OAKLAND Among the Oaks T
he town of Oakland was once the social and industrial hub of West Orange County with an opera house and thriving businesses in its bustling downtown, and railroad tracks that carried goods to and from other areas. The town — which housed several Indian trading posts and villages around the 1850s — was officially established in 1887 when a meeting was called to incorporate the town with a list of 31 qualified voters. James Gamble Speer is credited for being the first real settler, having bought a chunk of land between Lake Apopka and Johns Lake in 1857. The park at the northwest corner of Tubb Street and Briley Avenue is named for this pioneer. Peter A. Demens was the first mayor. Back in Speer’s time, Oakland was considered a loosely designated area between the two lakes and two or three miles east and west. Today, Oakland has about
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3,800 residents living, playing, working and going to school within its 2.4 square miles. Oakland’s popularity increased when the railroad system was extended through the area in the late 1880s. But when a devastating fire about a decade later wiped out the downtown business district, an 1895 freeze wiped out all of the orange groves and the railroad pulled out because of a decline in business — the town’s economy took a major downturn. After the town settled back into a rural lifestyle following the freeze and the fire, residents — many of them descendants of the first settlers — once again enjoyed the quiet atmosphere and small-town neighborliness that was its humble beginnings. The town limits stretched from Killarney to Tildenville from 1926 to 1959, when Oakland officials voted to de-annex more than 800 acres, because it couldn’t afford to serve the area. The town seemed to stay at
a relative standstill for decades, until Oakland’s mayor, commissioners, manager and town staff began working on a steady growth plan. Oakland started the process of bringing sewer to the town in 2013, which will allow for restaurants, hotels and other development along the West Colonial Drive corridor. In 2019, construction began on lift stations, sewer lines and other aspects of the massive project with the assistance of grant monies and state funds totaling more than $1.7 million. The town is now in its 18th year as a Tree City USA. It recently opened its new Healthy West Orange Arts & Heritage Center at the town of Oakland and has begun its Speer Park Master Plan, as well as plans for a roundabout to ease traffic backups on West Oakland Avenue. — AMY QUESINBERRY
LOCAL MOTION 2021
