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Preserving Your History



When we get a few minutes here at the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation, after our (vintage carved wooden partners') desks are relatively cleared; or strolling through and freshening up exhibits at our two Museums, we're often struck by the enormity of the responsibility that we shoulder: receiving, cataloguing, and preserving documents and artifacts of West Orange County's history.


Plant Street looking east from Boyd Street, 1940s.
Plant Street looking east from Boyd Street, 1940s.

We take it very personally. As we say during presentations, tours, and field trips, history isn't just a series of dates to be memorized and recalled when questioned. Here in West Orange County, our area of interest, we consider that history is a living document of lives lived locally over many decades: since almost all of our documents, photographs, memorabilia, and artifacts have been donated to us by local families, we are very serious about our mission to gather and preserve your legacy.


In our Archive is a vast collection of Family Files. Begun three decades ago and stored alphabetically in archival folders, these precious records contain the records of West Orange families from all walks of life. While researching a project or an exhibit, we often encounter items that take us back in time: a movie stub initialed by a teenage girl whose first date at the Garden Theatre was with the man she married... an engraved Lakeview High School invitation to a graduation ceremony, complete with a beautifully printed calling card... a wedding dress... a letter written to Mom and Dad by a young soldier who witnessed the bombing of Pearl Harbor while on a routine flying exercise... or a misty photograph of Miss Drew High School 1962, shimmering in a glorious gown...


We often talk about how looking in one Family File often leads to searching further into related folders: we get happily lost in a maze of double third cousins twice removed; husbands' families who arrived from Alabama and then went back home (why?); grandparents' 75th. anniversary celebrations (thirty people dressed formally in the Florida heat, staring stoically at the photographer); pioneer photos of homes built with local timber (many survive on Tildenville School Road) ... and so much, much more.


It's a gift, and an honor, being able to cherish and preserve your history here at the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation. It's something you have entrusted us with, and we appreciate that in so many ways. And we thank you.


Stop by the Winter Garden Heritage Museum, the Central Florida Railroad Museum, and the History Research, Education, and Visitors' Center- we are available Tuesdays through Saturdays, 11 am to 3 pm, and we are happy to guide you towards what has been gathered and displayed of your past history. An appreciation of this legacy helps you to appreciate the present while making plans to share with future generations.


See you in the neighborhood!


Call 407-656-3244










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Healthy West Orange Heritage and Cultural Center

21 East Plant Street
Winter Garden, FL 34787

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407-656-3244

 

Tuesday: 11am – 3pm

Wednesday: 11am – 3pm

Thursday: 11am – 3pm

Friday: 11am – 3pm

Saturday: 11am – 3pm

Central Florida

Railroad Museum 

101 South Boyd Street
Winter Garden, FL 34787

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407-656-0559

 

Tuesday: 11am – 3pm

Wednesday: 11am – 3pm

Thursday: 11am – 3pm

Friday: 11am – 3pm

Saturday: 11am – 3pm

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Website: https://www.cfrhs.org/

Heritage Museum

One North Main Street
Winter Garden, FL 34787

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407-656-3244

 

Tuesday: 11am – 3pm

Wednesday: 11am – 3pm

Thursday: 11am – 3pm

Friday: 11am – 3pm

Saturday: 11am – 3pm

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FOUNDATION BOARD MEMBERS

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Frank Chase, President

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Mike Forrester, Vice President

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Phil Cross, Secretary

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Larry Cappleman, Treasurer

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Ward Britt

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Howard Brown

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A.J. Burnett

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Tom Burnett

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Arnold Castellanos

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Chris Chan

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Amanda Daluga

 

Stina D'uva

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Cyndi Gustafson

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Ed Johnson

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Iliana Jones

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Tim Keating III

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Amy Quesinberry

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FOUNDATION STAFF

 

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Jim Crescitelli, Director, Operations and Programming
jcrescitelli@wghf.org

 

Jeanne Griffith, Grant Writer
jgriffith@wghf.org

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Will McCoy, Writer and Curator

wmccoy@wghf.org

CONTACT US

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Copyright 2024 Winter Garden Heritage Foundation

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