The “Town” of Orange City has made this page of our website a “Step Back in Time” to let you to see how our city became what it is today and to share some interesting facts.

For more history and facts, click here to see where you may purchase the colorful and informative book "Our Story of Orange City".

• Town Hall was built in 1928 at a cost of $20,000 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. The bell in the tower at Town Hall weighs 517 pounds.
  
  
• The “Town” of Orange City has made this page of our website a “Step Back in Time” to let you to see how our city became what it is today and to share some interesting facts.
  
  
• The first inhabitants in the Orange City area were Timucua Indians.
  
• By 1820, the original natives had become extinct due to disease and war.
  
  
• In the early 1850’s, Louis and Mary Ann Thursby became permanent residents at Blue Spring on the St. Johns River.
  
  
• Dr. Seth French traveled the St. Johns River by steamboat in 1870.
  
  
• In 1874, Dr. French and six friends purchased about 5,000 acres of land and started the town that became Orange City.
  
  
• In 1875, H. H. DeYarman founded the first hotel in what would become Orange City (The hotel still exists and is called the Heritage Inn).
  
  
• The first public school in Volusia County was founded in Orange City in 1878.
  
  
• Orange City was named for the thousands of acres of orange groves planted in and around the city, which was incorporated as a city in 1882.
  
  
• The Big Freeze of 1894-1895 wiped out the citrus industry in Orange City and much of the rest of Florida.
  
  
• Orange City Waterworks began supplying water to homes in Orange City in 1895.
  
  
• Orange City water was shipped worldwide and even won an award at the St. Louis World's Fair for its excellence.
  
  
• The Dickinson Memorial Library, which still serves the City, was dedicated in 1919.
  
  
• Orange City has established its own Historic District, which is on the National Register of Historic Sites.