West Orange County history for the week of June 27, 2024

OLD TIMES FROM THE NEWSPAPER ARCHIVES

80 years ago

There was a rumor going around town that Winter Garden was going to have one of the largest canning plants in Florida, adding another industry to stimulate business for citrus growers.

70 years ago

Mary Connell, whose wedding was to be a social event, was given a Coke party by her younger friends, the misses Gail Willis and Ann Hornstein, in the Willis home.

50 years ago

A contract in the amount of $4.83 million was awarded to the Orange County School Board for the construction of a new high school to serve West Orange. Later named West Orange High School, it was built on a 45-acre site on Beulah Road, south of the Sunshine State Parkway. The article read: “Laid out in a number of circles, the new high school will be much more compact than the old spread-out finger-type design. This arrangement will make for less distance between classrooms, which will be easier and faster for students.”

40 years ago

Tony Krapf, principal of West Orange High School, received about $450 in one-dollar coins from graduating seniors. In previous years, seniors gave Krapf a memento for graduation, including bubble gum and shiny new pennies.

Frank Watson, retiring principal of Spring Lake Elementary, received a hunting rifle as a going-away present from his faculty and staff after a 32-year career in education.

Bruce Crabbe, a Bay Hill resident and graduate of West Orange High School, became the second former WOHS baseball player in a month to sign a professional contract with the Chicago Cubs organization and head for Arizona to participate in the Cubs’ instructional league. Brent Casteel signed his contract a month earlier.

30 years ago

Retirees graded papers for 162 years: Teachers Gay Annis, Rod Reeves, Ed Turpin, Sam Wagster and Anna Fulford closed the books, laid down the ruler, walked away from the desks and turned off the classroom lights for the last time after teaching generations of students in Winter Garden.

20 years ago

The community turned out to celebrate the retirement of Dr. Albert Gleason, 92, who spent more than 65 years in the practice of medicine — 53 of those in Winter Garden. He was credited with providing good old-fashioned medical care since before World War II and for his role in helping plan and build West Orange Memorial Hospital. It wasn’t unusual for him to have cared for four generations of one family.

THROWBACK THURSDAY

JUNE 20, 1974

In the 1970s, hotels along Highway 50 were popular hangouts because they offered locals an exciting lounge scene with a rotation of bands and musicians.

At the Winter Garden Inn’s Gold Lion Room, the new band Rock Island Line, from Maggie Valley, North Carolina, played nightly Tuesdays through Saturdays “for your listening and dancing pleasure.” Their show featured “all the latest music in rock & roll – boogie – Big Band.” During the special cocktail hours, all drinks were 60 cents.

Down the road in Ocoee, Ramada Inn West was featuring the band 74th Century with vocalist Sherry Sanders. Their folk, country, rock and dance music was performed nightly except Mondays, with Ladies Night on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

FROM THE WINTER GARDEN HERITAGE FOUNDATION ARCHIVES

Summer is here, although it seems like the season has been upon us for months already. It’s a time of inter-semester activity, evidenced by the thousands of children who attend summer camps, vacation Bible schools, art classes and more. In 1979, Bill Woodson was hired by the West Orange Church of Christ in Winter Garden as the summer youth minister. The church, located on Daniels Road in Winter Garden, was established in 1930 and has been at this location since 1965.

The archive of the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation collects and preserves thousands of items relating to local church history. Make a research appointment at (407) 656-3244.