Today on Monday Mysteries we consider a curious fruit-shaped structure along U.S. Highway 1 in Melbourne.
Chris and I passed by this thing almost every day in August, since it’s situated between where we were staying in a vacation apartment and our relatives’ house. We are seeing it again daily now that we’ve moved back to the vacation apartment on US 1, so I decided it’s about time I wrote about it here on the blog. At the beginning I called it the “giant peach”, influenced by the name of Roald Dahl’s book James and the Giant Peach I read as a kid, and also because I think it looks like the color of a peach.
But as Chris keeps pointing out, we’re not in Georgia, we’re in Florida. So of course, the fruit in question is supposed to be a giant orange:
Giant Orange, U.S. Highway 1, Melbourne. Florida
Giant Orange, U.S. Highway 1, Melbourne. Florida
One thing I find particularly odd about it — as if the sight of a giant orange looming on the side of the road isn’t odd enough, that is. — is that there’s no obvious marking on it as you zoom by. Nothing. There’s also never been sign of activity happening near it. You’d think a giant orange would get a bit more attention, somehow.
We finally stopped by it one day (that’s our car to the right of it in the photo above). We wanted to see if there were any signs on it. And sure enough, there is a small one sign on the front that is not easy to read from the road:
Sign on the Giant Orange, U.S. Highway 1, Melbourne. Florida
Hmm, personally, I don’t find that info too helpful in understanding how this giant orange came to be.
In searching on the web for more info, I didn’t find much more about it. But here’s what one website has to say about what that site calls the “Eau Galle Orange”:
The giant orange is made of concrete and steel and was built in 1967. It is 15 feet in diameter. For a few years, it was used as an orange juice stand for tourists and manned by the Eau Gallie Chamber of Commerce. It is located at the Disabled American Veterans facility and was recently restored by the Melbourne Rotary Club. It’s a well known landmark for anyone who regularly drives this part of the Dixie Highway. From http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM44A0
Ok, so that explains at least what it is: it is definitely an orange. But unfortunately that still leaves unanswered other questions such as who built it back in 1967, or why it was built or when it fell into disrepair and disuse, or how the Disabled American Veterans came to have it now.
Many questions, making it still somewhat of a mystery on this Monday.