Colonial High School opened In 1958, providing much needed relief for other schools in the area. It began with a dual schedule: High School classes in the morning and Junior High classes in the afternoon.
Rufus E. Jennings was the first principal and Bettis Herlong was the first head coach.
The first Student Council consisted of all female officers: Judy Harland was the president; Peggy Greene was the vice president; Vickie Caraway served as secretary; and Jo Ann Pope as treasurer.
In 1979 the school celebrated 20 years as east Orange County’s senior high school. Read this Little Sentinel article to learn more about the school’s history and lore.
Photographs of Colonial High School’s early years courtesy of Tim Orwick.
See: Campus Beginnings: Construction and student projects.
See: Colonial High School Football: The Early Years.
See: Colonial High School Parades
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CHS opened in 1958, and student photographer Tim Orwick captured its formative months. Use the PDF link above to enjoy this historic collection.
These photographs of the early years of CHS football are supplied by Tim Orwick, who was a student photographer at CHS during the first years.
CHS's early homecoming and Christmas parades, photographed by Tim Orwick.
I was born in 1958 and lived at the back gate to the school…202 Randia Drive. My parents told the story that they didn’t have electricity at the football stadium early on. The neighbors provided power and were rewarded with free entrance to games. My family never had to pay to attend a game. I remember sitting in our front yard cheering as fans arrived and departed the games. As elementary students we came on Saturday mornings to help clean under the stands. Our pay was getting to keep any treasures we found. It was not unusual to find coins and paper money that had fallen through the stands. We might go home with 10 or 20 dollars!
One summer the shop building was open to neighborhood children to make crafts. I made a mosaic from broken tiles that we kept for many years. The gymnasium was also open for kids to play games and stay out of trouble.
During my 4th grade year I had health issues that kept me home from school often. It was always a treat to have the band march past my house on their way to the field. I felt special having my own private parade. Sometimes they would play music but other times the drums clicked their cadence as the practiced marching.
My 1st day of high school was not stressful at all because we had run through the open halls, played on the baseball fields, basketball and tennis courts our entire childhood.
I graduated in 1976 from the best high school in the world!
Marybeth, that you for sharing your AMAZING memories growing up behind Colonial High School. It must have been awesome to be able to see the football stadium and hear the marching band from your front yard! If you have a few great photos you’d like to share, we’d be happy to add them to the post. We hope you will continue to search for happy memories of the good old days, and share your thoughts with us! Orlando Memory Staff
I loved looking at these early yeas at Colonial. I was there from the beginning and graduated 6/4/64!
The first class that went from 7th grade through 12th grade.
Thank you for visiting Orlando Memory and sharing your memories of Colonial High School. There are some Colonial High School yearbooks on Ancestry Library Edition, accessible through many public libraries, including OCLS.info! We hope you find additional posts of interest and continue to share your memories!
Enjoyed the pictures, was there the first year, started in 7th grade. Is there more band pictures to go for a few more years.
Hello Ronnie! Thank you for visiting Orlando Memory and the post on Colonial High School. There are portions of several yearbooks on Orlando Memory, but not band photos. However, if you are able to access Ancestry Library Edition through the library’s database, you’ll find MANY Colonial High School yearbooks available for perusing, beginning with 1961. We hope you find more posts and share your memories of Orlando.