QC
CITY SPOTLIGHT
Banners featuring images of birds created by local artists hang on light poles along the main thoroughfare in the Town of Cinco Bayou. Healthy West Orange Arts and Heritage Center at the Town of Oakland.
PHOTO COURTESY OF TOWN OF OAKLAND
Healthy West Orange Arts and Heritage Center ribbon cutting.
PRESERVATION
Investing in History
Oakland’s initiatives maintain the town’s past, present and future by Elisha Pappacoda Town of Oakland
A OAKLAND Orange County Pop. 3,365
14 QUALITY CITIES | SECOND QUARTER 2021
day spent in the Town of Oakland will take one back in time to the old, quaint Florida of yesterday. Despite recent home growth, the town remains a charming, unhurried community, not unlike it was in 1887 when the town was incorporated. Oakland is one of the oldest municipalities in Orange County. Due to the county’s growth, maintaining Oakland’s small-town character as “nestled among the oaks” has been one of its most difficult challenges – and greatest accomplishments. Over the last three years, nearly 500 new homes have been built in Oakland, with more than 250 planned by 2024. Yet today, the town’s tree-lined roads are nostalgic reminders of an era when life was simple and everyone knew their neighbors. Residents still meet and greet each other every morning when they pick up their mail at the historic Oakland Post Office. The town is located between Johns Lake and Lake Apopka and is bisected by the Green Mountain Scenic Byway. Its more than 3,000 residents live within a quiet, serene atmosphere tucked away from the nearby State Road 50 but just close enough to access it and Florida’s Turnpike within minutes. For cyclists, walkers and joggers, the town’s location is ideally situated along the West Orange Trail, surrounded by enormous mossdraped oak trees.
