Remembering Pine Hills

Enjoying the day with my mom in the early 1960’s as we walked several miles to the Pine Hills Shopping Center, and a few more miles to McDonalds.

As told by L. O’Connor, age 55, Orlando

Before my teen years, in the early 1960’s, my mom and I would walk from our home in Orlo Vista to the Pine Hills Shopping Center at Colonial Drive and Pine Hills Road.  Colonial Drive was a two-lane road with orange groves here and there.  Aside from downtown Orlando, this was the main shopping center in the area.  I remember there being a Lerner’s (women’s clothing), Belk’s Department Store, a movie theatre, and my first dentist.  We bought all my school clothes there through junior high.

When we were done shopping, we would walk east a few miles to the McDonalds near what is now  John Young Parkway.  You couldn’t get a burger your way back then, and because I didn’t like the regular toppings, especially pickles and onions, I had to wait at least 30 minutes for them to prepare a plain burger. It felt more like an hour with the anticipation!

WATCH montage of images of Pine Hills locations through the years. Images include Robinswood Park Pool, Magic Market, G.C. Murphy, Royal Palm, Parkwood Plaza, Publix, Maryland Fried Chicken, Woolthworths, Liggett Drugs, Pine Hills Shopping Center, Tom McCann’s, Walgreens, Denim World, Zales Jewelers, Tom’s Pizza, Skate World, Rimar Drive In Theater, Burger Chef, Fairway Market, T G and Y, Super X, Fotomat, Hoffman’s Auto Parts, Gulf Station, Mobile Station, Gabriel’s Sub Shops, Silver Star Pharmacy, Dairy Queen, Taco Tico, Orange Count Fire Department, Eckerd Drugs, Pizza Hut, Flipside Records at the West Gate Mall, Kmart, Hiawassa Bible Chapel, Winn Dixie, Zayre, Cumberland Farm, Rax, Sambo’s, Royal Castle, Mr. Donut, Mr. Quick Restaurant, Arthur Treacher’s Fish and Chips, The Pop Shoppe, S&H Green Stamp Redemption Center, Steak and Shake, Western Way Shopping Center, Frisch’s Big Boy, Food World, Montgomery Ward, Parkwood Plaza Cinema.

READ This article in the Orlando Sentinel published August 25, 1997 about the closing of the Belk Lindsey store in Pine Hills.

READ more about the history of the Pine Hills area.

SEARCH OrlandoMemory.info for more memories of Pine Hills.

Comments from the original Orlando Memory web site