Early next month, the community will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Apopka City Hall building and the 143rd anniversary of the city’s incorporation.  

The celebration will take place beginning at 6 p.m. on Oct. 3 on the front steps of City Hall at 120 E. Main St. with a plaque dedication and proclamation reading.  

Afterward, the celebration will continue at Market on Fifth, where the city, collaborating with Orange Lodge No. 36 and the Apopka Historical Society, will have booths spotlighting the city’s history, including historical photos and stories. 

“We want to showcase the history of the building that served in [its] capacity as a school and city hall for 100 years,” said Stacy Van Camp, assistant to Mayor Bryan Nelson.  

Orange Lodge No. 36 on East Main Street, the state’s oldest lodge building in continuous use, has been an integral part of Apopka since it was incorporated in 1882, Van Camp said.  

“The Lodge was the meeting area and the school, kind of the first city hall and first school in the city,” she said.  

Most of the pictures that will be featured at the Market on Fifth booth will be from the Apopka Historical Society. However, the city also asked the Lodge for historical photographs and artifacts, Van Camp said.  

After a tornado struck Apopka in 1918 and destroyed the Apopka Union School, another school was built in its place and completed in 1925. This building, Apopka High School, was in use until 1965, when the city acquired it for a new city complex.  

The main building was converted into the Georgian Colonial-style Apopka City Hall.  

Further remodeling to Apopka City Hall in 1987 added an atrium with an elevator, a new council chamber and administrative offices.