HISTORY: West Orange County of yesteryear for week of Feb. 13, 2025

OLD TIMES / THE WAYS WE WERE

These exerpts were pulled from the newspaper archives:

85 years ago

A throng of Winter Garden citizens traveled to the little cemetery in Beulah to pay their last respects at the interment of A.B. Newton, known affectionately as the Godfather of Winter Garden.

80 years ago

Constructive steps were being taken by leading citizens of the city to perfect a working organization to promote the establishing of a hospital in Winter Garden, where the sick could be cared for with a humanitarian and scientific spirit.

Stamp No. 34 in Ration Book 4 was good for five pounds of sugar indefinitely.

A committee of eight ladies representing the schools, churches and welfare league of the city appeared before the City Commission seeking a curfew law with a view of keeping teenage children off the streets after 10 o’clock at night.

45 years ago

Don Rider, former publisher of the Pine Hills Sun, was appointed city clerk of Oakland. He replaced Barbara McCaffety, who resigned to accept another job.

The Winter Garden Police Department held its awards banquet at the Admiral Benbow Inn. Among those receiving Civilian Recognition Awards were Harold Cooper for information leading to the arrest of suspects in the Kentucky Fried Chicken robbery, Robert Freeman for removing Charles Root from a burning building, and George Spigener for rescuing a drowning boy from the swimming pool at Stage Stop Campground and saving his life by administering first aid.

35 years ago

The Lakeview Middle School advanced handbell choir, Vibration, was selected to perform two concert demonstrations at the Florida Music Educators Conference in Tampa. Students were Merideth Bradford, Greg Crumpton, Kim Fox, Jennifer Gurney, Maree Fuller, Shelly Hall, Wendy Laug, Kelly Lesh, Kristi Loomis, Erin O’Connor, Kristin Ogren, Jana Raver, Alisha Rushell, Candon Sadler, Jossie Simon and Kevin Stanley.

20 years ago

Progress toward the renovations of the Garden Theatre in historic downtown Winter Garden took an enormous leap with the announcement of two pledges of support totaling $1 million toward the construction costs of the theater. The Dr. P. Phillips Foundation and the Winter Garden Community Redevelopment Agency each pledged $500,000.

From deli to dust: After sitting vacant for many years, the old Rainbow Market (and before that Jimmy’s Thriftway) in downtown Winter Garden was torn down. The city bought the building and land with the idea that a developer would put an attractive building on Plant Street.

Construction was underway on the Children’s Lighthouse project at People of Faith Lutheran Church in Winter Garden. The new childcare option fulfilled a seven-year dream for Pastor Johan Bergh and his congregation.

THROWBACK THURSDAY

JAN. 30, 1975

The Winter Garden Times ran an old Winter Garden Chamber of Commerce flyer for the fish camps that once dotted the southern shore of Lake Apopka. It touted the lake as one of the best in the land and “a sportsmen’s paradise” that offered the world’s best black bass fish. The day’s bag limit was 12; boats were available, as was a covered pavilion at the end of the fishing dock. Nearby, Trailer City offered modern trailer accommodations to fishermen eager to drop their line in the water.

FROM THE WINTER GARDEN HERITAGE FOUNDATION ARCHIVES

This closeup of the Tildenville School Road neighborhood where the West Orange Trail turns from south to east shows many details that do not exist today. In the background looms vast Lake Apopka, Florida’s fourth-largest body of water. Fronting it are Tilden and Hurley family citrus groves and vegetable fields; the sprawling Oakland Park neighborhood has been constructed on those former fields. Just to the right of the center is the Hurley mule barn with its conical roof line; the structure, although badly deteriorated, was still visible at that corner when the West Orange Trail opened in 1993.

The little white building at center is the Tildenville depot for the Atlantic Coast Line railroad, and the two structures to its left belong to the Tavares & Gulf railroad, whose tracks paralleled the ACL for almost four miles from Oakland to Winter Garden. At bottom left is the roof of the South Lake Apopka Citrus Growers Association, a structure that stands today, although repurposed.