Gore said in 1908 of his first encounter with Orlando:
“I walked over from Sanford, taking two days to make the trip. The sand was deep and the last end of the road stretched out unaccountably long. At about the present intersection of Magnolia Avenue and Livingston Street, was a little house owned and occupied by a clergyman named Beverridge, pastor of the Presbyterian church. And a block to the east, discernible through the trees, was another, the home of E. W. Spier. No other buildings were in sight, but meeting a man on horseback, I inquired how far it was to Orlando; the main on horseback looked me over for several seconds, sized me up for a tenderfoot, and then replied “Why you damned fool, you’re in Orlando now!” There were just two houses in sight. I had come fourteen hundred miles to get to Orlando; I wanted to go home right then. But another quarter of a mile brought me in sight of a little wooden court house and a cluster of about a dozen buildings.”