Jacob Summerlin got tough in Orlando in 1875 during a face-off with Sanford at a county commission meeting in the small 1869 courthouse. "Keep the courthouse in Orlando where residents voted to have it," he said, "and I’ll loan the county $10,000 to build a new courthouse. If the county can pay me back, that’s fine; if not, that’s OK, too." A three-story frame courthouse was eventually built with Summerlin’s loan at a final cost of $7,800. Jake did get paid back, but it took the county ten years to do it.
The new courthouse became a gathering place not only because of court and county business but because of the well at the southwest corner of its grounds (near Central Boulevard and Court Street).
Lined with terra cotta and 42 feet deep, the well was topped with a large well house with a shingle roof; water was drawn with a pulley, chain, and two buckets. The well became a popular gathering spot, especially for Orlando boys who amused themselves by dropping lighted matches into the well to see if they would keep burning until they hit the water.
Like its predecessor, Orange County’s last frame courthouse had a second life: In 1891, to make way for its grand successor, it became the property of Capt. J. W. Wilmott, who moved it to the northeast corner of Church and Main (Magnolia) to become part of the Tremont Hotel.