes around the pool deck at the guests, always wishing I could go swimming there.
Funny…I learned Synchronized Swimming there in 60’s! So much fun
Amazing! I live in Post Parkside now and was very curious about its history. Thanks for sharing!
Glad you found the background on your residence interesting. Thanks for the comment!
My father, Garry A Boyle, was the architect who designed the Eola Plaza. I remember his telling me that it was the first, therefore only, monolithic concrete building in Florida at the time. This project was built before Interstate-4 was, and the commute between Tampa and Orlando was considerably longer. My Dad was a hands-on architect, who always had written into his contract that he would supervise the construction to ensure that it was built just as he designed it. So for a while he would spend the week in Orlando and commute home for weekends.
I believe that the building was built by Paul Smith Construction Co. Paul Smith and my Dad were good friends and collaborated on many projects in the Tampa area.
There was some kind of a grand opening ceremony when the building was ready. I vaguely recall being there for that. However I attended many such gatherings over the years, and I may be confusing some other building with the Eola Plaza.
In the mid to later 50s there was a children’s shop called Polly Rowanne’s where my mother bought All of the clothes for the six of us! Wonderful lady, beautiful shop!
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My Great Aunt Olga Carlson lived there in the early 1970’s after she retired from her job as executive assistant to the president of the L&N Railroad. Unfortunately, she killed herself in 1972 in her living room at the hotel.
Great memories from my 2 year stay while working in Orlando 1961-63
By the way, did anyone find my RC boat that disappeared under the fountain in Lake Eola?
When my dad chose to move to Orlando with the Martin Co. in 1957, my parents had a house built in Bel Air Hills. It wasn’t ready when we arrived from Baltimore, so we got to live in the Eola Plaza for 3 months! Wow! What fun! I was excited when I got a dime and could buy duck food in a small brown paper bag. The fountain was being built at that time. I remember touching one of the green panels as they sat on a truck! My claim to fame! Still love Orlando!
I was 18 and working at the Phoenix of Hartford Insurance Co. then located across the street from the Catholic church. My coworkers and I walked over to Orange Ave to see LBJ’s caravan drive by so it must have been the 1964 visit. I remember my boss being amused at our youthful excitement as we walked back to the office!
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I believe my grandmother was one of the first to sign a contract to move into the Eola Plaza. Her home was at the corner of Summerlin and Colonial Dr. Sometime later the Porter Paint company bought the corner and my grandmother’s home was moved down Colonial Dr. to Bumby St. Her original home is still used as an office building. It was fun going to the Eola on Saturdays for lunch with my grandmother. That was back in the 50’s.
I lived in a girls home Maris Stella Villa when hurricane Donna hit. We all evacuated to the Cherry Plaza Hotel to ride out the storm. It was my first hotel experience and a lasting memory. I was 9 years old at the time.