Florida Citrus Tower, Observation tower in Clermont, United States.
The Florida Citrus Tower is an observation tower in Clermont rising 226 feet (69 m) tall, offering views across eight Florida counties. An elevator in the ground floor lobby ascends to the observation platform, where visitors also find a gift shop and museum displaying tower memorabilia.
Conceived by A.W. Thacker and Jack Toole to showcase the citrus industry, the tower was built from 1955 with publicly sold stock, using 5 million pounds of concrete and 149,000 pounds of reinforcing steel. It opened on July 14, 1956, and drew up to 500,000 visitors a year on US 27 between Cypress Gardens and Silver Springs. The 1964 extension of Florida's Turnpike diverted traffic, and freezes in 1983, 1985 and 1989 killed most Lake County groves. The Homan family sold it in 2022 to Simchat Torah Beit Midrash for $3.3 million; it reopened in May 2023.
The tower's name and orange-and-white stripes refer to the citrus groves it was built to overlook. Its lobby houses ROOM: Valencia, a banquet facility, gift shop and museum of the tower's history. Nearby stands the Presidents Hall of Fame, with wax tributes to U.S. presidents and a model of the White House interior.
The tower stands on US 27 in Clermont, and the lobby holds the ROOM: Valencia banquet facility, gift shop and tower museum. The Presidents Hall of Fame, with wax tributes to US presidents and a model of the White House interior, is next to the tower. The coin drop runs through the structure to the base, so a dropped coin is heard landing far below.
The coin drop is an original feature of the tower: a coin released at the top falls the full 226 feet through the structure and is heard landing at the base. The tower's lobby holds ROOM: Valencia, a banquet facility, gift shop and museum of the tower's history.
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