In 1843, Benjamin Whitner of nearby Mellonville was awarded a contract to survey lands in this vicinity and named Lake Conway for his boss, Valentine Yelverton Conway, Surveyor General of Florida. Until development and drainage changes in the 1900s, seasonal rains transformed the Conway chain into one big lake. Hoffner Avenue now divides North and Middle Lake Conway, and Nela Avenue divides Middle and Little Lake Conway. Early settlers used the lake for drinking water, bathing, food, and entertainment. Prominent Orlando citizens, including the Dickson family of Dickson and Ives Department Store, had summer homes on the lake where they fished and swam. Crittenden Dock, located where Randolph Avenue dead ends at Lake Conway, was a favorite recreation spot, and by 1882 guests at the adjacent Macy Hotel used it to launch pleasure cruises and fishing expeditions. The Crittenden family later acquired the site and built a dock popular with swimmers and boaters, and the property is now owned by Orange County and serves as a popular boat ramp. In 1900, the need for an interdenominational church building in Pine Castle led local women to organize the Christian Workers Society to raise money for the building and help the needy. The group sponsored ice cream socials, oyster stew dinners, and box suppers, while men in the community cut timber and hauled logs to the nearest sawmill at Smithville, now Taft. After the logs were cured, they built Union Church on the northeast corner of South Orange Avenue and Wallace Street. On alternating Sundays, ministers from Orlando and elsewhere conducted Methodist, Baptist, and Missionary Alliance services, and ministers sometimes had to shout to be heard over passing trains. In 1910, a parish house was built behind the church for Sunday school, entertainment, and other community gatherings. The church property was deeded to Methodist-Episcopal Church South in 1930. At the end of the 1950s, the building was moved to State Road 15A, north of Narcoossee near Lake Whippoorwill, for use as a Baptist mission.