From the Archives 06.05.14

Maybe this group of teachers posing next to an automobile in the early 1920s is getting ready to embark on its summer getaway. The teachers spent the previous months instructing their young charges at the Oakland-Winter Garden School, a 2-story wooden building, complete with a bell tower, once located on Brick Road in Tildenville. It was built c.1905 on land donated by the Willis family and was the first consolidated school in Orange County. Wearing their summer dresses are, l-r: unidentified, Florence Smith McAllister, unidentified, Kate Story, Margaret Smith, Lena Story, Annie Connell and unidentified. The teachers roomed at the boarding house in the background, located near the east end of Brick Road (old State Highway 22), a short distance west of Plant Street. Miss Connell, a teacher and principal at the school, served for 45 years, retiring in 1968. She lived in a house built by Hobart Willis; the yellow Victorian still stands on Brick Road.