This week in West Orange County history: Sept. 14, 2023

OLD TIMES

90 years ago

Half-pint burglars descended from the sky and stole clothing. Using a piece of stolen rope to lower themselves through the skylight, burglars dropped into George S. Merchant’s men’s furnishing store and walked out the door with $10 in cash and a good assortment of suit and haberdashery, all small sizes. The hole they came through was extremely small.

50 years ago

Advertisement: Are you looking for three or four bedrooms, two baths, a garage, shag carpeting, wallpaper, central heat and air, 95% mortgages, and VA/FHA? Then visit Ocoee Hills, off Silver Star Road and Good Homes Road, where homes listed at $28,250 to $30,250.

The Ocoee City Council voted to purchase an $18,000 Burroughs accounting/billing “mini computer,” which was to take over much of the city’s paperwork.

40 years ago

The Windermere Town Council set its next fiscal year budget at $370,069 with a .946 millage rate.

Editorial: Boundary lines will be redrawn and at least five schools may be closed if the Orange County School Board gives the go-ahead to change its 19 junior highs to middle schools. … Under the district’s current system, elementary schools handle grades K through 6, junior highs grades 7 through 9 and high schools 10 through 12. Going to a middle school system will shift 6,225 ninth-grade students to the senior highs and 6,116 sixth-graders to middle schools. It is anticipated that the transition into a middle school system may take up to five years from the plan’s inception because of the need to construct several new schools, phase out some elementary schools, redistrict students and reassign staff.

The kickoff of the 1983 Gator football season brought a large contingent of West Orange Countians to Florida Field, including Jean and Jimmy Pitchford, in one of the elegant new sky boxes. Among the other season box-holders were Sheila and Milton West of Ocoee. West Orange High School alumnus Joe Henderson, playing fullback, gave area fans something extra to cheer about as he led off the season with two touchdowns in the 28-3 rout of Miami. Winter Garden teammate Roy Harris played an outstanding game for the defense.

30 years ago

Phil Ritson, internationally known golf educator, and David Harman, who had built more than 180 golf courses all over the world, were key members of the professional group dedicated to building the Orange County National Golf Center on 525 acres of land on State Road 545 southwest of Winter Garden. Harman also built the Isleworth course in Windermere and remodeled the Bay Hill course in 1983 and 1989.

THROWBACK THURSDAY

SEPT. 11, 1969

The five-and-dime store McCrory’s once operated in the West Orange Shopping Center, on South Dillard Street. It was customary for stores such as this to offer limited-time photography sessions for families, and folks were typically enticed by the low-cost pictures they received.

The Winter Garden Times ran an advertisement that guaranteed satisfaction, a variety of poses and an 8x10 for just 99 cents (plus a 50 cent film charge). To reiterate the low price, the ad depicted a photo of a baby popping out of a piggy bank.

FROM THE WINTER GARDEN HERITAGE FOUNDATION ARCHIVES

The Star-Lite Drive-In opened in 1949 on the corner where 7-Eleven stands at East Plant Street and West Crown Point Road. It was constructed by Malon O. Wright. The theater was known locally as “Peavey’s Passion Pit” for Thelbert Peavey, who managed the extremely popular attraction for years. At one time the site could accommodate 400 cars. The aerial view shows the wide screen — with Plant Street running behind it — that eventually replaced the original smaller screen. It was closed in 1996 when the management company, Floyd Theatres, ceased operations. It was demolished in 1998 after Save Our Star-Lite, a fundraising effort, failed to achieve its goal.