This week in West Orange County history

OLD TIMES

85 years ago

After a silence of almost two months except for the daily tooting of 12 o’clock, the Winter Garden fire whistle broke into a loud scream when the Bray warehouse flamed.

80 years ago

Work has begun on the construction of a new home for Mr. and Mrs. Cecil Dees at the corner of Wright and Highland streets in Winter Garden. The estimated cost is $3,000.

The new stage at the Winter Garden Theatre is really a work of art. Much of the work of making imitation palm trees at each side of the stage as well as the beautiful decorations is the work done under the personal supervision of Collie Biggers. There is not a more handsome stage in a picture house in this part of the state.

50 years ago

Growth in the area has caused Dillard Street and Winter Garden elementaries to add portable classrooms to their campus.

The annual Central Florida Citrus Power Regatta, sponsored by the Ocoee Lions Club, was planned for Starke Lake, in Ocoee.

45 years ago

After some initial confusion, Lakeview High School is settling down for another (and probably last) year of study, exercise and work. How about getting in your suggestions for a name for the new high school so we don’t have to keep saying “the new high school”?

30 years ago

The grand opening of the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children & Women was held just in time for Palmer’s 60th birthday.

20 years ago

Isleworth Country Club was the setting for a fundraising art auction for the West Orange Christian Service Center. The successful event raised more than $15,500 for operating funds.

THROWBACK THURSDAY

The Winter Garden Times

Aug. 21, 1975

TG&Y once was the place in Winter Garden where one could find a little bit of everything. In the Aug. 21, 1975, issue of The West Orange Times, the store advertised its vast selection of “fun fabrics for sewing.” Simplicity patterns were popular with seamstresses, and they were available in the sewing section of the shop in the Tri-City Shopping Center. Materials such as brushed denim and polyesters were sold, too, as were a variety of prints.

FROM THE WINTER GARDEN HERITAGE FOUNDATION

Badcock Furniture and Appliances opened for business in 1966 at the southeast corner of Plant Street and Highland Avenue in Winter Garden. Owned and operated by Mr. and Mrs. Joe Davis, it shared the site with Car Locator and Maintenance, seen immediately to the left. At far right is the Atlantic Ice Plant, standing on the future site of today’s City Hall.

The Winter Garden Heritage Foundation preserves documents, photographs and artifacts from businesses that existed in West Orange County, beginning with the 1890s. Call (407) 656-3244 to make a research appointment.