The first post office was established, and William C. Roper was postmaster.
A two-story inn was built at a midway point on the trail between Sanford (then called Mellonville) and Tampa. James Speer, who was moving back
The first post office was established, and William C. Roper was postmaster.
A two-story inn was built at a midway point on the trail between Sanford (then called Mellonville) and Tampa. James Speer, who was moving back to Texas, sold his holdings in Oakland to Dr. Buford, who then sold them to James Jackson.
The post office closed. Speer returned to Oakland and bought 1,000 acres from Dr. J.D. Starke of Ocoee.
Speer became the largest landowner in Central Florida when Jackson, his wife’s father, died and Speer bought the land from the other heirs.
Speer reopened the post office as postmaster. Other pioneers of the day were Luther Fuller Tilden and George Frank Connell, farmers; and James E Willis, farmer and citrus grower.
A charter was issued for the Orange Belt Railroad, which was to run from Lake Monroe to Lake Apopka. A second railroad, the Tavares, Apopka and Gulf, was started with tracks that began at Ellsworth Junction near Tavares.
The Orange Belt was purchased, and tracks were laid on a path toward Lake Apopka. Speer offered 200 acres on the south shore of Lake Apopka (half interest in 180 acres plus 15 acres for railroad shops and a depot and five acres for a town park) if the owners would swing the railroad line into Oakland. An agreement was reached. The rails reached the town later that year, and the first train arrived in Oakland in great celebration. John Carlson was the engineer of that first train.
Once the depot was built, the business section was established with a hotel, hospital, opera house, grocery, hardware store and offices.
Thomas Jefferson Appleyard started publishing the first newspaper of the area, a weekly called The Southern Sun.
A meeting was called to incorporate the town with 31 qualified voters listed. Peter A. Demens was elected the first mayor. Others elected were J.F. Bedford, A.J. Grant, a.m. Taylor, Henry Kaufmann and G.D. Ackerly as aldermen; F.E. Eastman as city marshal; and WP. Gilkeson as city clerk. The Presbyterian Church was organized.
James Orlando Brock was proprietor of the Oakland grocery. The Town Council created the positions of tax assessor, city marshal and tax collector.
The first black school opened in Oakland. William Bourne was station agent.
A new two-story schoolhouse was built just west of the Presbyterian Church. The Oakland Cemetery Association was formed. A large city park was developed.
The Florida Legislature legalized incorporation of the town of Oakland. The first mayor, Demens, a Russian immigrant, wanted to name it St. Petersburg, after his birthplace, but the residents insisted on keeping the name Oakland because it reflected the town’s beautiful canopy of oak trees. (Demens’ Russian roots were evident in the architectural style of the Orange Belt Railroad Depot.)
There was a confrontation between the two railroads when the TAG rails were laid nearly to Oakland and the Orange Belt threatened TAG with an injunction to keep it out of town. However, the TAG took advantage of a Monday holiday and ran the tracks along what is now Arrington Street. All the track was laid by the time courts opened Tuesday. A month later, a passenger and mixed train was running daily in each direction. The TAG later reorganized as the Tavares and Gulf Railroad.
Judge James G. Speer died. The Orange Belt Railroad reorganized as the Sanford and St. Petersburg Railroad.
The black school closed.
In this year of the “Big Freeze,” the Sanford and St. Petersburg line was sold to the Plant System because of a decline in freight along the line.
The town’s population dropped to about 200.
The Oakland jail was a wooden building behind the hardware store.
An official post office building was built near Grace Park. Prior to this, the post office was temporarily set up in a number of locations, including several postmasters’ homes and the Connell and Brock stores.
An Episcopal Chapel was built near the town’s hotel.
The black school reopened.
The South Lake Citrus Growers Association was organized.
The Angebilt Lodge, also called the Oakland Hotel, was built on what is now Tubb Street. It was attached to a home built in 1890 that was used as the hotel dining room. Rooms were $3 a day.
A Missionary Baptist Church was erected at the west end of town.
The Masonic Lodge, on the corner of Hull and Walker streets, was used as a school for black children.
A few homes had electric lights from power furnished by the South Lake Apopka packinghouse. The lights were turned off at 11 p.m. after a five-minute warning flicker.
Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church was built in west Oakland.
Highway 438 (Oakland Avenue) was paved west to the Orange County line and north to the Oakland Bank (now the old Town Hall building).
The town hired two black police officers, R.S. Simmons and R.L. Pollard, to assist officers T. Smallbone and R.L. Smith.
The town ordered 10 lights from Winter Garden Water and Light Company to be placed on posts. The automobile speed limit was set at 10 mph.
The Town Council set the millage at five mills for streets, parks, public areas and lighting on Henschen Avenue and Tubb Street; and five mills for salaries, building and incidentals.
The council voted to build sidewalks in certain areas of town.
A clay