Dear Readers,
Happy New Year everyone! And happy 150th birthday to the Orlando Sentinel, which today kicks off a year-long celebration of our sesquicentennial.
This is your invitation to join our 12-month party because we wouldn’t be here today without you – our loyal readers, subscribers and advertisers. We are humbled by your ongoing support.
Over the past century and a half, we’ve reported hundreds of thousands of stories about our community, region, nation and world. From triumphs to tragedies, from the serious to the absurd, from important presidential visits to the head-scratching antics of Florida Man – we’ve covered it all.
Over the next 12 months, we’re going to be looking back at some of the key events and topics that helped shape Orlando over the past 150 years and our coverage of those subjects, using our archives. You’ll see our first “Sentinel 150 Spotlight” report in this Sunday’s newspaper and on OrlandoSentinel.com. We’ll also provide details about the first of many community events we’ll be producing this year related to our spotlight topics.
Orlando Sentinel Executive Editor Roger Simmons. (Staff)
From now through December, we’re also going to do something we rarely do – report on ourselves. The 150-year story of the Sentinel includes as many twists and turns as an Orlando theme park rollercoaster. Today’s newspaper is the result of the creation and merger (plus a couple of divorces) of several Orlando publications over the years.
Sentinel, Star and Reporter have been our primary names over the past 150 years. It all started on June 6, 1876.
That’s the day the first copy of Orlando’s first newspaper was printed by Rufus Russell. We were known as the Orange County Reporter then, and we were created because Russell believed the newly incorporated town of Orlando should have its own newspaper after seeing its population boom from 75 in 1875 to 200 in 1876.
The Reporter was printed once a week on a hand-operated press in a wooden building in what would become downtown Orlando. But the going was tough for the newspaper with so few residents and businesses around then. Russell sold the Reporter after two years, and another sale quickly followed to a man named Mahlon Gore.
A well-regarded newspaperman, Gore arrived in Orlando in 1880 – and almost immediately regretted his decision.
He had traveled from Iowa to Sanford and then had to walk to Orlando. “The sand was deep and the last end of the road stretched out unaccountably long,” Gore recounted in a 1908 interview.
After two days’ of hiking, he stumbled across another human in the Central Florida scrub, and he asked for directions to Orlando.
“The man on horseback looked me over for several seconds … and then replied, ‘Why you damn fool, you’re in Orlando now!’”
Gore was standing at what today is the downtown intersection of Livingston Street and Magnolia Avenue – but it looked a lot different then.
“There were just two houses in sight,” Gore said. “I had come 1,400 miles to get to Orlando; I wanted to go home right then.”
The Orange County Reporter office is shown in downtown Orlando in this 1884 photograph. (Sentinel Archives)
Fortunately for us, he stayed and helped give the Orange County Reporter a strong financial and journalistic footing. He also became one of the city’s founding fathers, being elected Orlando’s mayor from 1884-87 and having a well-traveled downtown street named in his honor.
Gore is just one in a collection of colorful characters from the Sentinel’s past whom we’re eager to introduce to today’s readers throughout the year. We also plan to update you on what some popular Sentinel journalists from the past are doing today.
But what’s a birthday celebration without a few presents?
We’ve published a keepsake book, “Orlando Sentinel 150th Anniversary Edition,” featuring 150 of our notable front pages from the past 150 years. You can purchase a copy on our website at OrlandoSentinel.com/150book
We’ve also created a new weekly newsletter, Orlando Sentinel Flashbacks, where we will share stories, photos and front pages related to our history and the history of Orlando. You can sign up for free at OrlandoSentinel.com/newsletters
And over the next weeks and months we’ll be announcing partnerships with local businesses for special products to help celebrate our birthday in some sweet and spirited ways.
So, now, let’s get this party started.