"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.
Today Orlando is known the world over, but its oldest identity is still the quiet one: a lake-dotted City Beautiful with swans on the water and orange country at its back. Our Orlando designs gather that heritage — the gator-and-1845 emblem, Lake Eola, and the citrus Golden Era — into wearable form. Orlando, Florida — The City Beautiful, where swans glide across Lake Eola and the scent of orange blossoms once defined a city.
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.
