ORLANDO HISTORY BIT: The Big Freezes

   Christmas Days are often beautiful in Central Florida. Warm and sunny, they are many times a respite from the cold weather. Christmas Day of 1894 was one such day. It is reported that the temperature reached into the eighties. The day held no warning of the devastation that would arrive three days later. On Sunday afternoon a storm front arrived in Central Florida that was the leading edge of a terrible cold snap. By the next morning the temperatures had settled to 24 degrees. Water pipes froze and began to burst and just about any green that was not "cold hardy" turned black and died. The freeze lasted 36 hours – a duration that is remarkable even today in an era where Central Florida can expect a moderate freeze or two each winter. The citrus crop was ruined. The oranges froze solid on the branch and subsequently dropped off and rotted on the ground.

   The Big Freeze of '94 was devastating to many smaller growers, especially those who were on the margins of profitability. Some of the families who were hit hard moved back up to the North to survive while the large growers began to look towards next year to have a successful crop. That hope changed to despair a little over a month later. As bad as the Big Freeze of '94 was, the Big Freeze of '95 was unbelievably worse. The month of January had been mild and the citrus trees had begun their spring growth, their trunks filling with sap. On February 7, a terrible freeze hit all of Florida. In Central Florida the cold snap killed many of the trees that were still recovering. The sap in some of the trees expanded and burst their trunks. Most other trees were killed down to the bud union or all the way to the roots. To this day, it is the worst disaster in modern Central Florida history.

   Seven of eight banks in Central Florida subsequently closed. Many growers left the area. The young city of Orlando decreased in population for the only time in its history. Eve Bacon in her book Orlando A Centennial History writes that Orlando's population in 1890 before the Big Freezes was 2,856. In 1900, Bacon reports that the population was 2,481. After the Big Freezes, Central Florida began to diversify agriculturally. While citrus was making a slow comeback, vegetables took up part of the slack. Of course, cattle continued to be a major source of income and small dairies were started to provide Central Floridians with their first commercially produced fresh milk. Tourism was also growing. Orlando became a quiet vacation destination and to some extent reaped the benefits of the promotions of east coast developer Henry Flagler and west coast developer Henry Plant.