A Visit To Downtown Kissimmee

Kissimmee is unfortunately largely discussed in Orlando's shadow. To the average out of towner, it's simply a highway that feeds you into the House of Mouse, populated only by cheap motels and B-tier attractions trying to scam you out of your tourism dollars. I think that's changing, both as development picks up on the west side of the city and near Hunter's Creek, and I think slowly in the core as well, as the typical Disney vacation becomes less and less affordable, driving the working tourist towards cheaper attractions in town. However, let's put aside the pontificating about the hot new suburban trends to turn our focus downtown.

Downtown Kissimmee is a what I'd call a perfectly cromulent downtown. While it lacks 'nuts and bolts' retail like grocery stores, and is primarily one main street hiding a bunch of parking behind, it has a good number of restaurants, some specialty retail, and some new construction that shows there's still investment. Also, a rarity for Florida, it has direct rail access, with the historic Atlantic Coast Line depot augmented with platforms for both Amtrak, and the regional commuter rail, SunRail. 

Let's start with a quick photographic survey of my favorite buildings. The first building was, until 2021, Makinson Hardware, a picture perfect small town, family owned hardware store in operation since 1884. The large illustrated horse perched on top the sign, along with the large painted "HARDWARE", "SADDLE SHOP", and "SPORTING GOODS" text are all original to the store, with only the lower panel- which originally read Makinson Hardware^[1], being replaced. Honestly, I think the graphic application is a little roughshod- it looks like the graphic was designed on a perfect rectangle, and wherever the angle of the old sign landed was just coincidence, but I'm happy it was kept mostly intact.  The second building, now divided into retail spaces, may have originally been a hotel- these full-width second floor porches are a favorite aspect of "Southern Vernacular" buildings, for me, and there's one in my local downtown on another (confirmed) historic hotel. The corner building, built as the Citizens Bank of Kissimmee, is quite understated compared to the Greek Revival opulence of your average downtown bank, but is still a nice, solid little building. 

Our last two buildings- a pair of 3 story brick retail stores, aren't particular showstoppers but just nice examples of their class. I think basically every city should have several dozen of these at their core, instead of single story islands surrounded by parking, but I'm not a civil engineer. The first is home to Broadway Pharmacy, a solid business for any downtown to have, while the latter sports two vacancies and a vape shop, unfortunately a more realistic portrayal of most downtowns. 

Singling out these photos since I really like this building, identified as the Rivers Building. Really need to get back here with my Canon to get some cleaner views of the window frames and roof trim.

Moving onto a nice pair of signs before we hop off the main drag. The first sign is of unknown age & origin, but the paint pallette was added onto it for an art gallery called L'oveMarvelous Art Gallery in 2011, and originally also had a brush. The latter sign, as discussed earlier, was adapted for 1881 and originally read "Makinson Hardware" in a more eye-pleasing color scheme. 

Hoping off Broadway, we have a pleasing little former house, now converted to offices. I've included a 1910s photo provided by The Ledger that illustrates it when it was still a simple lakefront home. The last photo is the First United Methodist Church, a quite charming NRHP-listed church from 1913. I used to be pretty jaded towards churches as an architectural subject, but as I've sought out less 'classical' churches that go beyond the traditional cathedral or rural wooden style, I've come around to em more. 

Cutting down a side street from Broadway, we get to the Kissimmee railroad station, originally built for the Atlantic Coast Line in 1910. The original depot was restored for Amtrak in 1976, and one assumes that the mid-century Amtrak canopy (not pictured) that stretches to the right down the tracks was added around that time. Despite not handling true freight in probably 50+ years, the dual-purpose past of the station is still visible in both the purposefully restored freight platform, adorned with a lone luggage cart, and the 'abandoned in place' cargo door, boarded over behind the employee parking and the last remnants of a loading dock. To the left, modern platforms for SunRail, added in 2018, sit dormant on this sunny weekend, as SunRail only runs during the week. I'd really like to try and ride SunRail's whole system length- from the new DeLand extension all the way to Poinciana just one stop south, but the 9-5 centered schedule really puts a wrench into it. 

Wrapping up our downtown visit, here's a few assorted bits of urban detail. The psychadelic colored, bull-horned bus advertises a nearby restaurant, and while painted up vintage vehicle hulks are not uncommon advertising pieces, I'm fairly sure this is a modern build you can source from China. I can't find anything online about how often it moves, if ever, but it looks in pretty good shape and it's got air in the tires. Our second photo is an angular road marker, one of a pair at this intersection. I've photographed similar historic 'bollard-style' road markers in other cities such as Jacksonville and Savannah, so this one's presumably a historic piece as well, though this pair seem to be the last ones standing in Kissimmee. Lastly, we have an only slightly off-model statue dedicated to the woman it represents, one Bette Sprinkle (good name), who was a longtime business owner, and apparently dedicated a lot of time to keeping up downtown in it's lean years- watering the plants, sweeping the trash, etc. An honorable pursuit, and one not often afforded the honor of a full statue. 

That wraps our exploration of downtown Kissimmee, but while writing this post, I stumbled onto a rare thing- a cache of photos of downtown, circa 1987. Clear, historic photos are rare enough, even rarer in color and from the 1980s, a period when many downtowns were still languishing in the face of suburban sprawl. They even include a few buildings that are now demolished!

They're not in a convenient album, so I'll link them all here. All credit to the photographer, Steven Martin.

Commercial buildings along Broadway (2, 3, & 4) 
Osceola County Courthouse (2 & 3)
Historic homes (2)
First United Methodist Church
W.B. Harris Building

[1] - Credit to Debra Jane Seltzer/Roadside Architecture.com ; Amazing website I invite you to check out if you have a few spare minutes, hours, or days.