A 1936 Art Deco five-and-dime where Black students staged Orlando's first lunch-counter sit-ins; ghost tours cite footsteps and shadows through the upper floors
17 W Church St, Orlando, FL 32801
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Full-service restaurant; standard menu pricing
Access
Wheelchair OK
Downtown Orlando commercial building with ground-floor restaurant access
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1936 · 1960 Civil Rights Lunch Counter Sit-Ins · Art Deco Architecture · Orlando Historic Landmark (1978) · Downtown Orlando Heritage
S.H. Kress & Co. built its Orlando five-and-dime store at the corner of Church Street and Orange Avenue between 1930 and 1936, investing approximately $250,000 in construction and signing a 99-year lease valued at around $594,000. Company architect Edward F. Sibbert — who designed more than 50 Kress stores nationwide — gave the Orlando building glazed terra-cotta facades with polychrome panels: stylized parrots in flight, cloud motifs, and sunburst designs in pastel colors. The building opened in 1936.
In 1960, six young Black students walked into the store and sat down at the segregated lunch counter, requesting service they were denied but refusing to leave. The sit-ins continued and expanded across subsequent months, drawing more participants with each repetition. Management responded by removing the counter seating entirely to avoid confrontation. The protests continued periodically until 1963, when the Orlando mayor officially integrated downtown lunch counters. The Kress store vacated the building in 1975.
The city designated the Kress Building an official Orlando Historic Landmark in 1978, and it was included in the Downtown Historic District in 1980 as an exemplary Art Deco structure. After Kress departed, the building housed King Henry's Feast, a medieval dinner theater. Subsequent tenants included UCF-affiliated office and innovation space on the Orange Avenue side. Orlando City Council approved approximately $90,000 in facade restoration grants in 2022. Kres Chophouse currently occupies the Church Street portion of the ground floor.
Sources
Downtown Orlando ghost tour operators — including US Ghost Adventures and the Orlando Haunts website — have included the Kress Building on their circuits for years. The reported phenomena center on the upper floors: footsteps heard when no one is present, and shadowy forms seen moving through the space. Multiple independent tour guides have cited these accounts, though no formal paranormal investigation has been publicly documented for the property.
A secondary strand of ghost tour lore associates the upper floor with a figure described as deeply interested in UFO research who lived in the building for years after the Kress store closed in 1975. Ghost tour accounts describe this person as reclusive, taping rent payments to the door and refusing entry. This narrative has circulated widely in local ghost tour scripts, but independent historical verification of these specific claims has not been established.
The building's civil rights history — the 1960 lunch counter sit-ins that helped desegregate Orlando's downtown — is well documented and forms a distinct layer of the building's significance separate from ghost lore. Tour operators treat both threads as part of the building's identity.
Kres Chophouse occupies the ground floor of the 1936 Art Deco Kress Building at the corner of Church Street and Orange Avenue. The building's polychrome terra-cotta facade — featuring stylized parrots, cloud motifs, and sunburst designs — is one of the most distinctive Art Deco streetscapes in downtown Orlando. Ghost tour operators include the building as a regular stop on downtown Orlando paranormal tours.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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