HISTORY: West Orange County of yesteryear for week of March 27, 2025

OLD TIMES / THE WAYS WE WERE

Excerpts from the newspaper archives:

80 years ago

Dr. B.H. Lawson entertained with one of his famous chicken suppers honoring the current football squad and prospective players for the next year.

75 years ago

The West Orange Athletic Association’s Board of Directors invited the public to a meeting in the Florida Power Lounge to thoroughly air the question of relocating the football field from Walker Field to Lakeview High School grounds.

55 years ago

More than 250 happy egg hunters turned out in search of the golden egg and 90 dozen colored eggs donated by the Winter Garden Lions Club. Age-group winners were Kim Hodge, Susan Kurtz, Tod Orie, Charlotte Faulk, Craig Crawford, Alisa Sanders, Patricia Von Waldner and Larry Crosby.

Penny-Saver Stores in Ocoee and Winter Garden advertised an “Easter Parade of Values,” with men’s dress shirts for $1.98, boys’ suits — just like Dad’s — starting at $9.98, ladies’ pantyhose for 79 cents, two pairs of girls’ shoes for $5 and ladies’ shoes priced at $1.66 and $2.66.

Officers of the Business and Professional Women’s Club of Winter Garden, Gloria Pearce, Doris Grimes, Blanche Williams, Laverne Peavey and Barbara Lewis, welcomed their featured speaker, Congressman Lou Frey.

50 years ago

Winners in the baton-twirling competition at the Orange County Championships, held at McCoy Air Force Base, were Angie Smith, Kae Armstrong, Laura Patrick and Sarah Fogarty, under the direction of Terri Breeze Moorhead.

Windermere marked its 50th anniversary — and America’s Bicentennial — with a weeklong schedule of events. The Rotary Club was in charge, and members were growing extra facial hair to celebrate.

40 years ago

A major step was taken by Publix Super Markets when its Food World stores became Publix grocery stores. The new Publix in the Tri-City Shopping Center in Winter Garden held a grand reopening sale.

20 years ago

Windermere residents and motorists got their first glimpse of the downtown project in progress with the delivery of pallets of bricks, to be installed along West Main Street.

Orlando Regional Medical Center named its newest hospital Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women and Babies. Before, babies were born at the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and Women.

When the Orange County School Board adopted the attendance zone for the new Ocoee High School, the plan included transferring 285 students from Olympia High School to West Orange High School. After parents complained their Olympia students should be permitted to continue at Olympia through graduation, the School Board decided to allow this.

THROWBACK THURSDAY

MARCH 20, 1969

In spring 1969, Easter was just around the corner, and The Winter Garden Times published an advertisement featuring a long list of businesses — “your friendly Winter Garden merchants” — with whom residents could patronize for “a more prosperous Winter Garden.”

The ad urged folks to shop at West Orange Drugs Inc., Winter Garden Mobile Home Sales, Bray Hardware Company, Mode O’Day, Pounds Goodyear, Leader Department Store, Davis Pharmacy, Raymond G. Dickson, Shaw’s Winter Garden Florist Inc., Winter Garden Laundromat, McCrory’s, Burgess Men’s Wear, Hill’s Sewing Machine & Vacuum, Merle Norman Cosmetic Studio, Hart’s Radio & TV Service, Ellis Inc., Mr. D’s Bootery, Penny Saver, Griffin’s Men’s Wear, Tibbals Rexall Drugs, Winter’s Radio & TV Service, Badcock Furniture Store, W.T. Zeigler Furniture Co., Jim’s Equipment Company, Griffith Tire Company and Winter Garden Camera Exchange.

How many of these did you frequent?

FROM THE WINTER GARDEN HERITAGE FOUNDATION ARCHIVES

Water freely flowed from Lake Down into Wauseon Bay and Lake Butler after deep dredging beneath a railroad bridge was completed on March 27, 1923 — 102 years ago.

In 1887, John Dawe named Windermere for a long, narrow body of water of the same name located in England’s Lake District. Dawe was an Englishman who arrived here from Boston to serve as the general manager of the Florida Midland Railway that stretched from the Winter Springs area south through Windermere to Kissimmee.

Railfans interested in Central Florida’s railroad history will find a wealth of information at the Central Florida Railroad Museum in downtown Winter Garden. Make plans to visit!