Old Times 08.27.15

75 YEARS AGO

Winter Garden now has a public library with several hundred volumes of a wide variety of subjects. It is located at First Baptist Church. A regular librarian is in charge and keeps it open from 4 to 5 p.m. and from 7:45 to 9:15 p.m.

70 YEARS AGO

Joe and June Fairchild, newlyweds of Aug. 1, are now settled temporarily at one of the Journigan cottages until they can find a house large enough to display their exquisite wedding gifts.

The Winter Garden Commission has voted to donate property for the site of West Orange Memorial Hospital. It is about two-and-one-half acres and is currently occupied by the U.S. Army camp near Lake Apopka.

65 YEARS AGO

Curtis Pickens, Ray Fleming and Carroll Dickenson, members of the Lakeview High School Class of 1950, went to Tampa for physical examinations with a view of enlistment in the U.S. Coast Guard. Selby Burch, a junior at Florida Southern College, also made the trip.

45 YEARS AGO

Charlene Payne, bride-elect of Leigh Kammerer, was honored with a luncheon at the Winter Garden Inn hosted by Virginia Cappleman and Evelyn Lease. The wedding will take place Aug. 29.

Meetings are being held regarding the possibility of a West Orange area airport. There have been indications that state and federal funds may be available if the three cities, Winter Garden, Ocoee and Apopka, are ready to go. Among committee members are Ocoee Mayor Hubert Fox, Harold Maguire, Ben Griffin, John Lamb, E.L. Farnsworth and Don Gaylor.

10 YEARS AGO

After residents voted overwhelmingly in favor of the proposed Winter Garden Village at Fowler Groves in a public-opinion poll, city leaders took the first step in making the 1.15-million-square-foot open-air shopping center a reality. The Orange County Supervisor of Elections Office reported that 72.5% of the voters were in favor of the shopping center.

The town of Oakland approved plans for the Oakland Park community. Four of the five construction phases are in the Oakland town limits, and the final phase is in Winter Garden. It is being touted as a very walkable community.

The campus of Tildenville Elementary is all rubble and dust as crews demolish the old building to make way for a new, updated facility. Students are spending this school year at the Ninth-Grade Center at West Orange High School and will return to the Tildenville campus next fall, just in time to celebrate the school’s 100 years in this location.