The Central Tampa News & Tribune
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Documentaries Aim Locally
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Published: October 1, 2008
SEMINOLE HEIGHTS - History shares a double bill Saturday as documentaries on Hillsborough High School and Seminole Heights step into the spotlight on homecoming weekend.
It will be a first showing for "Halls of Tradition: Hillsborough High School" and an encore for "Seminole Heights: An Intimate Look at the Early Years."
The Education Channel produced the school documentary; Cigar City Pictures and the Old Seminole Heights Neighborhood Association produced the neighborhood documentary, which premiered in April at Tampa Theatre.
A sell-out crowd filled the theater, and DVDs have sold briskly since then. The documentary recently won the Independent Film Festival's Florida Choice Award.
The high school documentary's premiere will be in the newly restored 900-seat auditorium. A multimillion dollar renovation of the 81-year-old building was completed last year.
Hillsborough High began in 1886 with four students meeting above a livery stable on Franklin Street. Construction on the stately, Gothic building on Central Avenue began in 1927, though its cornerstone reportedly was laid in January 1928.
"Once you saw it you were mesmerized," said Art Maynor, Class of 1946, who is among those interviewed for the documentary.
He attended Edison Grammar School and Memorial Middle School, across from Hillsborough.
"We were waiting to go to the big castle," he said. "It was such a large school compared to what you had been to. I think there is such a fascination with it. Everyone at first thought it was a college."
A series of short videos, "My School Rocks," sparked the high school documentary. A film crew sent to tape for the series was amazed at the beauty and Gothic architecture, said Education Channel marketing director Laura Tierney.
The mother of the crew's cameraman, Judy Dery, happened to be a Hillsborough graduate, Class of 1962.
Over a year, research and interviews were done to produce the half-hour documentary. A recording of the school's alma mater was done by The Brotherhood, a local a capella group.
"We're giving that to the alumni association so they will have it forever," Tierney said.
Tonya Cosgrove, Class of 1984 and a past alumni president, remembers the school having a kind of patchwork decor before its latest restoration.
Though the school still was beautiful, she said, "We had mismatched carpet covering hallways. It was pretty much whatever was available."
The renovation restored wood floors, replaced doors and baseboard, and uncovered the original high ceilings, "which make it all the more roomy," Cosgrove said.
Maynor recalls a first-day tradition already in play when he arrived as a freshman.
"They ratted the boys, not the girls," he said. "They'd put lipstick on you or turn your shirt inside out or make you push a pine cone down the sidewalk with your nose."
As editor of "Terrier Talk", a quarterly alumni newsletter, Maynor keeps more than 2,000 graduates in touch with their past. They are scattered across the country, but annual events, such as the documentary's premiere, draw many back to the campus.
"You had a loyalty to it," Maynor said.
IF YOU GO
WHAT: Premiere of the documentary "Halls of Tradition: Hillsborough High School" and an encore showing of the documentary "Seminole Heights: An Intimate Look at the Early Years."
WHEN: 3 and 7 p.m. Saturday
WHERE: Hillsborough High School auditorium, 5000 N. Central Ave.
COST: $5 at the door or at Sherry's YesterDaze Vintage Clothing & Antiques, 5207 N. Florida Ave.
CONTACT: Call Laura Tierney at (813) 254-2253, ext. 206, or go to www.education channel.org.
Reporter Kathy Steele can be reached at (813) 259-7652 or ksteele@tampatrib.com.
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