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.