"The City Beautiful" is Orlando's official nickname, and it points back to a quieter past. The Seminole people knew this lake country long before European settlement. Cattle pioneer Aaron Jernigan became the first permanent settler in 1843, and the frontier outpost was named Orlando around 1857 — by local lore for a sentinel named Orlando Reeves, or, some say, for Shakespeare's "As You Like It." In 1875 the Town of Orlando was incorporated with about eighty-five residents, a courthouse town on the Central Florida cattle frontier.
Our Orlando logo carries Florida's alligator over "Florida Territory · Est. 1845," the year Florida joined the Union — the shared emblem of every Merlin Classics Florida place. Printed black-and-white with the worn look of an old citrus-crate stamp, the gator reads as wild Florida in shorthand: tough, sun-baked, and unmistakably of the place. What makes this one Orlando is the country behind it — Lake Eola, the swans, and the orange groves of the City Beautiful.
Why People Visit Orlando
Orlando draws the world for its attractions, but its enduring charm is the City Beautiful underneath — lakes, oaks, swans, and a citrus-country past. Visitors who slow down find gardens, historic downtown streets, and lakefront paths that feel a world away from the crowds.
