Orlando's Urban Monsters #1

Here's a collection of pictures taken in and around Downtown Orlando of gargoyles, dragons, griffins, green men, and mythical creatures carved into building's architecture.

These griffins are on a building near Orange Ave and Church St.


This nice Chinese Dragon is on the sign for Slingapours in Wall St. Plaza.



A painted Green Man outside of Dandelion Community Cafe just off of Colonial Drive.


This very similar green man is on Orange Ave in College Park.

Demolished Building...

On my last trip through Downtown Orlando, I came across this demolished building on Orange Ave. A demolished building usually isn't much to see, but in this case they left the foundation, still covered with the various types of tiles that were in each room. It's kind of cool to see the floor plan of an old building that no longer exists.



Here's a view of the new 55 West from the empty lot.

Public School Number Four...

Public School Number Four is an abandoned building in Downtown Jacksonville that has always intrigued me. The former school has wonderful brick architecture and a columned entrance. It has been abandoned for as long as I can remember and like any long abandoned building, it has gained some ghost stories. Books have nicknamed the building as "The Devil's School" to go along with the associated ghost stories.

I don't know the whole history behind the school and why it was let to rot for decades, but my guess it had something to do with I-95 being twenty feet away from the front entrance. It's still a shame to let such a beautiful (and probably historic) building rot away, although I probably wouldn't be inclined to take pictures when riding by if the school wasn't in it's current state...

An I-4 Vehicle's View of Downtown Orlando

I took some pictures while riding through Downtown Orlando from I-4 last weekend. What you see here are the results of taking pictures out the passenger window of a speeding car...