Parramore is a

neighborhood A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural area, ...

in west-central Orlando, Florida. It is a historical neighborhood for Orlando residents of African descent, and suffered greatly during the

Jim Crow The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...

era. In 2015, the unemployment rate was reported as 23.8% and median household income was $15,493. The area was developed as a segregated African-American community. It was built in the 1880s by Orlando's fourteenth mayor,

James B. Parramore James B. Parramore (January 20, 1840 – February 6, 1902) was an American politician, who was the fourteenth Mayor of Orlando from 1896 to 1902. Biography James "Buck" was born in Thomasville, Georgia on January 20, 1840, to Redden and Mary Ann ...

, as a development "to house the blacks employed in the households of white Orlandoans." While the historic east border of Parramore was Division Avenue (which marked the line where African-American residents living in the west could not cross into the east after sundown),

Interstate 4 Interstate 4 (I-4) is an Interstate Highway located entirely within the U.S. state of Florida, maintained by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT). Spanning along a generally southwest–northeast axis, I-4 is entirely concurrent wi ...

was constructed directly between Parramore and the prosperous and mostly white neighborhoods of central downtown, just east of Division Avenue and just west of the railroad tracks. Parramore's "official" boundaries (according to the city of Orlando) extend to Interstate 4, but the regions in between Division and the interstate are generally not residential, hosting such facilities as the Amway Center and the

Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre Bob Carr Theater (originally the Orlando Municipal Auditorium and formerly the Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre) is an auditorium located in Orlando, Florida. Opening in 1927, the venue is currently owned by the City of Orlando and is managed by ...

. Smaller businesses are located on the west side of Division Avenue and include grocery stores, barber shops, and soul food restaurants. Many of the issues facing Parramore historically and currently can be traced to institutionalized or even unintentional neglect from the city and county governments, exacerbated by the fact that the city limits of Orlando do not extend all the way through, and therefore one block might be dependent on city services while being bordered on three sides by blocks that depend on county services. The western border of Parramore is

Orange Blossom Trail U.S. Route 441 (US 441) in Florida is a north–south United States Highway. It runs from Miami in South Florida northwest to the Georgia border north of the Lake City area. Like all AASHTO designated highways in Florida, US 441 always ...

, a thoroughfare where violence and other crimes are common. Orlando officially considers Parramore to be three separate neighborhoods: Lake Dot (between

Colonial Drive State Road 50 (SR 50) runs across the center of the U.S. state of Florida through Orlando, with its termini at SR 55 (US 19) at Weeki Wachee and SR 5 (U.S. Route 1) in Titusville. SR 50 is signed east–west. Within various counties throu ...

and Amelia Street), Callahan (between Amelia Street and Central Boulevard), and Holden/Parramore (between Central Boulevard and Gore Street). All three are bounded on the east by Interstate 4 and on the west by Orange Blossom Trail. A

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

stadium, Exploria Stadium, was built in Parramore along West Church Street between Glenn Lane and Terry Avenue.

References

{{coord missing, Florida Neighborhoods in Orlando, Florida History of racial segregation in the United States White supremacy in the United States