Mount Dora’s first railway line opened in 1887 when the Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West Railway established a 29.5 mile branch from Sanford to Tavares, with morning and evening stops at the Mount Dora depot. In 1902, the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad acquired the trains and track as part of a large orange grove land purchase. As the citrus industry prospered and the population grew, the railroad replaced the aging nineteenth century depot with a new building in 1915. Instead of repeating the old depot’s rectangular design, railroad architects and carpenters created a segmented arched wall system that conformed to the alignment of Alexander Street and the railroad track, at a cost of $8,223. By 1922, four trains carrying passengers, mail, and freight arrived daily in Mount Dora. Locally grown oranges were shipped by rail across the country in tissue paper bearing a bass symbol, and flyers with the citrus offered free Mount Dora brochures on request. The last passenger train left Mount Dora in 1960, and the last citrus freight departed by rail in 1973. The Mount Dora Chamber of Commerce leased the depot and eventually purchased the historic site.