Many of us who look at that old orange duplex building at the end of the driveway onto Amelia wondered impatiently when it would disappear. We are anxious for the old to go so our new soccer/athletic field can begin. But, for one Trinity member, that old building was a reminder of her hope filled youth.
“When I heard the plans for the two-story apartment building on the church property to be razed, I was sad. It was there I received my first sweet sixteen kiss. Robert was a summer visitor who stayed with his Aunt and Uncle in one of the apartments. We spent our summers wandering along the dirt streets, swimming and boating in the lakes. Ah, summer love. My sweet kiss shared in the living room of the upstairs apartment in that old orange building is a memory I treasure. I didn’t marry Robert like I dreamed that warm summer so long ago. But every time I passed by that old orange building, I remembered a sleepy cow town where summers were never more special than that one 50 years ago.”
That old orange building was one of three apartment buildings until the face of Orlando began to change in the late 1970’s. Two of Trinity’s pastors lived in one of the apartment buildings, and the upstairs apartment of this last building was a haven for LSF refugees as well as an abode for some of our school’s teachers. The face of the neighborhood changed today when the last of the original properties on that Amelia block was knocked to the ground.
With this step complete, work on the athletics field will be started as we continue to move forward at a steady pace. In the new building, the roof is being finished, windows are going in as is interior drywall, which is 3 weeks ahead of schedule. We look forward to a Certificate of Occupancy for the new building’s first floor in early June, moving the current students and teachers into the building June 15 and welcoming new students two weeks later. The site work on the west side of the property, including removal of the 5 portable classrooms, will take place from June 14-Aug. 23, during which time the gym renovation (new roof, new floor, painting and A/C work) will also take place. We look forward to a formal dedication in late August. To God the Glory!
