Explore Your City: 1914 Plant City High School Community Center

“They always had class plays,” Shelby Bender said. “They were connected to each other. The acoustics are really good. You get an overall feel of history.” The movie "My Girl" also was filmed at the school.

The 1914 High School Community Center, built in 1914 for $40,000, was Plant City High School from 1914 - 1955, and later became Tomlin Junior High School. The school was deeded to the City of Plant City in 1975.

When Plant City High School was built in 1914, students of all grade levels were crammed in the Plant City Integrated School. One building was used for junior high and high school students, and the other was used for elementary school students.

“You think about from 1914 to 1973 how many students came through this building and their lives were changed because they learned something,” Bender said. “Not everybody learned the same thing, but they learned something.”

Shelby Bender went to the school when it was Tomlin Junior High, but she wasn’t the only one in her family to do so. Her great-uncle, Chet Bender, also attended the school. Her ties to the school are ones that can be shared in Hillsborough County.

The school grew over the years with the population of Plant City, at times having both junior high school and high school students. To keep the hallways free of chaos, a yellow line went down the middle of the school stairwells and hallways.

Much of the former high school has been transformed into a museum by the East Hillsborough Historical Society, but in an intercom system located off a classroom, former students have left their own memories -- names etched into the system.

The high school’s old library is now full of memorabilia throughout the years. The room holds clothing from the Flapper era, original drugstore cash registers and desks that were once used in the school’s many classrooms.

The 1914 building. Photo courtesy of the Plant City Photo Archives & History Center.