From Plant City: Its Origin and History by Quintilla Geer Bruton and David E. Baily, Jr. copyright 1984 pg 279

In 1950 some temporary relief had been given crowded elementary schools and Tomlin School when sixth and seventh grade students had been transferred to the new Forest Park School, the first unit of a planned new high school plant on Woodrow Wilson Street, west of town.  Hugh Rudder was principal when Forest Park School opened for the 1950-1951 term.

Preparatory to starting construction on the new school, an annexation bill was passed during the 1949 session of the State Legislature to extend Plant City's western limits slightly to bring into the city the seventeen-acre site of the planned new high school near Adelson Field, which was already being used as the school's athletic grounds.  Funds had been earmarked for a long-awaited high school gymnasium and a twelve-classroom unit.  These first units were expected to cost two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, the largest sum ever expended for school construction in Plant City.

When the total plant was completed, senior high classes moved there and Tomlin Junior High students moved into the vacated high school on Collins Street.  The early school buildings on Wheeler Street, again abandoned, were never used again.  They were demolished in 1958, to make way for the new city hall.

Namesake of Plant City Inspires School Mascot

Born of the railroad era, Plant City is one of several central Florida towns which sprang up along the route of the Kissimmee to Tampa section of the South Florida Railroad, when it was being built in the mid 1880’s.  Plant City was named for the railroad builder, Henry Bradley Plant, a northern railroad man. 

The official seal of the city of Plant City, depicts in the lower left quadrant the 1880 wood-burning locomotive and traditional crossing signal symbolic of the H.B. Plant Railroad of 1883, which extended through Plant City from Tampa to Sanford, and significantly contributed to the progress of our city. This 1880 locomotive and passenger car were a common sight in Plant City.

The name, Plant City, proved to be most appropriate, as the town early developed into an important agricultural center. 

Our PCHS mascot “Planters” represents the namesake of our City, Henry B. Plant (pictured below).