In 1950, the School Board of Orange County, Florida unveiled plans to build two new high schools in Orlando. These two schools were built from the same architectural plans and both were opened on the same day, Tuesday, September 2, 1952. The first was named William R. Boone High School and the second was named Edgewater High School. Boone was named for William R. Boone, a long-serving principal of the original Orlando High School (which is now Howard Middle School, on Robinson Street in downtown Orlando, near Lake Eola). The campuses of Boone and Edgewater contained identical buildings, but their arrangement on each campus was different. Edgewater's first principal was Mr. Orville R. Davis, a veteran of Orange County Public Schools, who was once the principal of the original Memorial Junior High School (now Memorial Middle School), also in Orlando.