Pine Hills is an area on the west side of Orlando that has grown and changed a lot over the years.
It was once seen as a model of suburban success. The community’s past is as varied and rich as its people.
Pine Hills is a place where both proud and sad memories live together. It used to be a place where middle-class families went on vacation, but now it is mostly made up of people of color.
Pine Hills was a sign of wealth in the 1950s.
The area was built by British immigrant Gordon Barnett and quickly became one of Orlando’s first suburbs, drawing workers and families looking for a better life.
There were lots of fun things to do in the area, like a country club, a golf course, and a Hilton hotel where Walt Disney himself lived. People from around town and from out of town liked the restaurant in the area; it was thought to be one of the best in town.
Stewart Dunaway’s family moved to Pine Hills in the 1950s, and he has happy memories of this time. When his parents bought their house, the neighborhood was a busy, middle-class neighborhood.
Dunaway even wrote a book called History of Pine Hills, Orange County, Florida.
“Life was easier back then.” Duhamel said, “We were the baby boomers.”
Drive-in shows and trips to the store were big parts of the childhood.
But as the years went by, Pine Hills started to feel the effects of national trends, such as the desegregation of public schools and changes in the types of people who lived there by race.
Like many others, Dunaway’s family left the area. Pine Hills began a new period in its past, one marked by racial tensions and a decline in the economy.
JC Walker has lived in Pine Hills for a long time and remembers very clearly the race tensions in the area when he was younger.
He moved to Pine Hills in 1990 and raised his kids in the yard where he now takes care of a small farm.
While he was in high school, Walker was one of the first black students to be allowed to attend Evans High School. He lived in Washington Shores at the time.
Walker said, “I am very proud of this place,” as he stood among the rows of peppers he was growing in his yard.
But his relationship with the neighborhood is more complicated than that.
Pine Hills is both a chance and a division for Walker. He talks about a time when race lines were very clear.
“There was a gap between races.” You were not allowed to be in some places. Walker talked about the problems many African American people in the area had in the 1970s. “If you crossed those lines, you had to deal with the consequences,” he said.
In the 1980s and 1990s, a lot of white middle-class families left the neighborhood. Walker’s story is part of a bigger trend that is often called “white flight.”
The real estate market changed when African American families moved in. The value of homes dropped, and companies shut down.
Walker is still positive, even though things are hard. He thinks about the similarities between gardening and the town he lives in while taking care of his garden.
He said, “Gardens and communities are a lot alike.” “Both of them are projects.” You never really end. This is a project. We are still not sure what to do.
Walker thinks that Pine Hills can still heal and grow, even though there are problems.
The neighborhood’s growth, which has been marked by both successes and failures, is still going on.
“We need to accept that things are not the same as they used to be.” „We need to figure out how to live together on Earth,” said Walker. “How do we do it?” I believe we can.