This Week in West Orange County history

85 years ago

Classified ads: (1) Bids now being received (for West Orange Country Club). Building roads, restation of golf course, renovating and decorating club house. Apply Mather Smith, Oakland. (2) For rent: seven-room furnished house; water included. $20 per month. (3) One good mule. Also, two grove spraying machines. Priced reasonably. Julian Sadler, Oakland. (4) For sale or rent: pool tables and equipment in Sandy’s Restaurant, below post office, Winter Garden.

75 years ago

Ed Reeves, who has been employed at A.D. Mims Barbershop on Main Street in Winter Garden since 1937, became associated with Roy Fulmer in the dry cleaning and pressing business.

OLD TIMES

45 years ago

Father F. Joseph Harte, pastor, announced plans for a new church and parish center to serve Holy Family Parish. Plans called for a modern contemporary design building to be erected on Apopka-Vineland Road.

30 years ago

Oakland voters elected two new town councilmen during balloting. Mrs. Lou Richardson and Willie Welch were the two top vote-getters.

The West Orange Junior Service League held a fashion show at the Isleworth Country Club with clothing and jewelry from Rheinaurs. Chairmen were Gwen Smith, Karen Grimes and Ann Streit. Models were Mary Beth Asma, Linda Griffith, Connie Oliver, Linda Fewell and Leigh Anne Nichols.

20 years ago

Jay Conn, recreation director, and Sebrenia Brown, recreation leader, showed off the trophy the Winter Garden Recreation Department received through the Walt Disney World Community Service Awards program. The city also received a $3,000 grant for its swim program for elementary students.

The town of Windermere purchased its first fire truck, a water tanker, under an agreement with the Ocoee Fire Department.

THROWBACK THURSDAY

Oct. 31, 1947

There wasn’t a whole lot of entertainment in West Orange County in the 1940s, but when 1947 rolled around, Joiner Radio Service announced the “best show in town!” Folks who saw the Oct. 31, advertisement in The West Orange News could watch demonstrations of the new Bendix Home Laundry machine, which does the washing “all by itself!”

FROM THE WINTER GARDEN HERITAGE FOUNDATION ARCHIVES

This bright yellow Chesapeake & Ohio caboose, weighing in at 40 tons, has been drawing visitors to the Winter Garden Heritage Museum since its placement on Plant Street 20 years ago. Built in 1948, the car served as an office, kitchen and sleeping quarters for conductor and crew until its 1984 decommission. In 2000, the Chicone family purchased it from the Root family collection in Daytona Beach, and the Florida Central Railroad located in Plymouth paid for and installed the track and its bed.

The caboose is shown as it is being hoisted onto its final resting place. It played host to candy-snagging revelers eager to explore the decorated, “haunted” interior last month.