Historic Downtown Mount Dora

ABOUT THIS PLACE

David Simpson and his family settled here in 1874. The postmaster first called the place Royellou, after his three children Roy, Ella and Louis, and it was renamed for Dora Ann Drawdy, an early settler whose name the lake had already carried since 1846. The town was chartered in 1910 with 371 residents and John Philip Donnelly as its first mayor. The Mount in the name is meant seriously by Florida standards: the plateau the town sits on is high enough to give the streets a genuine slope. The historic district went on the National Register in 2009, and the Donnelly House and the Lakeside Inn are separately listed. The Mount Dora Light on the lake is the only inland freshwater lighthouse in Florida, thirty-five feet high, dedicated in 1988 and showing a blue pulsating light for boaters. Downtown is antique shops, independent stores and restaurants on walkable streets, and the year runs on festivals: arts, crafts, blueberries, a sailboat regatta and a Scottish Highland gathering