FLORIDA PLACE TO EXPLORE
Florida Citrus Tower
Lake County · Central Florida
A 226-foot observation tower on US 27 at Clermont, opened on July 14, 1956.
ABOUT THIS PLACE
A. W. Thacker and F. J. Toole built it to show off the citrus industry, and it took five million pounds of concrete and 149,000 pounds of reinforcing steel. It stands on a hill 228 feet above sea level, so the spire reaches about five hundred feet above the sea, and in its early years half a million people a year rode the elevators up to look out over an unbroken sheet of orange groves in every direction. Then came the freezes of 1983, 1985 and 1989, which killed most of the citrus in Lake County, and the view changed to what it is now: houses, lakes and the Orlando skyline on a clear day. Visitor numbers fell with the groves. Simchat Torah Beit Midrash bought the tower in 2022 for three point three million dollars and reopened it in May 2023 after renovation. There is a gift shop, a banquet room and a small museum at the base
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