by Rick Kilby from the Summer 2014 edition of Reflections Magazine
As students throughout Central Florida return to school, here’s a sampling of then and now images from a few of Orange County’s historic schools.
Students congregate outside the entrance of Orlando High School, now Howard Middle School, in 1947.
Memorial High School opened in 1922 and became a junior high school five years later. Dedicated to the “Orange County Boys who gave their lives in the World War”, the Spanish Colonial Revival structure was torn down in 1961.
The 1945 Cherokee Junior High School Glee Club presents “When the Moon Rises.” Cherokee School, designed by Orlando architect Howard M. Reynolds, opened in 1927 as a junior high school. Reynolds designed many Orlando area schools in the early 20th century.
Local architectural historian John Dalles states that this beautiful Mediterranean Revival building features elaborate details like a ceramic torch in relief symbolizing enlightenment, and omniscient owls, symbols of wisdom.
The Orlando Public School Building was constructed in 1906 at the location of a previous school, which burned down a year earlier. It was utilized as a school for 16 years, according to Lost Orlando by former History Center researchers Tana Moshier Porter and Stephanie Gaub Antequino. The building was then used as Orlando City Hall from 1924 to 1958. It also became police headquarters briefly before being torn down in 1972.
According to Orlando historian Steve Rajtar, Kaley Elementary was a WPA project constructed in 1936 created with eight-pound bricks formerly used as pavers on Kaley Street. The building is still in use today by Orange County Public Schools.
Also designed by Howard M. Reynolds, the Marks Street School opened in 1925. Below: Like the former Delaney Elementary, it is used as a senior center by the City of Orlando today.
Another Howard M. Reynolds design, Princeton Elementary opened in 1926. The College Park school is still open for elementary students today.
Orlando’s first elementary school, the three-story Magnolia School, opened in 1915. Previous buildings at the downtown address (325 Palmetto Avenue) included a 19th century home and a 32-room hotel named the Eola Hotel. It was also utilized as a high school in the 1920s and later as Orlando Vocational School from 1938 until 1981. The building burned down.