Live in Parramore
Orlando's oldest Black neighborhood, half a mile from the towers, in the middle of the largest public investment the city has made in fifty years.
Parramore is the ground immediately west of the railroad and the interstate, platted in 1880 by Orlando's fourteenth mayor as segregated housing for the Black families who worked in white households east of the tracks. It is still the historic center of Black Orlando, and it is also where the city has put Creative Village, a downtown university campus, an arena and a soccer stadium inside fifteen years. Both of those sentences are true at once, and a buyer here is choosing between them rather than around them. The Holden-Parramore Historic District was listed on the National Register in 2009 for its association with Black history, which is recognition and not restriction: unlike Lake Eola Heights across the interstate, there is no local overlay telling an owner what to do with a façade. At a USGS-measured 106.2 feet above sea level, fifth-highest of the sixteen Orlando guides on this site, the question here has never been water.
The neighborhood the city built the tracks against, and then built everything else around
The City of Orlando's neighborhood layer has no polygon called Parramore. What it has is Holden/Parramore at 404 acres, Callahan at 286 and Lake Dot at 130, 819 acres between them, running west from Interstate 4 toward Orange Blossom Trail. The Holden-Parramore National Register district inside that is much smaller, bounded by West Church Street, South Division Avenue, Long Street, McFall Avenue and South Parramore Avenue.
Parramore was laid out in 1880 by James B. Parramore, Orlando's fourteenth mayor, on the far side of the railroad, to house the Black families who worked in white households on the near side. That is not background. It is the reason the neighborhood is where it is, why the street grid stops at the tracks, and why Interstate 4 was later run along the same line in the 1960s, taking housing with it and hardening a boundary into a physical barrier. Everything a buyer sees here now sits on top of that.
The city's own neighborhood layer has no polygon named Parramore. It has Holden/Parramore at 404 acres, Callahan at 286 and Lake Dot at 130. The name people use covers all three, 819 acres in all. Get the parcel number and check it against the city map, because here the difference between two names can be the difference between two very different blocks.
The Holden-Parramore Historic District was listed on the National Register on 23 September 2009, under the criterion for events, with Black history as its stated area of significance and 1921 as its significant year. That year is Jones High School, whose lineage runs back to the first public school for Black children in Orlando. Federal listing is recognition, and it restricts a private owner not at all. There is no local historic overlay here of the kind that governs Lake Eola Heights across the interstate. No certificate of appropriateness, no board hearing, no $250 fee. Whether that reads as freedom or as a missing protection depends on what you think happens next to the fabric.
What happens next is the second half of the story. The Amway Arena came down in 2012, and the 68 acres it sat on became Creative Village, whose first phase completed in 2022. The University of Central Florida and Valencia College opened a shared downtown campus there in August 2019, with student housing on site. Orlando City's stadium opened on West Church Street in February 2017, and the Kia Center sits four blocks from the reference point this page measures from.
The city wrote a plan about exactly this tension and adopted it on 26 January 2015. The Parramore Comprehensive Neighborhood Plan came out of a federal Sustainable Communities grant, runs on a twenty year horizon, and names the things it intends: the K-8 Academic Center for Excellence that opened in 2017 with a health clinic and a Boys and Girls Club on the same site, the Parramore Kidz Zone, and mixed-income housing at Parramore Oaks and Amelia Court. Read it before you buy. It is dated, which means you can check it against what has actually been built.
Do not expect the Census to settle anything for you. The Bureau publishes for places of five thousand people and up, not for neighborhoods inside a city, and the tracts that cover this ground also take in Creative Village and the arena district. Any median income or home value you are shown for "Parramore" is a tract figure averaging very different blocks. At a USGS-measured 106.2 feet, fifth-highest of the sixteen Orlando guides here and well above the lake ground, water was never the risk. Wind is, and so is the age of the frame housing: much of it predates modern wind code, and a wind mitigation report will move an insurance quote further than the asking price will.
- Check the parcel against the city's neighborhood map: Holden/Parramore, Callahan and Lake Dot are three separate polygons
- National Register listing here is recognition only. There is no local overlay and no certificate of appropriateness requirement
- Read the 2015 Parramore Comprehensive Neighborhood Plan and check it against what has been built since
- Event nights at the arena and the stadium put traffic and parked cars on residential streets; ask a neighbor how bad it gets
- Older frame housing predates modern wind code. Commission a wind mitigation report before you offer
- Any 'Parramore' median you are quoted is a Census tract figure that also covers Creative Village; treat it with suspicion
How Parramore got here
- 1880James B. Parramore, Orlando's fourteenth mayor, plats the land west of the railroad as housing for the Black families employed in white households on the other side of the tracks.
- 1921Jones High School opens a new building at Parramore Avenue and Washington Street. The National Register nomination for the district later records 1921 as its significant year.
- 1960sInterstate 4 is routed along the eastern edge, taking a swathe of housing with it and hardening the line between the neighborhood and downtown.
- 2009The Holden-Parramore Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places on 23 September under the criterion for events, with Black history recorded as its area of significance.
- 2015City Council adopts the Parramore Comprehensive Neighborhood Plan on 26 January, a twenty year program of housing, schools, transport and health measures out of a federal Sustainable Communities grant.
- 2017The OCPS Academic Center for Excellence opens as a K-8 community partnership school with a health clinic and Boys and Girls Club on site, and Orlando City's stadium opens in February on West Church Street.
- 2019The University of Central Florida and Valencia College open their shared downtown campus in Creative Village in August, with student housing at UnionWest.
- 2022The first phase of Creative Village completes on the 68 acre site where the Amway Arena stood until 2012.
Z.L. Riley Park, the Callahan center and Lake Lorna Doone
Z.L. Riley Park on South Parramore Avenue is the closest open space to most of the neighborhood: a paved path, two playgrounds, grills and a pavilion, with mosaic work made by Parramore Kidz Zone young people. Callahan Neighborhood Center at 101 North Parramore Avenue has the basketball courts, a game room and a computer lab. West, Lake Lorna Doone Park reopened in 2021 after an $8 million rebuild that put an exercise trail around the lake, new courts and the city's first splash pad in a public park.
What the map does not show: the provision here is genuinely good and it is recent, which is the point. Lake Lorna Doone was rebuilt in 2021 and the neighborhood center courts rent at $30 an hour. What you are reading in the dates is a city spending money on this side of the interstate after decades of not doing so.
Elsewhere in Orlando, not Parramore
22 places, with real drive times
Road-adjusted distance and drive time from the centre of the community to each destination, nearest first. Filter by category.
Showing 1–12 of 22 places, nearest first.
Method: distances and drive times are computed from a representative point in the neighborhood, using straight-line distance multiplied by a road factor and a tiered speed model: honest ranges, not routed times. They also flatter the walk east, because the crossings under Interstate 4 are the part that takes the time.
Every gym within reach
There is no commercial gym inside the neighborhood. What there is is a city recreation center with courts, a rebuilt lakeside park to the west, and the Lake Eola loop on the other side of downtown.
- A concrete exercise trail runs the whole way round the lake
- Basketball courts, a playground, a community garden and the city's first splash pad in a park
- Callahan Neighborhood Center has indoor courts and a game room at 101 North Parramore Avenue
- The Lake Eola loop is about a mile and a half east, and is the city's default running route
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Z.L. Riley Park open | The neighborhood park on South Parramore Avenue, with a paved walking path, two playgrounds, grills and a pavilion. The mosaic work on it was made by Parramore Kidz Zone young people. | 3–4 min |
| Callahan Neighborhood Center open | The city recreation center at 101 North Parramore Avenue: basketball courts, a game room, a computer lab and an auditorium. Court rental runs $30 an hour. | 3–4 min |
| Lake Lorna Doone Park open | Twelve acres north of Camping World Stadium, reopened in 2021 after an $8 million rebuild that added a concrete exercise trail around the lake, basketball courts and the city's first splash pad in a park. | 4–6 min |
| Lake Eola Park open | The lake loop just under a mile, on the far side of downtown. It is the city's default running route and it is a walk from the eastern blocks, once you have crossed under the interstate. | 5–8 min |
The free option is Z.L. Riley Park and the Lorna Doone trail, both city parks, both a short walk or a very short drive.
A K-8 built for this neighborhood, and a high school older than the district
The OCPS Academic Center for Excellence opened in 2017 on West Livingston Street as a K-8 community partnership school, with a health clinic and a Boys and Girls Club on the same site. It is the piece of the 2015 plan that got built first. Jones High School is the traditional feeder on this side of the interstate, and its lineage runs back to the first public school for Black children in Orlando.
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| OCPS Academic Center for Excellence | Orange County Public Schools | The K-8 community partnership school on West Livingston Street, opened in 2017 with a health clinic and a Boys and Girls Club on the same site. It is the school the 2015 neighborhood plan was written around. |
| Jones High School | Orange County Public Schools | The traditional feeder high school for this side of the interstate. Its lineage runs back to the first public school for Black children in Orlando, and the 1921 building at Parramore Avenue and Washington Street is why the National Register nomination records 1921 as the district's significant year. |
| Howard Middle School | Orange County Public Schools | The assigned middle school for much of downtown east of the interstate. Whether it or the K-8 applies here depends on the address, so use the district's locator rather than the neighborhood name. |
| Orange County's magnet and choice programs | Orange County Public Schools | Magnet and choice programs run county wide alongside assignment, with their own application window. In a neighborhood this close to downtown they are how a good many families are actually placed. |
| UCF Downtown and Valencia College | University of Central Florida and Valencia College | The shared downtown campus in Creative Village, open since August 2019. It is a ten minute walk from much of the neighborhood, which is the single largest change to daily life here since the interstate went in. |
Orange County Public Schools is a single county-wide district that assigns by address, and it runs magnet and choice programs alongside assignment with their own application window. Whether a given address falls to the K-8 or to Howard Middle depends on the parcel, so use the district's locator rather than the neighborhood name.
Month by month, what living here looks like
Not a highlights reel: the actual annual rhythm, including the dates residents have to remember.
- Highs around 22 °C and lows near 10, the coolest and driest stretch of the year
- Football and the bowl games fill Camping World Stadium and the streets around it
- Peak visitor season, and I-4 traffic to match
- The driest month on average and the best for anything outdoors
- The soccer season starts and West Church Street fills on match days
- Comfortable enough to walk to Creative Village and the campus at midday
- Warming into the high twenties, with humidity returning late in the month
- Spring break brings the metro's heaviest visitor traffic of the year
- Term time downtown, and the campus is at its busiest
- Warm and still mostly dry, the last month before the air changes
- Insurance renewals cluster ahead of hurricane season
- A good month for exterior work on an older frame house
- The rainy season begins, usually in the second half of the month
- Afternoon thunderstorms become a daily fixture
- Central Florida is the most lightning prone region in the United States
- Atlantic hurricane season runs 1 June to 30 November
- Daily storms and mid thirties with humidity
- The students leave and the streets around Creative Village go quiet
- The hottest and wettest month; outdoor life moves to early morning and after dark
- The splash pad at Lake Lorna Doone earns its keep
- Afternoon storms are reliable enough to plan the day around
- Peak humidity and the start of the serious part of hurricane season
- A hundred and six feet up and forty miles inland: the risk here is wind, not surge
- Term starts again and the downtown campus refills
- Statistically the peak of Atlantic hurricane activity
- Binding restrictions mean you often cannot buy a new policy with a named storm in the basin
- Hurricane Charley crossed the city in 2004, which is the local reference point rather than any coastal surge
- The rains taper off and the humidity finally breaks
- Still hurricane season, and October storms have crossed the peninsula before
- The best month of the year to be outside on this side of the interstate
- Hurricane season ends on 30 November and the dry season starts
- Comfortable enough to be outside all day again
- Stadium and arena nights come thick, and street parking goes with them
- Warm days, cool evenings and almost no rain
- Bowl season at Camping World Stadium closes the year
- The pay-off for August
5 more photographs of the community and its surroundings
All freely licensed, via Wikimedia Commons. Filter by category.
Showing 1–5 of 5 photographs.
About these photographs. Openly licensed images geotagged in or near Parramore, found on Wikimedia Commons and served from there with full attribution. Inline photos elsewhere on the page may still come from the site's shared Orlando library.