TERRITORIAL FLORIDA

President James Monroe proclaimed the treaty ceding Florida to the United States on February 22, 1821, though that date was a full two years after the treaty of cession was actually signed (2/22/1819). General Andrew Jackson accepted the governorship of the new territory, making him the first U.S. governor of Florida but actually the 67th governor of the region, the longest line of governors of any of the United States.

By the time Florida had become a possession of the United States, already over a thousand white Americans had settled here. None however had ventured into Central Florida. Who had moved into the vast wilderness of the center of the peninsula was approximately 5,000 Seminole Indians, fugitives from Georgia, pushed over the border into Spanish Florida and pushed even further south as a result of the First Seminole War (1817-1818). They moved into land unoccupied since the indigenous Indians had been decimated after 300 years contact with the Spanish.

It would take the Second Seminole War (1835-1842) to finally push the Seminoles into the unwanted areas of the Everglades and Big Cypress Swamp. That opened the door for white settlers to colonize Central Florida. As an added convenience for the settlers was a string of Army forts throughout the area around which to settle are derive some protection from the Seminoles that would occasionally make their presence felt with raids on homesteads. Forts such as Fort Maitland (Maitland), Fort Mellon (Sanford), and Fort Gatlin (Orlando) were manned throughout the War and for a few years after.

Cattlemen were probably the first settlers in the area, using the empty thousands of square miles to raise scrub cattle. These cattle were sold to the Army, and some were driven north to the Georgia-Florida border. Following the cattlemen, some settlers tried to create plantations with cotton but were generally unsuccessful. The families that did succeed were subsistence farmers who lived on a few crops and on fish and wildlife in the surrounding pine forests and palmetto stands.

In the early years (1840-1870), Orlando and Central Florida could have been called "The Wild South. Cattle raising was the primary way to make a living and the towns in Central Florida looked more like Laredo and Dodge City than towns in Georgia or the Carolinas. There were Indian wars (the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Seminole Wars), cattle rustling, gun fights, gambling and other evening pursuits. It was as a cow town that Orlando got its start and it was not until 1870's that Orlando would evolve beyond its cow town stage.

In the 1870’s residences began forming and by 1880 The South Florida Railroad extended its line down into Orlando from Sanford and the rest of the nation. With the coming of the railroad, Central Florida’s fledgling Citrus Industry would rapidly expand with easy access to Northern markets. With the Citrus industry, Orlando changed dramatically. It gladly took on its roll of county seat and became the hub for commerce and business in Central Florida. By the mid-1920s Orlando was a bustling city with a population over 10,000. The Florida land boom during the Roaring Twenties radically changed the look of downtown and with the advent of affordable automobiles; for the first time tourism became a major Central Florida industry.

Orlando weathered the Depression - mostly because of its agricultural base - and went through another major transformation during World War II. In 1940, the Army Air Corps set up a training field at the Orlando Municipal Airport located just east of downtown. In 1941 the Army established a second air base south of the town of Pine Castle. Over ten thousand men and women were trained during the war and afterwards. The second air base eventually became Pinecastle Air Force Base (later still: McCoy A. F. B.) and was used as a Strategic Air Command unit with B-52s that carried atomic bombs. From 1968 to 1998 Orlando was also the home to one of the Navy’s three Naval Training Centers.

At the end of the 1970s, the City of Orlando began to realize that much of its architectural heritage was under threat of demolition some of which dated back to the Wild Southern days of the 1870’s. The destruction of the San Juan Hotel was, for many long-time Orlandoans, the ringing of the warning bell. Soon after, public energy was put into the field of historic preservation. One of the outgrowths of this energy was the formation of five historic districts in and around downtown Orlando from 1980 to 1994. Within the five districts there are nearly 1400 historically significant buildings, both commercial and residential (some dating back to 1870’s). The earliest buildings date back to the 1870s while some of the youngest date from the 1940s. One of these historic districts is know as.

Lake Cherokee Historic District

Designated in 1981

Contains approximately 160 historic structures, primarily residences dating back to 1870’s.

General boundaries are East-West Expressway on the north, Orange Avenue on the west, Cherokee Drive and Gore Street on the south, and Summerlin Avenue on the east.

Lake Cherokee Park

This 3.8-acre scenic park borders Lake Cherokee. Primarily an urban green space, the park is surrounded by the Lake Cherokee Historic district, a residential neighborhood with architecture representing virtually every significant period of Orlando’s history dating back to the 1870’s.

For information call: (407) 246-2283 
Hours: 5:00 a.m. - Sunset

http://www.cityoforlando.net/public_works/parks/cityparks/LakeCherokee/Cherokee.htm

History of Lake Cherokee historic district

Lake Cherokee -Lake Eva - Lake Minnie - Named by John Poyntz in honor of his wife. He and Minnie Hall wedded and built their home on the shore of the lake (which was know as Lake Eva at the time). The Poyntz's neighbors also had the same name, as John's brother Oliver married Minnie's sister Fannie and build their house on the lake as well. The name seems not to have lasted, however, as the lake is today known as Lake Cherokee. It is assumed that the lake is named after the Indian tribe, but how it got the name is currently unknown. This seemed to start a trend of Newlyweds who also build their home on the shores. Building activity began in the 1870's when the Lake was known as Lake Minnie. Five homes built by newlyweds along the western shoreline of the lake in the 1880's became known as "Honeymoon Row".

The Lake Cherokee Historic District consists of 16 square blocks and is primarily residential. Building activity began in the 1870's when the Lake was known as Lake Minnie. Residences were constructed in the Craftsman style, like those at Hovey's Court as well as Queen Anne & Mediterranean, Tudor and Colonial Revivals. The eclectic Shingle/Neoclassical style Peleg Peckham-Dr. Phillips House (1893) on North Lucerne Circle East is representative of early architecture of the City.

Please practice Cache in Trash Out to preserve our beautiful parks.

Cords obviously don’t take you to the cache, that would just be way to easy.

With all that you just learned it should be a simple task to solve this one. A lot of clues were thrown at you but one is repeated more than most, use that information for ABCD then Add 120 to get the correct answer.