UpdateLog - West Pasco Historical Society

Pasco History Update Log

The West Pasco Historical Society maintains numerous articles on Pasco County History, as well as an extensive collection of digital photo albums, historic newspapers and school yearbooks. As an aid to history researchers, this page provides a log of new articles and photos, and notifications of any extensive changes to existing articles.

Dec 11, 2024 – Biography added for Fred Sass (1871 – 1945).
Dec 7, 2024 – Calendar year 1970 of the New Port Richey Press photographed and uploaded to Newspapers.com. The WPHS does not have these newspapers, but digital copies were made from a bound volume borrowed from the New Port Richey Public Library.
Nov 26, 2024 – Calendar year 1968 of the New Port Richey Press photographed and uploaded to Newspapers.com. The WPHS does not have these newspapers, but digital copies were made from a bound volume borrowed from the New Port Richey Public Library. The issue for August 8th is missing.
Nov 19, 2024 – Calendar year 1967 of the New Port Richey Press photographed and uploaded to Newspapers.com. The WPHS does not have these newspapers, but thanks to the New Port Richey Public Library our digital archives for 1967 are complete. We have now digitized 24,380 pages of the New Port Richey Press.
Nov 11, 2024 – Ridgewood High School yearbook for 1984 and Ridgewood Junior High School yearbooks for 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982 and 1983 added to WPHS photo archives.
Nov 10, 2024 – Calendar year 1966 of the New Port Richey Press photographed and uploaded to Newspapers.com. The WPHS does not have any of these newspapers, but the New Port Richey Public Library has allowed us to photograph them from their bound volumes. We are missing digital copies of January 20th and March 31st.
Nov 6, 2024 – Calendar year 1969 of the New Port Richey Press photographed and uploaded to Newspapers.com. The WPHS only has copies from January through April. However, our digital archives for 1969 are complete thanks to the New Port Richey Public Library who loaned us copies to photograph.
Nov 4, 2024 – Added photo album for “Gulf High School New Building Dedication 2024“.
Oct 25, 2024 – Added photo album for “New Port Richey Centennial Weekend“.
Note – The WPHS collection of historic newspapers is missing many years beyond 1965. Fortunately, the New Port Richey Public Library does have many of these years, and have allowed us to borrow them to digitize. However, the library’s newspapers are in bound volumes, which makes photographing them difficult – since they do not lay flat and the text may be unreadable near the bound side on some pages.
Oct 23, 2024 – Calendar year 1965 of the New Port Richey Press photographed and uploaded to Newspapers.com. We have all issues.
Oct 17, 2024 – Page added about “New Port Richey’s First Golf Course” … based on an article published in the Suncoast News on Sep 4, 2024.
Oct 16, 2024 – Page added about “The First Chasco Fiesta” … based on an article published in the Suncoast News on 16 Mar 2024.
Oct 10, 2024 – Added photo album for “Hurricane Milton 2024“.
Sep 27, 2024 – Added photo album for “Hurricane Helene 2024“.
Sep 25, 2024 – Calendar year 1964 of the New Port Richey Press photographed and uploaded to Newspapers.com. We are missing the March 26th and July 30th issues. So far, 20,248 pages of the New Port Richey Press have been digitized.
Aug 25, 2024 – Calendar year 1963 of the New Port Richey Press photographed and uploaded to Newspapers.com. We are missing the April 11th issue.
Aug 15, 2024 – Biography added for Elroy McKendree Avery (1844 – 1935).
Jul 21, 2024 – A new article on the history of the Morey-Bowman Building was added.
Jul 7, 2024 – Calendar year 1962 of the New Port Richey Press photographed and uploaded to Newspapers.com. We have all issues.
Jun 25, 2024 – Calendar year 1961 of the New Port Richey Press photographed and uploaded to Newspapers.com. We have all issues. So far, 16,168 pages of the New Port Richey Press have been digitized.
Jun 17, 2024 – Calendar year 1960 of the New Port Richey Press photographed and uploaded to Newspapers.com. We have all issues.
Jun 11, 2024 – Calendar year 1959 of the New Port Richey Press photographed and uploaded to Newspapers.com. We have all issues. (1958 was previously photographed and uploaded on Nov 8, 2023.)
Jun 5, 2024 – Calendar year 1957 of the New Port Richey Press photographed and uploaded to Newspapers.com. We are missing the August 8th issue.
Jun 3, 2024 – Biography added for Jeff Miller (1950 – 2022).
May 31, 2024 – A new article on the history of the First State Bank Building was added.
May 30, 2024 – Calendar year 1956 of the New Port Richey Press photographed and uploaded to Newspapers.com. We are missing the November 8th issue.
May 22, 2024 – Calendar year 1955 of the New Port Richey Press photographed and uploaded to Newspapers.com. We are missing 16 issues … all of May, June, and portions of January, February, and July.
May 19, 2024 – Calendar year 1954 of the New Port Richey Press photographed and uploaded to Newspapers.com. We are missing 15 issues … all of August and September, and portions of July, October and December.
May 18, 2024 – Added a number of USGS Topographical maps of various parts of Pasco County dated from 1943 to 1954 to the Maps album in our Google Photos.
May 17, 2024 – Added 1914 soil map of Hernando County to the Maps album in our Google Photos. This map shows details of Centralia and other now-defunct towns in Hernando County.
May 15, 2024 – Calendar year 1953 of the New Port Richey Press photographed and uploaded to Newspapers.com. We are missing all June issues and the November 26th issue.
May 8, 2024 – Calendar year 1952 of the New Port Richey Press photographed and uploaded to Newspapers.com. We have all issues.
May 6, 2024 – A new article on the history of the Burnette Arcade Building was added.
May 3, 2024 – Calendar year 1951 of the New Port Richey Press photographed and uploaded to Newspapers.com. We have all issues.
Apr 29, 2024 – Calendar year 1950 of the New Port Richey Press photographed and uploaded to Newspapers.com. We have all 1950 issues. 12,211 pages of the New Port Richey Press have now been digitized.
Apr 25, 2024 – A new and expanded article on the history of the Havens / Swafford / Chasco Inn building was added.
Apr 23, 2024 – Calendar year 1949 of the New Port Richey Press photographed and uploaded to Newspapers.com. We have all issues except for Feb 11th.
Apr 19, 2024 – Calendar year 1948 of the New Port Richey Press photographed and uploaded to Newspapers.com. We have all issues.
Apr 15, 2024 – Calendar year 1947 of the New Port Richey Press photographed and uploaded to Newspapers.com. We have all but two issues of the newspaper in digital form, but are missing nine issues of the actual newspapers.
Apr 14, 2024 – Page added for Manor Beach.
Apr 6, 2024 – Calendar year 1946 of the New Port Richey Press photographed and uploaded to Newspapers.com. Only the August issues were originally included in the microfilm copies. We now have all of 1946 except the March 15th issue.
Apr 4, 2024 – A new article on the history of the Pasco building was added.
Apr 2, 2024 – Calendar year 1945 of the New Port Richey Press photographed and uploaded to Newspapers.com. These are better images of all 52 issues that were previously available from our microfilms.
Mar 29, 2024 – The “Government” section of the “Historical Information” page was extensively updated to include more information about the government of Pasco County and the cities in Pasco County. Some information – like the lists of mayors, etc. – that had been included on the pages within the “Communities” section were moved into the “Government” pages.
Mar 26, 2024 – A new article on the history of the Meighan Theatre building was added.
Mar 25, 2024 – 31 issues of calendar year 1944 photographed and uploaded to Newspapers.com. Our newspaper collection is missing 21 of the issues in 1944, but all except one were on the microfilms. All-in-all, our digital archive is complete for this year. 1943 is complete on microfilm and on-line, although the image quality is poor. Unfortunately, our collection of newspapers seems to be missing all of 1943. This is a mystery. We currently have 10,690 pages of the New Port Richey Press digitized.
Mar 22, 2024 – Calendar year 1941 and 1942 of the New Port Richey Press photographed and uploaded to Newspapers.com. All except the first three months of 1941 were already included from our microfilms. Many issues, including almost all from 1942, were overexposed on the microfilm. The new images are much better quality and all are readable.
Mar 20, 2024 – A new and expanded article on the history of the Hacienda Hotel was added under a new classification of “Buildings & Structures” in the Pasco History – Historical Information section of the website. This is the first in a number of articles that will, in part, support New Port Richey Main Street’s permanent art exhibit that will be installed by the end of the year, and feature bronze sculptures by artist Gillian Harper.
Mar 15, 2024 – Calendar year 1940 of the New Port Richey Press photographed and uploaded to Newspapers.com. This is a complete year that had previously been missing two months in our microfilms. All microfilm images have been replaced with more readable photos. We currently have 10,653 pages of the New Port Richey Press digitized.
Mar 14, 2024 – Biography added for Warren E. Burns (1877-1941).
Mar 6, 2024 – Calendar year 1939 of the New Port Richey Press photographed and uploaded to Newspapers.com. This is a complete year that had previously been uploaded from our microfilms. But many (perhaps most) of the images from the microfilm were almost unreadable.
Mar 4, 2024 – Added 1927 map of New Port Richey, 1930 map of Pasco County, and (6) 1940 census precinct maps of Pasco County – all to the “Maps” album in the WPHS photo archives.
Mar 3, 2024 – Biography added for Marjorie “Midge” London-Prace (1934-2024).
Mar 2, 2024 – Calendar years 1937 and 1938 of the New Port Richey Press photographed and uploaded to Newspapers.com. Of these, 4 issues from 1937 and 31 issues from 1938 were not previously digitized or on our microfilms.
Feb 27, 2024 – Gulf High School yearbooks for 2018, 2020 and 2023 added to WPHS photo archives.
Feb 26, 2024 – Gulf High School 2021 yearbook added to WPHS photo archives. Our only copy of the New Port Richey Post newspaper (January 1916), and nine issues of the Elfers West Pasco Record newspaper (March-April, 1922) were scanned and uploaded to Newspapers.com. WPHS members may view these newspapers in the member area of our website. We currently have 10,329 pages of the New Port Richey Press digitized.
Feb 22, 2024 – Calendar years 1930, 1931, 1934, 1935 and 1936 of the New Port Richey Press photographed and uploaded to Newspapers.com. Many of these issues had not previously been available online. Note that we have no copies of any issues in 1932 and 1933.
Feb 5, 2024 – Calendar year 1929 of the New Port Richey Press photographed and uploaded to Newspapers.com. This year was completely missing from our microfilms except for three issues, and had not previously been published on-line.
Feb 2, 2024 – Created PDF documents for meeting minutes of 2021, 2022 and ones that were previously missing of 2023. These are available for viewing by our members on the website.
Jan 29, 2024 – Calendar year 1928 of the New Port Richey Press photographed and uploaded to Newspapers.com. This year was completely missing from our microfilms and had not previously been published on-line.
Jan 22, 2024 – Ridgewood High School yearbooks for 2011, 2012 added to WPHS photo archives.
Jan 20, 2024 – Ridgewood High School yearbooks for 2004, 2007 added to WPHS photo archives.
Jan 19, 2024 – Ridgewood High School 2003 yearbook added to WPHS photo archives.
Jan 18, 2024 – Ridgewood High School yearbooks for 2013, 2017 added to WPHS photo archives.
Jan 18, 2024 – Calendar years 1926 and 1927 of the New Port Richey Press have been photographed and uploaded to Newspapers.com. These are better quality images than were originally available from the microfilm copies. New material includes 17 additional issues for 1926 and 22 additional issues for 1927 … plus many previously missing pages were uploaded.
Jan 17, 2024 – Ridgewood High School yearbooks for 1985, 2014 added to WPHS photo archives.
Jan 16, 2024 – Ridgewood High School 2000 yearbook added to WPHS photo archives.
Jan 3, 2024 – Calendar years 1923 and 1924 of the New Port Richey Press have been photographed and uploaded to Newspapers.com. These are better quality images than were originally available from the microfilm copies.
Dec 18, 2023 – Calendar years 1920-1922 of the New Port Richey Press have been photographed and uploaded to Newspapers.com. These are better quality images than were originally available from the microfilm copies.
Dec 14, 2023 – New page added for the New Port Richey Woman’s Civic Club.
Dec 13, 2023 – The page on Pine Hill Cemetery was updated with additional information provided by David and Midge Prace. This includes a copy of the Articles of Incorporation of the Pine Hill Community Cemetery Association and a copy of the deed transferring ownership of the cemetery to the City of New Port Richey in 1926.
Dec 8, 2023 – Calendar year 1919 of the New Port Richey Press has been uploaded to Newspapers.com.
Nov 25, 2023 – Added new photo albums for the Clark Family and the Nicks Family. Finished scanning and creating PDF documents of 135 past WPHS financial statements from 1973 through 2006. Finished scanning and creating PDF documents of 290 past WPHS meeting minutes from 1973 through 2005. Scanned and created PDF documents for 7 additional member newsletters. Newsletters, meeting minutes and financial statements are viewable in the member-only section of this website. Not a member? You can fix that by clicking HERE.
Nov 19, 2023 – Pasco High School 2006 yearbook added to WPHS photo archives.
Nov 17, 2023 – River Ridge High School yearbooks for 2022, 2023 added to WPHS photo archives.
Nov 16, 2023 – River Ridge High School yearbooks for 2020, 2021 added to WPHS photo archives.
Nov 15, 2023 – River Ridge High School yearbooks for 2018, 2019 added to WPHS photo archives.
Nov 14, 2023 – River Ridge High School yearbooks for 2016, 2017 added to WPHS photo archives.
Nov 13, 2023 – River Ridge High School yearbooks for 2014, 2015 added to WPHS photo archives.
Nov 12, 2023 – Biography added for Charles Fox, founder and first publisher of the New Port Richey Press newspaper. River Ridge High School yearbooks for 2012, 2013 added to WPHS photo archives.
Nov 11, 2023 – Added photo and info for the historical marker on the Clemmie Butler home. River Ridge High School yearbooks for 2010, 2011 added to WPHS photo archives.
Nov 10, 2023 – Added biography of Clemmie Butler. River Ridge High School yearbooks for 2008, 2009 added to WPHS photo archives.
Nov 9, 2023 – River Ridge High School yearbooks for 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 added to WPHS photo archives.
Nov 8, 2023 – Completed month-long project of saving digital copies of the New Port Richey Press from microfilms. The microfilms, created for the WPHS by the Mormon Church of St. Petersburg in 1986, were sent to Ancestry.com in July of this year, who digitized them for inclusion on their Newspapers.com website. 984 newspaper issues between 1918 and 1947 (about 8,000 digital page images) were then downloaded from Newspapers.com and saved on our Google Drive. Photographing and digitizing missing and additional copies of the New Port Richey Press will be an ongoing project in the coming months. All digitized copies may be viewed at Newspapers.com if you have a subscription. WPHS members may view them for free in the member area of this website.
Nov 7, 2023 – River Ridge High School yearbooks for 2002, 2003 added to WPHS photo archives.
Nov 6, 2023 – River Ridge High School yearbooks for 2000, 2001 added to WPHS photo archives. Completed photographing and uploading to Newspapers.com calendar year 1958 of the New Port Richey Press. Members of the WPHS may view these for free in the member area of this website.
Nov 5, 2023 – River Ridge High School yearbooks for 1997, 1998, 1999 added to WPHS photo archives.
Nov 4, 2023 – River Ridge High School yearbooks for 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996 added to WPHS photo archives.
Nov 2, 2023 – Ridgewood High School yearbooks for 1991, 1993 added to WPHS photo archives.
Oct 30, 2023 – Short biography of James W. Clark, Jr. (1880-1940) added to Early Residents of Pasco County – ‘C’ page.
Oct 29, 2023 – Ridgewood High School yearbooks for 1989, 1992, 1994, 2001, 2002, 2005 added to WPHS photo archives.
Oct 27, 2023 – Pasco High School 2009 yearbook and Ridgewood High School 2015 yearbook added to WPHS photo archives.
Oct 26, 2023 – Land O’Lakes High School 2008 yearbook added to WPHS photo archives.
Oct 25, 2023 – Ridgewood High School 2006 yearbook added to WPHS photo archives.
Oct 23, 2023 – Ridgewood High School yearbooks for 1987, 1988, 1990 added to WPHS photo archives.
Oct 22, 2023 – Ridgewood High School 1999 yearbook, J.W. Mitchell High School 2006 yearbook and Gulf High School 2019 yearbook added to WPHS photo archives.
Oct 21, 2023 – Gulf High School yearbooks for 2015, 2016, 2017 added to WPHS photo archives.
Oct 20, 2023 – Gulf High School yearbooks for 2013, 2014 added to WPHS photo archives.
Oct 19, 2023 – Gulf High School yearbooks for 2010, 2011, 2012 added to WPHS photo archives.
Oct 18, 2023 – Gulf High School yearbooks for 2008, 2009 added to WPHS photo archives. Album “Sims Family” added to WPHS photo archives containing pictures donated by George Sims’ granddaughter, Gail Demko.
Oct 17, 2023 – Gulf High School yearbooks for 2005, 2006, 2007 added to WPHS photo archives. Created PDF documents of 85 past WPHS meeting minutes from 1990 through 1995, and Curator Committee meetings from 1995-1997. These are viewable in the member area of this website.
Oct 16, 2023 – Gulf High School yearbooks for 2002, 2003, 2004 added to WPHS photo archives.
Oct 15, 2023 – Gulf High School 2001 yearbook added to WPHS photo archives.
Oct 12-15, 2023 – Created PDF documents of 175 past WPHS meeting minutes from 1980 through 1989. These are viewable in the member area of this website.
Oct 11, 2023 – Created PDF documents of 69 WPHS Member Newsletters dating from 1974 to 2015. These are viewable in the member area of this website. Not a member? Join HERE.
Oct 10, 2023 –Gulf High School 2000 yearbook added to WPHS photo archives.
Oct 9, 2023 – Gulf High School yearbooks for 1997, 1998, 1999 added to WPHS photo archives.
Oct 8, 2023 – Gulf High School yearbooks for 1995, 1996 added to WPHS photo archives. The “Pictures of Historical Markers” page was updated. Asterisks denoting markers placed by the Pasco Board of County Commissioners and the Pasco County Historical Preservation Committee – that were lost in the transfer of files from Fivay.org to the WPHS website – were restored. And the individual marker pages were edited to be more consistent and have valid links back to the Historical Markers page.
Oct 6, 2023 – Gulf High School yearbooks for 1993, 1994 added to WPHS photo archives.
Oct 5, 2023 – Gulf High School yearbooks for 1991, 1992 added to WPHS photo archives.
Oct 4, 2023 – River Ridge High School 1992 yearbook added to WPHS photo archives.
Oct 3, 2023 – Hudson High School yearbooks for 1979, 2006 added to WPHS photo archives.
Oct 1, 2023 – Pasco High School yearbooks for 1946, 1949, 1951, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1966, 1967, 1971, 1973 added to WPHS photo archives. (These photos were extracted from existing PDF files for uploading to our Google Photos album archives.)
Sep 29, 2023 – Zephyrhills High School yearbooks for 1946, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951. 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969 added to WPHS photo archives. (These photos were extracted from existing PDF files for uploading to our Google Photos album archives.)
Sep 28, 2023 – Hudson High School 1978 yearbook added to WPHS photo archives.
Sep 26, 2023 – Hudson High School 1976 yearbook added to WPHS photo archives.
Sep 15, 2023 – A photo album titled “Elfers 1914 School Renovation” was added to the WPHS photo archives. The album includes photos taken between the years 2008 and 2013 by Walter Vanpeteghem, longtime custodian for Pasco CARES. They show in detail the renovation of the old brick school building.
Aug 16, 2023 – Copies of the New Port Richey Press from 1919-1947 are published at Newspapers.com and made available to WPHS members on the website.
Aug 3, 2023 – Photo albums from Jeff Miller’s Flickr page were imported to the WPHS photo archives. An index to these photo archives can be found at https://westpascomuseum.org/pascohistory/historical-photos/.
Jun 12, 2023 – Content of Jeff Miller’s Fivay.org website is migrated to WPHS website at https://westpascomuseum.org/pascohistory/historicalinformation/.
Jun 3, 2023 – New website created using WordPress.
Apr 12, 2023 – Paul Herman appointed to be digital media archivist for the WPHS … in charge of digital media and the WPHS website.
Up through Jun 2022 – Jeff Miller (1950-2022), who was digital archivist for the WPHS for many years, created the website https://www.fivay.org. The website contained numerous articles on Pasco County History. Jeff also archived tens of thousands of photos relating to Pasco County on his Flickr page.