Callahan Neighborhood Center, alumni mark 100th anniversary
When Philp Gordon first started coming to the Callahan Neighborhood Center at 8 years old, he wasn’t aware of the long history of the place, which opened in 1922 as the home of Jones High School and, decades later, Callahan Elementary.
To him, like generations of kids before and since, it was a place of learning and a refuge from street mischief, one he later returned to as a junior counselor working with local youth. On Saturday, Orlando city officials and dozens of alumni stretching back decades honored that legacy after 100 years of the building sitting at 101 N. Parramore Avenue.
“I had counselors who cared about me, who took time with me, who pushed me to be the best I can be,” said Gordon, now a physical education teacher at Pine Hills Elementary who still spends time at the center. “I wanted to push the kids like I was pushed, I wanted to be that person that talked to them when they needed to be talked to.”
As part of the festivities, Commissioner Regina Hill, whose district covers the neighborhood, read a proclamation declaring Sept. 27 “100 Years of Learning in Callahan Day.” A commemorative sign briefly detailing the history of the building — named after J.B. Callahan, the first Black physician to open a medical practice in the city — was also unveiled.
But at one point it was feared the building would close in the post-Jim Crow era. Jones High was moved in 1952 to its current location on Rio Grande Avenue, replaced by Callahan Elementary, one of Orlando’s few all-Black schools at the time.
As Orange County Public Schools drew up plans to integrate in 1970, it was announced Callahan Elementary would be the only Black school to close, and the building remained vacant while officials debated over what to do with it.
To Josephine Anderson, who attended the elementary school as a girl and graduated Jones High the year it was slated to close, her time there set the stage for the rest of her life.
“They were the village that raised me,” said Anderson, a third-generation Callahan resident who is now program coordinator at Rolling Hills Elementary School. “The teachers, my mom — they were strict, caring and had high expectations for all their students.”
David Brewer, a retired vice admiral of the U.S. Navy, was also a Callahan alumnus after moving
to Florida from Virginia with his family at a young age. He recalled how he would fly “all kinds of kites” in the neighborhood while he attended school.
The education, he said as he rattled off the names of his teachers, was his “foundation,” he said.
“This is where it all started,” Brewer said. “I am proud to say I am a Callahan kid.”
In May 1986, it became the Callahan Neighborhood Center, a celebration dubbed by the Orlando Sentinel at the time as “the end of just one fight in the struggle to direct growth in the neighborhood” as residents opposed development efforts west of downtown, including the construction of the old Amway Arena.
The rededication of the building maintained its façade, and today it remains reminiscent of the days where students bustled through its halls, replaced now by youth from all corners of Orlando taking advantage of its community activities and after-school programs.
Among those who spoke during Saturday’s ceremony was former Florida Rep. Alzo Reddick, also a Jones High grad. In his remarks, he recalled what it was like in the days when Callahan Elementary was housed in the building, and the importance of keeping that history alive in the years to come.
“We don’t have to lie about our history,” Reddick said. “What we must do a better job of is telling the truth about our history.”
After the commemorative sign was unveiled, everyone in the auditorium broke into song, single fingers pointed upward as they recited the Jones High hymn in hope for the future of the community center.
“We’re moved to know what the next 100 years will look like,” Hill said. “And I know it’s going to be great because of the legacies we are leaving behind.”
creyes-rios@orlandosentinel.com