It is on the southern shore of East Lake Tohopekaliga in Central Florida, about 26 miles (41.8 km) southeast of Orlando.

Cloud was founded as a retirement community for Civil War union veterans, and gained the nickname "The Friendly Soldier City".

Disston contracted with the Florida Internal Improvement Fund, then in receivership, to pay $1 million to offset its Civil War and Reconstruction debt.

[8] Disston opened the Sugar Belt Railway to the South Florida Railroad in 1888 to carry his product to market.

Then in 1909, the Seminole Land & Investment Company acquired 35,000 acres (14,000 ha) as the site for a Grand Army of the Republic veterans' colony.

It was first permanently settled in 1909 by William G. King, a real estate manager from Alachua County who had been given the responsibility "to plan, locate and develop a town."

The newspaper called the Seminole Land and Investment Company's purchase "one of the most important real estate deals ever made in the State of Florida."

It was reported that the company had searched all over Florida for the perfect site for a veterans' colony, particularly one suited for "health, climate, and productiveness of the soil".

[10] Early newspaper records support the history of being a “Sundown Town” with firsthand accounts of local residents making attempts “to keep the colored folks in their own quarters outside the town.”[11] On June 1, 1915, the Florida Legislature incorporated St.

Its downtown features landmark buildings by the Orlando architectural firm Ryan & Roberts, a partnership consisting of two women.

Cloud has tried to separate itself from neighboring cities, and particularly the theme parks, by promoting an image of small-town life, and by attempting to make itself economically less dependent on Kissimmee.

The twelve-foot tall cross, which was illuminated at night, stood atop the city’s water tower off U.S. Route 192 for nearly twenty years without issue.

[14] By November 1986, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed its first lawsuit against the city of St.

Four months later, in March 1987, private citizen Ronald Mendelson filed a similar lawsuit that the cross violated the U.S. Constitution’s mandate of separation of church and state.

Cloud, decided to sue because of the city’s implicit endorsement of Christianity atop the water tower and the inconvenience Mendelson felt due to the “shadow of the cross.”[14] In defense of its presence, residents cited the cross as a local landmark and directional marker for boaters, drivers, and pilots commuting within St.

[16] On August 16, 1989, a U.S. District judge ruled in favor of Mendelson to have the Latin cross removed off the water tower.

[18] The ACLU quickly filed an additional lawsuit, claiming that the new Greek cross still violated the U.S. Constitution in an attempt to evade the judge’s original ruling.

Cloud agreed to remove the cross in 1990, primarily due to the mounting legal costs incurred by the ACLU.

[15][19] Local support through the city council to reinstate the Latin cross on private property within St.

[19] Ultimately, those discussions fell through due to the 35-foot height restriction that the cross would have exceeded on a structure within city limits.

[20] The original Latin cross has since been moved atop a 60-foot tower on private property in nearby Intercession City, where it has remained since 1995.

Cloud was in 1910, when the new woman's club set up a traveling library and a table at the train station with reading materials for locals.

Within the next couple of years the collection had outgrown the reading room and moved to the People's Bank and then City Hall.

Cloud Heritage Museum still proudly boasts the name "Veteran's Memorial Library", the branch location was moved to a former SunTrust bank building on 13th Street and Indiana Avenue in 1995, where it still operates today as part of the Osceola County Library System.