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Lake Lorna Doone Park

Geography of Orlando, FloridaParks in Florida

Lake Lorna Doone Park is a 12 acre park located in the between the neighborhoods of Westfield and Parramore in Orlando, Florida. The physical address is 1519 West Church Street, just to the north of Camping World Stadium. After undergoing an $8 million dollar renovation in 2021, Lake Lorna Doone Park is now the "Jewel of the West Side". On August 9, 1955, Lake Lorna Doone Park hosted the first integrated Little League Baseball game to ever be played in the south.The Pensacola Jaycees were declared winners of their local district by Little League headquarters in Williamsport, Pennsylvania after local officials refused to allow them to play against the all-white teams. Pensacola advanced to the Florida State Tournament which was held at Lake Lorna Doone Park. Pensacola drew a bye in the first round of the six-team state championship series and lost to host Orlando in the second round, 5-0.The 1955 season was the first after US Supreme Court rulings had eliminated "separate but equal" conditions in the nation's schools and public parks. Florida State Little League and City of Orlando officials fully cooperated with Little League headquarters in Williamsport, Pennsylvania to support the playing of the game. By all accounts, the game was played without incident and newspapers reported that the hometown crowd cheered the visiting team and offered words of encouragement. This was in stark contrast to South Carolina, where state and local officials refused to allow their state tournament to be played because of the presence of an African-American team, and forfeited sending a state representative to their regional tournament. In 1963, Lake Lorna Doone Park once again hosted the Florida State Little League Tournament.In 2021, Lake Lorna Doone Park underwent an $8 million dollar renovation including a new walking loop, fitness stations, a pavilion, inclusive playground, basketball courts, covered seating, and a water spray park.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Lake Lorna Doone Park (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Lake Lorna Doone Park
Kent Avenue, Orlando

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 28.5411 ° E -81.4004 °
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Kent Avenue

Kent Avenue
32805 Orlando
Florida, United States
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Parramore

Parramore is a neighborhood in west-central Orlando, Florida. It is a historical neighborhood for Orlando residents of African descent, and suffered greatly during the Jim Crow era. In 2015, the unemployment rate was reported as 23.8% and median household income was $15,493. The area was developed as a segregated African-American community. It was built in the 1880s by Orlando's fourteenth mayor, James B. Parramore, as a development "to house the blacks employed in the households of white Orlandoans." While the historic east border of Parramore was Division Avenue (which marked the line where African-American residents living in the west could not cross into the east after sundown), Interstate 4 was constructed directly between Parramore and the prosperous and mostly white neighborhoods of central downtown, just east of Division Avenue and just west of the railroad tracks. Parramore's "official" boundaries (according to the city of Orlando) extend to Interstate 4, but the regions in between Division and the interstate are generally not residential, hosting such facilities as the Amway Center and the Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre. Smaller businesses are located on the west side of Division Avenue and include grocery stores, barber shops, and soul food restaurants. Many of the issues facing Parramore historically and currently can be traced to institutionalized or even unintentional neglect from the city and county governments, exacerbated by the fact that the city limits of Orlando do not extend all the way through, and therefore one block might be dependent on city services while being bordered on three sides by blocks that depend on county services. The western border of Parramore is Orange Blossom Trail, a thoroughfare where violence and other crimes are common. Orlando officially considers Parramore to be three separate neighborhoods: Lake Dot (between Colonial Drive and Amelia Street), Callahan (between Amelia Street and Central Boulevard), and Holden/Parramore (between Central Boulevard and Gore Street). All three are bounded on the east by Interstate 4 and on the west by Orange Blossom Trail. A soccer stadium, Exploria Stadium, was built in Parramore along West Church Street between Glenn Lane and Terry Avenue.