Audubon Park celebrates 70 years

EAudubon Park has positioned itself as one of Orlando’s shopping and dining gems. Nestled between Colonialtown North and the Mills 50 District on one side, and sprawling Baldwin Park on the other, this neighborhood is also home to the scenic Harry P. Leu Gardens.

Named in honor of naturalist and ornithologist John James Audubon, the street names in Audubon Park reflect his passions: Falcon, Raven, Oriole, Heron, Cardinal, and Tanager, among others. Yet few who shop in its stores or dine in its restaurants may realize that Audubon Park is celebrating its 70th anniversary.

In late 1953 and into early 1954, developers began building what today we recognize as Audubon Park. During World War II, the land once known as Lakewood Estates had been utilized for Air Force maneuvers by the sprawling Orlando Army Air Base — more on this in a moment.

On Nov. 5, 1953, the City of Orlando annexed the property we now know as Audubon Park. Real estate development was the name of the game in the early 1950s, and this area represented a boon for the growing housing market. In fact, Orange County set its new all-time real estate sales record in 1953 with $64,889,400 in sales, an increase of 9% from 1952.

One major local developer, Conway D. Kittredge, purchased 150 acres of Lakewood Estates in 1953 for the price of $285,000. In a separate purchase that year, Kittredge acquired 60 more acres for $115,000. A 1956 Orlando Sentinel editorial referred to Kittredge as “today’s genius of the Central Florida land boom, which he is riding with sharp spurs and brilliant timing.”

Kittredge renamed two of the existing lakes on the property after his daughters. Formerly known as Lake Beeman and Lake Stinson, they became Lake Cay Dee and Lake Shannon, as they are still known today.

Orlando’s newest real estate development, Audubon Park offered buyers 104 new Palm Beach–style residences. This was a clever way of marketing three-bedroom, two-bathroom homes featuring white cement tile roofs, stucco exteriors, jalousie-style windows and terrazzo flooring. The homes were priced at $11,100 to start — approximately $124,000 in today’s dollars.

Amid the excitement of a rapidly growing development and affordable, newly constructed homes, startling news soon served up a reminder of that land’s recent past. On June 21, 1954, a group of boys who were swimming and spearfishing in Lake Stinson — discovered a pair of 500-pound bombs. Lake Stinson had been part of an area used for testing explosives during the war. The bombs, fortunately, were not fused, and although each was thought to contain 250 pounds of TNT, they contained only sand.

In addition to these discoveries, a demolition team found several napalm and other incendiary bombs that, unfortunately, definitely were live; these were taken to the Avon Park Bombing Range. After a month of searching lakes Stinson and Beeman for evidence of more bombs, a team from the U.S. Naval Minecraft Base in South Carolina declared both lakes clear of explosives and the neighborhoods safe. The development of Audubon Park continued, and few today would remember when the 1950s real estate boom in Orlando almost took on an entirely new meaning.