Orange World, Kissimmee
Oranges - Buildings and Capitals
The state of Florida wisely squeezes every last drop of goodwill from their native fruit, the orange. At state border Hospitality Centers, travelers can sample a free cup of fresh orange juice while perusing the brochure racks.
Buildings shaped like oranges are not an uncommon sight in the Sunshine State. Orange World, Kissimmee, Florida, is a combination gift shop, cafe and souvenir fruit stand, a scant few miles from the gates of Disney World. Its half-domed citrus architecture has had more shelf life than the white-domed Xanadu, Home of the Future, finally scraped from Kissimmee in 2005.
Orange stand in Redfield, Arkansas
Florida is also home to the hapless Citrus Tower in Clermont on US Hwy. 27. Killer freezes and bad weather has pounded the local orange crop with unfair frequency since the observation tower was built 40 years ago. Any other attraction would have thrown in the towel, but not this one. They've de-emphasized the "17 million citrus tree view" and recast it as "a lovely view of rolling hills and lakes." Grape crops have taken over, but so far there's no talk of becoming the Wine Tower....
Florida also hosts at least one water tower painted to look like an orange, at a citrus processing facility near Plant City.< /p>
Other orange-shaped structures are reported in California. and the Mammoth Orange Cafe still stands in Redfield, Arkansas. The giant oranges still found in a few spots (mainly California) are the original Orange Julius stands built in the 1940s and '50s.
Perhaps strangest of all, the orange finds itself celebrated in Houston, Texas, at the Orange Show, a fun folk art conglomeration and demonstration of one man's love for the "perfect food."
