Eatonville (Fla.)

Eatonville is a town in Orange County, Florida, United States, six miles north of Orlando. It is part of Greater Orlando. Incorporated on August 15, 1887, it was one of the first self-governing all-black municipalities in the United States. (Brooklyn, Illinois, incorporated July 8, 1873, is the oldest incorporated Black town in the U.S.) The Eatonville Historic District and Moseley House Museum are in Eatonville. Author Zora Neale Hurston grew up in Eatonville and the area features in many of her stories. The Robert Hungerford Normal and Industrial School was founded in 1897 to provide education for black students in grades 6-12 and taught children for over 100 years. In 1990, the town founded the Zora Neale Hurston Museum of Fine Arts. Every winter the town stages the Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities. A library named for her opened in January 2004. The population was 2,349 at the 2020 census. The vast majority are Black or African American. Eatonville has no gas station, supermarket or pharmacy; only a Family Dollar. With a median household income of $27,000, the town is struggling to survive. Artist Jules Andre Smith has done a series of paintings depicting life in Eatonville during the 1930s and 1940s. Twelve of these works are at the Maitland Art Center in the adjacent town of Maitland. Eatonville is home to WESH and WKCF, two television stations serving the Orlando television market.