The Citrus Tower

Beautiful views and amazing lights at the holidays. Badically it is an elevator ride to the top of a tall tower.

I love old Florida tourist attractions and was looking forward to visiting the tower for the first time while I was in Orlando last week. The area is a bit blighted but that should not deter anyone from coming here. What should deter you from going up to the top of the tower is that it is FULL OF GIANT WASPS. They are swarming overhead near the windows and are completely unavoidable and are the size of goddamn butterflies.
Good news: for the extremely brave, they provide two fly swatters hanging on the wall as soon as you step out of the elevator that takes you to the top. Ever anger a wasp or a colony of wasps? Don’t. We made a harried circle around the inside wall of the tower and indiscriminately snapped a few pictures just to make it seem like we didn’t waste the $ 6.00 admission charge. We GTFO’d out the back door as soon as the elevator brought us down. Wear a bee-keeper’s suit or something if you must go here. It’s funny that none of these other reviews mentioned the mutant wasps so I’m thinking it may be a temporary affliction. I would have told the lady at the gift shop but I was so freaked out by any little buzz or flit of wind for the remainder of the day that I just wanted to get out of there. If I go again and the bug residents aren’t carrying stingers, I’ll update my review.

3 stars for most of the year, and an extra star for Christmas time.
This landmark is a monument to Old Florida. And with so few of them left, I say let this tower stand for generations to come. The view is spectacular. Worth the few bucks to take the ride in the elevator to the top. In the past couple of years, they’ve been putting some money in restoring this old building, including a fresh coat of paint in the original scheme.
They’ve also been doing a spectacular light show at Christmas time. My family and I spotted the blinking lights of the tower from down the the street when we were enjoying some soft-​serve at Twistee Treat. My 4 year old was the first to notice. So at her behest, we hopped in the car to go investigate the lights.
From a distance, the lights are dim and only vaguely interesting (I’m sure as to not annoy the neighbors living in the thousands of houses built on the orange groves people used to look at from the tower), but up close the lights are bright and exciting. Lights cover the entire lower building as well as the tower itself and even out into the parking lot. They blink in a choreographed pattern with the chosen Christmas songs blasting from speakers. My daughter loved the 20 minute spectacle so much, we went 11 nights last season, and every time we drive past, she recalls the lights and looks forward to this year. The best part? The light show is FREE.
During the Holiday season, the tower itself is open for extended hours. My little girl wanted to go to the top during one visit and begged me to go. So we handed over our money to take the ride to the top. Predictably, you can’t see much at night, and after a mere 3 minutes she wanted to go to the bottom to look at the tower again and enjoy the light show. As soon as we get back to the parking lot, she wanted to go back to the top. When we asked to go back up, the lady behind the counter said the tickets were only good for one trip up. I explained this to my little one but she was upset. Being the doting dad that I am, I handed over my debit card once again. Upon seeing my (or my daughter’s) resolve to ascend once more, she declined the payment and allowed us to go again for free. Which I thought was nice, but not asking too much.
I hope they develop this site further and host more events throughout the year. Really make it the modern jewel of Clermont and South Lake County.

The view from the tower is incredible! WOW! Unfortunately, before you enjoy the view, you have to walk through an overly scented and over-​priced gift shop to get to the elevator which costs $ 6 per person and that you may well get to observation deck, as we did recently, to find most of one side blocked off for construction, tools strewn around where the kids can get to them, bees and remnant of bee’s nest strewn around. They handed us a pamphlet with the history of the tower on it but then we were asked to return it as it was their last copy! Good thing we did not want it for the scrapbook, huh?!
The history of local orange groves and photos of view in bygone eras were interesting but truly believe that this is vastly over-​priced at $ 6 per person for the elevator ride! If you decide to go anyway, take your binoculars and enjoy the view!

The Citrus Tower opened in 1956, standing 226 feet or about 22 stories high on one of the highest hills Lake County.
You walk into this little gift shop at the base of the structure. You pay $ 6.00, then you go up this elevator, which is a little creepy. Once you arrive to the top, the doors open and you are in a glass enclosed observation deck. Luckily my first time here and it’s as clear as a glass of water. The few in every direction was breathtaking. I recommend going up here at least and for six bucks the view is worth the money.

Oranges
to
condos
Florida is filled with tourist attractions, some cool and others tacky. The Citrus Tower kind of falls in between, pretty cool but probably not nearly as cool as it use to be.
The tower was is 225 feet high and was completed in 1956. It’s purpose was to celebrate Florida’s citrus industry and give people a nice view of all the orange groves. A nice thought and at one time it probably did give pretty stunning views.
Unfortunately most of the orange groves are now gone, replaced by malls, highways and condos. It was built on the highest hill in the area but of course in Florida the word hill is pretty subjective. But you can still see pretty far from the top of the tower and it is always fun to be up that high and get a unique perspective of what’s around.
There is an elevator to the top that shakes and rattles a bit but that just makes it more interesting. Once on top you can take you time and really take a good look at all the malls and condos and try and imagine what the area looked like 50 years ago.
There is a gift shop at the bottom just filled with tacky gifts you can buy for tacky friends and people around that will patiently answer any stupid questions you might have.
A strange and even anachronistic sort of a place. One of those things that is no long relevant and belongs in the past but then that’s what makes it cool. A nice place to take a look around the Clermont area and take yourself back to time to something that will never return again.

The place is of historical significance but it really is a dump now. The owner can only float on what is was for so long. Friends came to town and we went up in the tower and the view was good but that elevator ride was like… man. Don’t go if very old slow small elevators scare you. It just seems that more could be done with the place… like Old Town in Kissimmee. Restaurants, bars, shopping, etc.

How do you rate something like this and still be objective. On the one hand, it is a historical landmark, and is something unique to the Central Florida area. On the other hand, it could really use some help, a restoration of sorts, to really bring it back to its former glory. I am a native Floridian, and had always heard, but never visited this landmark. We were in the area visiting Donut King, and decided to drop in. The view from the top is really neat, you can clearly see the downtown Orlando skyline (which is about 20 miles away), and there are signs up top showing you points of interest to see. The issue here is that it really could be so much more. Up top, they could have the gallery of pictures that they have down below (which seemed almost hidden), showcasing all the great history of the citrus industry, and the history of this great tower. The view itself is great, but I found it almost more interesting seeing pictures of Central Florida in the 1960’s and 1970’s, and reading about how great the citrus industry was before the deep freezes in the 1980’s.
Aside from just the interior, the exterior of this tower could also use some freshening up. New coats of paint would really do wonders to bring back the old look. I assume of course that all of this is quite expensive, and judging by the lack of people out there when we visited, it is probably not a hugely profitable landmark. I will definitely come back when I am in the area, there really isn’t anything like it around anymore.

Interesting blast from the past. You go up the tower 22 stories and can see as far as the eye can see. You can see 8 surrounding counties.