Milner-Rosenwald Academy

Last updated
Mount Dora FL Milner Academy01.jpg
Historical marker by the school Mount Dora FL Milner Academy plaque01.jpg
Historical marker by the school
Side view Mount Dora FL Milner Academy02.jpg
Side view

The Milner-Rosenwald Academy building is a former Rosenwald School, located at 1560 Highland Street, Mount Dora, Florida. It was opened in 1926, based on a design by architect Frank L. Bodine, and served students up to 8th grade. The school closed in 1962. [1]

Contents

The school was constructed on the site of an older one-room school for African Americans, which burnt down in 1922. [2] The construction of the new school, which commenced in 1925, was funded by the Rosenwald Foundation, local caucasian resident, Reverend Duncan C. Milner, a civil war veteran, who fought at the Battle of Chickamauga [3] [4] and public school funds. The school catered for African Americans from kindergarten to 8th grade and was operated by the Mount Dora school board. [5]

In 1955 a new Milner-Rosenwald school building was built nearby, at 1250 Grant Avenue, [6] which catered for the lower grades, whilst the original school building catered for the upper grades (up to 8th grade). In 1962 the new school was expanded and all students were moved to the single campus. In 1972, following the end of racial segregation in the Florida education system, the new school was renamed Mount Dora Middle School. The original school building was used to house the community's first kindergarten, followed by a branch library, local youth center and is currently used by the Head Start program. [4]

In 2004, the state awarded it a Florida Historic Marker. [7] [8] In 2009 the building failed to get recognized on the National Register of Historic Places due to early structural alterations to the original large windows. [9]

See also

Further reading

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake County, Florida</span> County in Florida, United States

Lake County is a county in the central portion of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 383,956. Its county seat is Tavares, and its largest city is Clermont. Lake County is included in the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Dora, Florida</span> City in Florida, United States of America

Mount Dora is a city in Lake County, Florida, US. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 12,370, and in 2019 the population was estimated to be 14,516. It is part of the Orlando-Kissimmee, Florida, Metropolitan Statistical Area. Founded in 1880, Mount Dora is known for its small-town southern charm. It has many antique shops in the downtown area. The downtown area overlooks Lake Dora. Mount Dora is home to one of three freshwater lighthouses in Florida. It hosts many monthly festivals and is known as the "Festival City".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosenwald School</span> Schools in the United States

The Rosenwald School project built more than 5,000 schools, shops, and teacher homes in the United States primarily for the education of African-American children in the South during the early 20th century. The project was the product of the partnership of Julius Rosenwald, a Jewish-American clothier who became part-owner and president of Sears, Roebuck and Company and the African-American leader, educator, and philanthropist Booker T. Washington, who was president of the Tuskegee Institute.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jefferson County Middle / High School</span> United States historic place

Jefferson County Middle / High School (JCMHS) is a public school in unincorporated Jefferson County, Florida, with a Monticello postal address. A part of Jefferson County Schools, it serves grades 6 - 12. The school's mascot is a tiger and the school colors are orange and blue. It is at 50 David Road, 4 miles (6.4 km) south of the center of Monticello. The school was formerly housed in the historic Jefferson Academy building, opened in 1852 in the first brick school building in Florida. Minority enrollment at Jefferson County Middle / High School is about 340 and 84 percent minority.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oak Grove School (Prairieville, Alabama)</span> United States historic place

The Oak Grove School is a historic Rosenwald School building in rural Hale County, Alabama, United States. It was built to the designs of Samuel Smith in 1925 to serve the local African American community. The money to build the school was provided by the Julius Rosenwald Fund. The school was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 3, 1998, as a part of The Rosenwald School Building Fund and Associated Buildings Multiple Property Submission.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Witherspoon Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, No. 111</span> United States historic place

Witherspoon Lodge No. 111 Free and Accepted Masons (F&AM) is a historic building located is at 1410 North Clayton Street in Mount Dora, Florida. The building was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tankersley Rosenwald School</span> United States historic place

The Tankersley Rosenwald School, also known as the Tankersley Elementary School, is a historic American Craftsman-style school building in Hope Hull, Alabama, a suburb of Montgomery. This Rosenwald School building was built in 1922 to serve the local African American community. The money to build the school was provided, in part, by the Julius Rosenwald Fund. It was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage on June 26, 2003, and to the National Register of Historic Places as a part of The Rosenwald School Building Fund and Associated Buildings Multiple Property Submission on January 22, 2009.

Suwannee River Junior College, located in Madison, Florida, opened in 1959. It was one of eleven black junior colleges founded in the late 1950s at the initiative of the Florida Legislature. Since racial integration in schools was prohibited in the Florida Constitution of 1885 then in effect, the Legislature wished to avoid the integration mandated in the unanimous Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision of 1954 by demonstrating that a "separate but equal" higher education system existed in Florida for African Americans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lincoln High School (Gainesville, Florida)</span> Historic school in Gainesville, Florida, United States

Lincoln High School was a public high school for African American students in Gainesville, Florida during the segregation era. It replaced the Union Academy, founded with support from the Freedmen's Bureau in 1867. Lincoln High School was built in 1923 at Northwest 7th Avenue. When it was first constructed it only served grades 1–11, but the principal A. Quinn Jones campaigned for it to serve through grade 12 so students could graduate with diplomas and continue on to attend college or universities. In 1926, Jones succeeded in persuading the county board, and Lincoln High School became the second fully accredited African-American High School in the state of Florida. The A. Quinn Jones House is preserved as a museum honoring his legacy.

The Pompano Colored School, also known as the Pompano Beach Colored School, was located at 718 NW Sixth Street, Pompano Beach, Florida. Pompano's first school for colored students, a two-room wooden building on the 400 block of Hammondville Road, was destroyed in the 1926 Miami hurricane. It was replaced in 1928 by a two-story, six-classroom building, with library, assembly hall, and separate office for the principal. The Rosenwald Fund provided matching funds to those raised by the African-American community; Broward County also contributed. Principal was Blanche Ely, who spearheaded efforts for its construction. It was originally for grades one through six, and later expanded to the 11th grade. In 1954, it was renamed Coleman Elementary School, in honor of Reverend James Emanuel Coleman, pastor of Pompano's Mount Calvary Baptist Church.

William Manly King was an architect in the United States. He is known for the buildings he designed in Florida, especially West Palm Beach. Several are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liberty Billings</span> American politician

Liberty Billings was an American officer in the Union Army, a Unitarian minister, and a state senator.

Frederick Douglass School was a school for African American children in Key West's Bahama Village neighborhood. It opened in 1870. William Middleton Artrell, who also served on Key West's city council in 1875 and 1876, headed the school. He was a temperance advocate. He also worked at Stanton Institute in Jacksonville.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cocoa Junior High School</span> United States historic place

Cocoa Junior High School is a historic school building in Cocoa, Florida. Built in 1923-24, it is one of the oldest remaining Rosenwald Schools in Florida. After the school closed in 1954, the building served as a community center and later as an African-American history museum.

T. Scipio Jasper was a state legislator in Florida. He was one of several African American members of the Florida House of Representatives who served in the body for Marion County, Florida and lived in Ocala, Florida during the Reconstruction era.


Plaisance High School was a school in Plaisance, Louisiana. The school served African American students. Plaisance High School was consolidated into North West High School in 1991 and the building serves as Plaisance Elementary School. Opelousas students from fifth to eighth grade take classes in the historical classrooms.

Daivd Montgomery was a sheriff, tax collector, local politician and state legislator in Florida. He ran for Lieutenant Governor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Washington School (Washington, Virginia)</span> United States historic place

Washington Graded School is a historic school located in Rappahannock County, Virginia. It was constructed around 1923 as a two-teacher school. The building is a "Rosenwald School". Rosenwald schools refer to those buildings constructed for the education of African-American students, with financial support and plans provided by the Rosenwald Fund. Julius Rosenwald, a Chicago philanthropist and president of Sears, Roebuck and Company, along with Booker T. Washington, the principal of Tuskegee Institute, worked with Black communities across the south to build more than 5,000 schools for Black children. Built in 79 localities in Virginia, about half shared the Washington School two-teacher design. The Washington School, which closed in 1963, retains the early look and feel of its rural setting, and exhibits historic integrity of design, workmanship, and materials.

New Monrovia was an African American community established near West Palm Beach, Florida in the area now known as Port Salerno.

References

  1. McCarthy, Kevin M. (2019). African American Sites in Florida. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 120. ISBN   9781561649518.
  2. "Early History of a Mount Dora School". Mount Dora Buzz. November 2, 2016. Retrieved December 9, 2019.
  3. Turkel, Stanley (2013). Built to Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels East of the Mississippi. Author House. p. 25. ISBN   9781491810064.
  4. 1 2 "Historic Landmarks in the Northeast CRA District | Mount Dora, FL - Official Website". ci.mount-dora.fl.us.
  5. Matus, Ron (July 13, 2016). "Racism, Irony & School Choice". redefinED. Retrieved December 11, 2019.
  6. McCarthy, Kevin M. (July 24, 2019). African American Sites in Florida. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN   9781561649518 via Google Books.
  7. "Milner-Rosenwald Academy-Built in 1926 - Florida Historical Markers on Waymarking.com". www.waymarking.com.
  8. "Milner-Rosenwald Academy". The Historical Marker Database. Retrieved December 11, 2019.
  9. Cole, Christine (November 9, 2009). "Mount Dora gets double recognition of history". Orlando Sentinel . Retrieved December 11, 2019.

Coordinates: 28°48.623′N81°38.186′E / 28.810383°N 81.636433°E / 28.810383; 81.636433