This plaque in Greenwood Cemetery memorializes Orlando's first African-American community which was…read moreestablished in the 1880's by formerly enslaved African-Americans who settled along Fern Creek. This community was named to honor Sam and Penny Jones. This community stood on the northern thirty acres of Greenwood Cemetery. This is an important plaque and we must remember the resilient people who settled here.

Woodlawn Memorial Park in Gotha has so many interesting memorials and statues including a replica…read moreof the Liberty Bell! I actually had to do a double take. Seeing such an iconic American symbol in the middle of a cemetery wasn't something I was expecting, and I had to find out how it ended up here. While the original Liberty Bell hangs on Market Street in Philadelphia, there are actually more than 50 full size replicas scattered across the United States, along with one that was gifted to Japan. They can be found in places like schools, restaurants, casinos, parks, and in private collections. The bell at Woodlawn is one of four replicas in Florida and one of six located in cemeteries across the country. In 1972, Woodlawn commissioned this full size, fully functional replica from the renowned Paccard Bell Foundry in France. It is the same foundry that cast the Liberty Bells distributed by the U.S. Treasury in 1950. The cemetery intended to use the bell as a promotional centerpiece leading up to America's Bicentennial celebration in 1976. After the festivities concluded, it was permanently installed in the Garden of Eternal Liberty atop a three tiered concrete pedestal beneath a wooden steeple. Before finding its permanent home, the bell traveled throughout Central Florida. A 1972 edition of the Orlando Sentinel reported that it was displayed at the Orange County Courthouse, where Mayor Carl Langford and County Commission Chairman Paul Pickett planned to ring it upon the signing of the Vietnam peace treaty. On Columbus Day in 1975, the bell was displayed at a middle school in St. Cloud as part of a celebration honoring America's heritage, where members of the public were invited to participate. I love stumbling across unexpected pieces of history like this. It's amazing to think that a replica built to celebrate the nation's 200th birthday is still standing nearly 50 years later. Discovering the bell hidden in the back of a cemetery yet in plain site during America's 250th anniversary made it even more special to me.

Unity Corner: The Ripple honors Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. and tge families who lived…read morehere before being displaced by eminent domain. The statue of Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. has the shoes significantly bigger than the rest of the statue. That is because this man filled some pretty big shoes to fill and proved to have changed not only America, but the whole world. King also proved we can change the world with peace and this statue is a great tribute to a great man. Please come and pay your respects to a man who changed the world with a peaceful message.

"Give me your tired, your poor. Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse…read moreof your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" Emma Lazarus It is quirky discoveries like this that make it fun to explore. While driving around after having just picked up lunch at the Pastrami Project, I discovered a miniature Statue of Liberty standing in the traffic island at the intersection of North Magnolia and North Orange Avenue across from Lake Ivanhoe. This Statue of Liberty has been keeping watch since 1953. She was a gift from the Boy Scouts of Central Florida Council as part of their Strengthening Arm of Liberty program. The program placed around 200 statues all over the country between 1949 and 1953. This statue costs $350 and the scouts raised the money with the help of the Kiwanis club. The base was paid for by the City of Orlando. After 30 years, Lady Liberty was looking the worse for wear when she was noticed by Robert G. Neel, President of Woodlawn Memorial Park. He raised the money to have her refurbished in Pennsylvania. The city paid to add new walls in her traffic island, add new irrigation lines, floodlights, and landscaping. The statue was rededicated on June 27, 1985. Of the original 200 Statue of Liberty statues, approximately 50 have been lost or destroyed. Orlando is proud to have their statue looking great and promoting the patriotic message of liberty, justice, and freedom.

While certainly not as grandiose as the Statue of Liberty on Ellis Island, this miniature creation…read morelocated on the corner of North Magnolia Avenue and North Orange Avenue right by the entrance to Interstate 4 is a nice addition to the local art here in Orlando, Florida. I believe that local art adds a bit of colorful personality to the often impersonal asphalt and steel of our cities and adds a splash of insight into a community's mindset and ambitions. I am glad for this little statue in my community.

Not many people are aware that a segment of the Berlin Wall stands behind The Hard Rock Cafe at…read moreUniversal Studios Orlando CityWalk. I passed by it dozens of times for nearly two years and never gave it even so much as a glance. Then one day someone told me it was there. And what do you know? it is! It's amazing how blind we can be sometimes to things that are right in front of us! I think it is amazingly awesome that we are lucky enough to have such a rich piece of history in Orlando. And it's not roped up in some museum with signs posted everywhere warning "Do Not Touch." Nope, it's right there all out in the open. Go ahead and put your hands right on it. It's amazing, just amazing, I tell ya! DO NOT go to Universal Studios and not take the time to walk behind The Hard Rock Cafe and see this piece of history!

So many of the Berlin Wall segments sit outside in California, but this is the only one permanently…read moreplaced in Florida. This stands in a very odd place, basically if you are walking towards Hard Rock Café and coming from the backend where the University Studio's Globe is, the Wall is on the right side of the Hard Rock Café building. One would never even know it is there, as everyone goes inside Hard Rock Café from the other entrance. While observing the wall, I seen countless people just walking around and no one even seems to notice this significant piece of history right in front of them, how sad? If you are in Orlando and visit the CityWalk, definitely checkout the Berlin Wall Segment. [Review #374] (20th Review of 2016)

Celebration is a master-planned community developed by The Walt Disney Company in the 1990s near…read moreOrlando, Florida. Designed according to the principles of New Urbanism, it blends traditional early 20th-century American architecture with a walkable layout of interconnected streets, parks, and a vibrant downtown district. Located near the US-192 entrance on Celebration Avenue, the Celebration Water Tower has been one of the town's most recognizable landmarks for more than two decades. Its is so iconic that it even inspired the name of a nearby shopping plaza. Built in the Colonial Revival style, the tower serves purely an aesthetic purpose. It does not provide water to the community, instead it acts as a visual centerpiece and symbol of the town's identity. When visiting Celebration, the water tower is a great spot to stop and snap a photo in front of one the most beloved landmarks and enduring symbols of community pride.

While I am very familiar with the blue markers of the state wide Florida Historical Marker Program,…read moreoccasionally I will come across a county or city historic marker. On a recent walk through Red Bug Lake Park, I discovered that Seminole County has their own historic marker program. Historic markers are a great way to learn about the formative people, buildings, and events in Florida's history. This marker was erected in 2023 by The Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation with support from the Casselberry Historical Society and the Seminole County Historical Society. It recounts the important WWII contributions made by the actress Hedy Lamarr who passed away in Casselberry at the age of 85 on January 19, 2000. According to this marker, famed Golden Age of Hollywood actress and inventor Hedy Lemarr had a home near Red Bug Lake Park in the later years of her life. Hedy was born Hedwig Eva Marie Kiesler on November 9, 1914, in Austria to Emil and Gertrude Kiesler and she was raised in the Jewish faith. In 1938 she came to the U.S. and became a naturalized citizen in 1953. She went on to star in two dozen movies, including the notable Samson and Delilah directed by Cecil B. DeMille. During WWII, Hedy and George Antheil received U.S. patent number No. 2,292,387 for their Secret Communication System. Hedy explored potential military applications for radio technology. She theorized that varying radio frequencies at irregular intervals would prevent interception or jamming of transmissions, thereby creating an innovative communication system. Together she and Antheil designed a way to help the U.S. Navy against Nazi Germany by allowing spread spectrum and frequency jumping of radio waves in torpedo guidance systems. This technology was later used to make Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth technology possible. The National Inventor's Hall of Fame posthumously inducted Lemarr and Anthiel in 2014. Her invention has led Heddy Lamar to be known as the mother of Wi-Fi.

Who knew that Hedy Lemarr had a connection to Oviedo, Florida? I certainly did not until today as I…read morewas walking around Red Bug Lake Park and came across this historical marker. Hedy Lamarr was n incredibly popular actress back in the golden age of film making. She starred in over two dozen movies including the Cecil B. DeMille classic "Sampson and Delilah." What many do not realize is that in addition to her beauty, Hedy Lamarr was not only incredibly intelligent, but she was also the co-onventor of a "secret communication system," which allowed frequency jumping in radio waves. This later was beneficial with WiFi and cellular phone technology possible. It appears that Lamarr relocated to the Oviedo, Florida area and this is where she passed away back in 2000. I love finding these historical markers that connect us to a community's past.

Odd to see a statue here in Universal Studios, this one is located along the Embarcadero Street…read moresection of San Francisco. The marker reads: "Lew R. Wasserman, Chairman Emeritus MCA-Universal Studios, March 22, 1913 - June 3, 2002." "Lew Wasserman was one of the most highly regarded figures in the entertainment industry. For decades, he had guided the course of film, television, music and recreation as well as the worlds of politics and philanthropy. During his career, he built MCA, later renamed Universal Studios, into a pre-eminent entertainment company, and simultaneously transpormed the insustry through his innovation, creativity and vision."