- January 8, 2025
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It was in the mid-1800s that the land adjacent to Starke Lake and southeast of Lake Apopka, which would later be named Ocoee, was settled. But it would be more than a half-century before the subdivision turned town would officially become a city on May 13, 1925.
The city of Ocoee is a few short months away from reaching the 100-year milestone. However, to celebrate its centennial anniversary, the city isn’t waiting until May to start the festivities — nor is it stopping the party when that marker is crossed. Instead, Ocoee is ready to fill the entire 2025 calendar with centennial celebration events and to put a centennial twist on the litany of community events that have become a staple in this part of West Orange County.
“It’s hard to believe we’ve been around for this long,” Ocoee Mayor Rusty Johnson said. “I look back to when I got in office all those years ago, and now here we are celebrating the city’s 100th year. It’s an amazing thing for me to experience this and for the residents to have this opportunity to learn all about the city and see some things that the city’s done in these 100 years — see some of the things that we’re doing here today and also see a bit of what we’re going to do in the next 100 years. … The city has made a lot of progress over the years, and we’re really moving in the right direction. I love this place, and it’s just such a good place to live, and this anniversary is a chance to celebrate Ocoee.”
Ocoee Commissioner George Oliver III echoes Johnson’s thoughts about the magnitude of this celebration and the opportunity the city has to show just how far it’s come.
“This is a major, major milestone for the city of Ocoee,” he said. “This is something that’s going to show the state of Florida, the communities around us and show our residents how far we’ve come. It’s going to show them that we’re a thriving city in West Orange County as a result of our 100 years of existence. The centennial is going to be extremely important to all of us, not just the elected officials, the city staff and all the individuals who are working so hard to make this celebration successful. It’s going to be important for the citizens of Ocoee, because they’ll see exactly where we’ve come from and how far we’ve come, but it also is going to be a chance to reflect on the bright future that we have in store.”
Before looking forward to the next 100 years, the journey Ocoee has been on in the past 100 to become the Center of Good Living it is today shows just how much Orange County’s third largest city has grown from its agricultural roots.
With a population of just 820 residents when it was settled in the 1800s, the Ocoee-area was mainly a small farming community focused on growing citrus and vegetable crops. In 1880, the first school was established in the township of Ocoee and later in the decade, construction the Florida Midland Railroad was complete and the small 820-resident town started to see its population boom.
By 1921, the tiny farming community named after a river in Tennessee had grown into a state-recognized municipality, before becoming a city in 1925.
As the infrastructure in and around Ocoee grew, the city found itself in a rather favorable position. In 1959, the construction of State Road 50 connected Ocoee with a direct east-west route to the growing Orlando. It made Ocoee an attractive place for developers to build homes, because the new road made living in Ocoee and working in Orlando much more viable.
“I’ve been here in Ocoee since the early 1950s, and back then, if you wanted to find a job, you had to go to the neighboring cities,” Johnson said. “When I was a young person, I got a job at the Winn-Dixie in Winter Garden, because back then, that was really the only place available for me to work.”
That is until — like the Florida Midland Railroad — a new development brought the spotlight back onto Ocoee.
“It’s incredible to think about how we’ve grown so much since that time,” Johnson said. “From my perspective, when I came back from the Army, Ocoee really started to grow into what it is today, and one of the big reasons for this was when Disney came in the 1970s. Disney really changed everything for us because of how close we are, as far as the number of jobs coming to the area and physical growth in the area in terms of population and amenities.”
The impacts of Ocoee’s geographical footprint and its small-town charm have carried the city from its agricultural inception to the thriving city with a population of nearly 50,000 it is now.
“When we think about Ocoee being the Center of Good Living, which is our kind of our mantra for this city, the concept is the direct reflection of who we are as a community and how we stand together as one Ocoee,” Oliver said. “I believe when you spend time talking to the citizens of Ocoee, you’ll pick up that good living spirit we all have toward calling this city home. This feeling that you’re part of something bigger than yourself, that we are one. … To me, that’s a testament to the type of people who live here; they buy into the idea of being a community, and they really enjoy that.”
Just as the city of Ocoee in 2025 would look unrecognizable to the citrus farmers who settled the land in the 1800s, the city in 100 years’ time will surely be a far cry from how it stands at its centennial anniversary and generally unfathomable for us to accurately imagine.
Still, it’s fun to prognosticate on what the 2125 version of Ocoee might look like.
“Our city is going to continue to grow — that’s inevitable,” Oliver said. “Ultimately, Ocoee in the near to distant future may see the population top out at 80, maybe 90,000 residents. That could mean future leaders may start annexing parts of unincorporated Orange County, which would increase our numbers. That would increase our tax base, all those things. So, I could see us become even more of a major city within Orange County. I see a city that has an infrastructure that is head and shoulders above any other city around us with features like 5G, 6G or 10G technology all over the city and free Wi-Fi. I see roads that are able to get cars in and out of this city with ease. Most important, I see development going on (in) our city that has a balance between how we are developing versus how we maintain and manage our green spaces and our ecosystems. When I allow myself to dream about what Ocoee will look like in the next 100 years, I see these types of things happening because I trust that this community will provide the type of leaders who will bring new and fresh ideas to the seats of this commission. The type of folks that will take Ocoee to a different level.”
When asked what she thought the city may look like 100 years from now, Ocoee Commissioner Rosemary Wilsen wasn’t as interested in predicting what’s to come in the future of the city she’s called home for nearly three decades.
Her focus was instead on what she hopes Ocoee won’t lose due to the inevitability of development in the area.
“I do not want to lose the special flavor that we have here,” Wilsen said. “At our core, we are a residential community and folks value that. I know a lot of our residents may work in Orlando or other locations, but when they go home to Ocoee, they still want to have that almost-rural characteristic that Ocoee offers; at least, I know I want that. … We always want to make Ocoee a hometown, and I don’t want to lose that characteristic no matter how big we get. I always want Ocoee to be the type of community where folks partake in the local recreation activities, and when they go to those events, they see their neighbors and friends from the community. I never want Ocoee to lose that sense of community as we grow larger.”
Johnson, on the other hand, took a slightly different approach to considering his home of more than a half-century.
“One-hundred years from now? I have no idea what they’ll be doing here,” he said. “Heck, I’d love to be able to see it, but I won’t make that centennial party. All I know is that right now, the people who are making the decisions that will impact the next 100 years of Ocoee are doing excellent work that will send the city in the right direction. ... Ocoee will continue to be a beautiful place that people love living in for a very long time.”
