Week 3

This week began with a meeting with my adviser, Dr. Lyons, on Monday to frame the week ahead. I told the Professor of the hardships I encountered in crossing Orlando, and what I found at the West Oak Library. Doctor Lyons suggested during our meeting to email the UCF librarians Mr. Richard Gause and Mr. Richard Harrison, both who promptly responded to my message.

Mr. Harrison, who emailed first chronologically, point me to the The Sentinel card file index (1970-1985) within the UCF Library. He also suggested to contact the Orange County Regional Historical Center. Mr. Gause, who emailed me early on Thursday morning, said to meet him at noon of the same day.

That meeting introduced me to Eve Bacon's "Orlando: A Centennial History", which had few pieces of information related to Hillcrest such as its founding and a more in-depth description of the fire. This in part helped me begin a loose timeline of Hillcrest, which current has six points including its application to become a magnate school in the late 1990's and more recently a proposed merger with Howard Middle School to become a k-8 school in the late 2000's. Mr. Gause also introduced a new way of looking at the subject matter, pointing me to the Sanborn Fire insurance Maps as a method to see what historically was around the grammar school in its infancy. Also, Mr. Gause suggested using Census Tracts to track demographics in the area. The area near Hillcrest, tract 2, was revealed to be almost exclusively white in the 1960's. Prior knowledge dictates that it will change in the following Census (1970, 1980 and so forth, but it will fascinating to be able to track the pattern.

Also, I was given access to the "Biennial Report between 1922-1924". Interestingly, it contained a report by Superintendent A.S. Johnson of Orange County to Tallahassee recounting the opening of a school on "Hillcrest and Concord St.", with the amount of classrooms and the building of the auditorium, among various other developments in the 1920's Orange County schools. The school itself had a capacity for five hundred people initially, even though the population hovered between 100 students in actuality (speculation due to there only being approximately 200 elementary students in the area according to the "Biennial Report"

Next week entails a trip to Hillcrest on February 3rd, coupled with likely more research going through more census data. The Sanborn Insurance maps have a variation of the commercial and residential areas near Hillcrest. I hope when I do person to person interviews with alumni, some of the locations referenced in the fire insurance maps will line up with the former students accounts.

Week 2 of the Internship

As mentioned in the first blog post, this week entailed a trip to the West Oak Library and Genealogy Center in Ocoee. The journey itself was lengthy, needing to navigate the public bus system of Orlando for the first time. I, like many first timers on public transit, became lost and had to take an Uber to reach my final destination. My driver, Elizabeth, was a Hillcrest Alumni who attended in the early 1960's, a changing time in the narrative of the elementary school. She recounted the a turbulent month of November 1963 where not only the school shut down due to mourning for JFK and then the school itself burning.. Elizabeth also gave an abridged history of the neighborhood, and how the prominent Vietnamese community bought up much of the real estate in the area. I only had about 10 minutes, but luckily recorded her email for possibly more information and hopefully more fascinating anecdotes.

When at West Oak, I was lucky enough to meet Allison L. Ryall. She is the Genealogy Specialist at the library. She gave me plenty of resources to look into Hillcrest, like the Family History Centers associated with the Mormons and Newspaper.com for some of the older Orlando Sentinels. Another reason for the voyage to West Oak was to collect finding aids, or document important as they have information on specific collections. Mrs. Ryall gave me access to the index first showed to me via email to me by Professor French. I went through the Orlando Sentinel and Orlando Sun 1966-1970 Volume II: Orange County and Orlando.

I was able to explore the annals of the genealogy center, spending approximately three to four hours perusing the Orange County section, including the 1966-1970 Orlando Sentinel and Orlando Sun headers but coming with little. Hopefully, future research is more fruitful in my findings.

Week 1 of the internship

Hello all, I want to introduce myself, Peter Torres. I am third year History major and I strive to explore local history through this internship.

Week 1 of the internship has been eventful, with some preliminary research on Hillcrest Elementary, the site that will be the main focus of the research. Hillcrest has a rich history as it is one of the oldest schools in Central Florida. I hope it can act as a significant microcosm of America in its many phases during the 20th Century, such as during World War II or in the integration period in the South. In the sphere of education, Hillcrest has unique characteristics such as once having an active Vietnamese program to cater the burgeoning ethnic minority present in Orlando. I strive to conduct interviews for more information on personal experiences at the school, which are likely to have been unknown in the past. The school is being rebuilt in the summer, giving the project a sense of urgency in my work. I registered myself for the Orange County Public Schools to volunteer on-site, and was able to meet with my advisers on Wednesday.

Next week entails a trip to Ocoee, specifically the West Oaks library and Genealogy Center for finding aids to assist a later search through the Sun Sentinel of Orlando. Luckily, I have been informed that UCF Library has the paper on microfilm so that will make the trip to research far shorter in the future.