When the shadows paused and the sun's rays hidden, it was nothing one special community in east Orange County hadn't seen before.

"It brings back memories,” said Joseph Adams with the Fort Christmas Historical Park.

The homes here are from a century ago. The wooden structures are something out of a movie set.

"A lot of people connect them with Little House on the Prairie,” Joseph said.

Here, a portal opens with a parade of homes tour into Florida's past.

"People came to Florida to settle in these houses, to live with very little," Joseph said.

The collection of weathered structures date back as far as the 1870s. The Simmons home is only one room and needed a net over the bed.

"That is how you kept from being eaten by the mosquitoes every night,” Joseph explained.

The historian at the park, part of Orange County Parks and Recreation, remembers when the county purchased the land in the early '90s. Soon after, Joseph says, the Orange County History Center had a unique request: a donation of pioneer homes. 

"A lot of people said, "I have grandpa's house in the back.  I am using as a bar, but you can have it,” Joseph recalled.

Remarkably, each of the seven structures dating from 1980-1927 were moved to Fort Christmas from within a 10-mile radius of their current location.  Each has one item inside in common: the sewing machine.

"Like owning a phone; like owning computer. That was pretty much the one thing everybody kind of had to have,” he explained.

Yet, not all the houses at the park are a century old. The Partin House from 1953 is a rather recent edition.

Step inside and find a rather new invention.

"It's got a cathode ray tube in front,” Joseph said.

A floor model television takes up space next to the giant radio. Knick-knacks from a generation gone by, period furniture in the bedroom, and a relic in the kitchen await. The Monitor top refrigerator could still work, Joseph believes.

Plus, there's only one bathroom per house in the '50s. And this one has a pink toilet.

"What we want them to leave with is an understanding of Florida history,” Joseph concludes.

Know Before You Go:
While Fort Christmas is open everyday in the summer until 8pm, the older homes are closed on Monday to visitors.  Admission and parking are free.

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