Eatonville is a town in Orange County, Florida, United States, six miles north of Orlando. It is part of the Orlando - Kissimmee metropolitan statistical area. The town includes the Eatonville Historic District.Incorporated on August 15, 1887, it was one of the first self-governing all-black municipalities in the United States, created in part to the extensive downsizing of security and policing of black communities leading these communities to regrettably feel they had to set up their own area separate from the white community to ensure safety. The population was 2,159 at the 2010 census. Noted author Zora Neale Hurston grew up in Eatonville, which she featured in many stories. In 1990 the town founded the Zora Neale Hurston Museum of Fine Arts. Every winter the town stages the Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities. A library named for her opened in January 2004. Eatonville is also the hometown of David "Deacon" Jones, a professional football player.Artist Jules Andre Smith has done a series of paintings depicting life in Eatonville during the 1930s and 1940s. Twelve of these works are at the Maitland Art Center in the adjacent town of Maitland.Eatonville is home to WESH and WKCF, two television stations serving the Orlando television market.
