Orange County commissioners in 1994 agreed to build a new courthouse that would bring court functions together in a central location.
When the red-brick Victorian courthouse building was torn down in 1958, it was replaced by a structure that also reflected the culture of its times.
Built at the then-immense sum of nearly $1 million, the former courthouse building now houses the Orange County Regional History Center.
In the 1880s, Central Florida boomed with growth fueled by the coming of the railroads, and Orange County leaders envisioned a grand courthouse.
Orange County’s first substantial courthouse was the focus of a major turning point in Central Florida history.
Capt. Bluford Sims built a small frame courthouse for the county at a cost of $1,250 to replace the one that had burned down.
By 1863, six years after B. F. Caldwell’s gift of four acres, the county raised enough money to build a two-story log cabin: Orange County’s first official courthouse.
In October 1857, Alabama businessman B.F. Caldwell donated four acres for a courthouse at the site that is now Heritage Square.