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

OLD TIMES / THE WAYS WE WERE

Excerpts from the newspaper archives:

80 years ago

Hoyle Pounds, chief of the city fire department, appeared before the City Commission and explained in detail an agreement the city made with Oakland in buying firefighting equipment, including a fire truck, on a cooperative basis. Oakland agreed to pay $3,000 on the truck, which would be operated out of Winter Garden by the city fire department.

Miss Ruth Grafton accepted a position in the office at the Winter Garden Ornamental Nursery.

A signal honor was conferred on J.S. Fairchild, Winter Garden banker, when he was appointed to the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank in Jacksonville. He was a 20-year executive officer of the First National Bank of Winter Garden and had seen the bank grow from $150,000 in resources to $4 million.

Fishermen at the city docks on Lake Apopka were thrown into a near panic when one of the anglers caught a five-foot moccasin snake within 15 feet of where they were fishing.

55 years ago

A new intensive ward was nearing completion at West Orange Memorial Hospital. Equipment to include two cardiac monitoring units was designed to provide care for heart attack victims and patients severely injured in crashes.

Diamond “R” was going up on Hennis Road in Winter Garden, and the $500,000 plant was expected to be completed sometime in July.

50 years ago

Lakeview High School band members sold a record number of The Winter Garden Times subscriptions: Shelley Selph came in first place for selling 57 subscriptions, Cindy Crawford came in second for selling 15, and Dinah Tompkins and Don Katutis tied for third place. Director Harold Cooper was the biggest winner because he received a check for $232 earned by the band.

45 years ago

The newsstand price for a copy of The Winter Garden Times jumped to 25 cents.

The Administrative Board of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church voted to move services to The Epicenter because the new church congregation had outgrown the meeting site at Turkey Lake Park.

Royal Canadian Development Corporation began construction on a $2.5 million, 52,700-square-foot neighborhood shopping center on State Road 50, just east of Maguire Road in Ocoee.

20 years ago

The Orange County School Board unanimously chose the name Ocoee High School for its newest high school. The name carried on for a new generation, but instead of the Cardinals, the students would be the Knights. The other names submitted were Crown Point High, Platinum High and Unity High.

THROWBACK THURSDAY

FEBRUARY 27, 1975

Do you remember a time when you could get breakfast for 86 cents? If you visited the Winter Garden Dairy Queen in 1975, your meal included two eggs, bacon or sausage, grits or hashbrowns and toast — all for less than a buck!

Don’t feel like cooking dinner tonight? Head over to the DQ on Mondays and Tuesdays for Family Night, which included a burger, fries and a soda for 99 cents. Imagine feeding a family of four for less than $4!

The ice cream and sandwich shop was located at Highway 50 (West Colonial Drive) and Park Avenue. The original building, with its unique storefront design, still is located on the site.

FROM THE WINTER GARDEN HERITAGE FOUNDATION ARCHIVES

The Lau family recently donated a stack of photographs to be placed in the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation archive, many of them dating more than a century ago. The Winter Garden grove pictured here was photographed Feb. 23, 1919 — 106 years ago.

Images like these tie us firmly to our past, nurturing an appreciation for what came before us — and they tell the story of why we are all here.

The WGHF preserves a vast archive of citrus-related material, and readers and followers are invited to access the collection by calling (407) 656-3244. Visitors will walk away with a deeper appreciation for the region we call home.