Does Mother Nature Spend More Time On Your Oviedo Patio or Lanai Than You Do?

Other than building great outdoor projects, here is what we love most about Oviedo. Here are five fun facts about Oviedo:

1. The Chickens Are Real — and Official: Downtown Oviedo is home to a population of free-roaming chickens that have become the city's most beloved symbol. The story traces back to around 1994, when a single hen appeared in a downtown parking lot, was fed and cared for, and eventually multiplied. The city has since declared itself a bird sanctuary — it is officially illegal to harm them — and the chickens have appeared on merchandise, Comedy Central, and in the daily routines of downtown businesses. They cross the road on their own schedule, and Oviedo wouldn't have it any other way.

2. Named by a Swedish Immigrant Who Loved Spanish Architecture: Andrew Aulin, a Swedish immigrant and Oviedo's first postmaster, named the settlement in 1879 after the city of Oviedo in northern Spain — choosing it to honor Florida's Spanish heritage. He reportedly pronounced it "oh-vee-AY-doh," a pronunciation a growing local movement is now working to restore. Aulin spoke four languages and ran the first post office out of his shop, turning a Lake Jesup frontier settlement into a named community that would eventually become one of Seminole County's most desirable cities.

3. Florida's First Orange Juice Plant Opened Here in 1916: Oviedo was an agricultural powerhouse in the early 20th century — first in citrus, then in celery after the great freeze of the 1890s wiped out the orange groves. The pivot to celery was so successful that Oviedo, along with Sanford, became known as the Celery Capital of the World. And before that pivot, Oviedo was home to Florida's very first commercial orange juice plant, opened in 1916 — a fact most residents don't know about the city they live in.

4. The Econlockhatchee River Runs Through It: The Econlockhatchee River — the "Econ" to locals — flows through the eastern part of Oviedo, with the Little Econ running through the south. The city maintains a 500-foot preservation buffer on each side of the Econ, protecting a wildlife corridor that makes Oviedo one of the greenest cities in Seminole County. For homeowners in The Sanctuary, Live Oak Reserve, and eastern Oviedo neighborhoods, that means your backyard backs up to one of Central Florida's most protected natural landscapes.

5. George Powell's Son Tried to Kill Abraham Lincoln: Oviedo's founding settler, George Powell, was a Civil War veteran who quietly relocated to the Lake Jesup area after the war — partly to escape the notoriety of his son, Lewis Powell, who was John Wilkes Booth's primary accomplice in the plot to assassinate President Lincoln. George Powell bought 160 acres, sold off plots, and helped establish what became Oviedo's downtown area. The city he helped build went on to become one of Seminole County's most respected family communities — which is, to say the least, a remarkable second chapter.