A little-known landmark of African-American history will soon receive its due if efforts to gather artifacts from the building’s past are successful.
The Emergency Services and Homeless Coalition of St. Johns County is planning to open a museum in the former New Augustine Colored Elementary School No. 36, located at 405 N. McLaughlin St. It would offer visitors a look at the education of local African-American children during the first half of the 20th century.
“It’s a piece of history that people are not aware of, outside of the people who live in West Augustine,” said Debi Redding, executive director for the coalition.
If the school is unfamiliar to many, the same cannot be said about some of those who were once affiliated with it. Richard J. Murray and James Webster were principals there; today, two local schools bear their names. According to Redding, onetime Chicago Bears running back Willie Galimore was a student there, as was Kat Twine, a key participant in the local civil rights movement who is sometimes called St. Augustine’s Rosa Parks.
And John L. Jackson, notable amateur photographer who went on to become the first African-American assistant principal at St. Augustine High School, taught fifth grade students at the school until its closing in 1959.
Son Thomas Jackson, treasurer and past president of the Fort Mose Historical Society, recalls doing his homework in one of the unused classrooms while waiting for his father to finish up work for the day. The younger Jackson wasn’t a student there — he attended St. Benedict the Moor School — but he would often get a ride with others or take a taxi to the McLaughlin Street school after his classes were dismissed for the day.
He also remembers attending May Day ceremonies and movie showings there.
He said his father didn’t talk much about the school but did emphasize the importance of a good education. Providing that education, teachers had to compensate for equipment and books that Thomas Jackson said were “not really up to par.”
Still, he said the quality of instruction was comparable to anywhere in the country.
“The dedication of the teachers to make sure that each one of the students got what they were supposed to get was second to none,” he said.
St. Augustine resident Rosa Lee Lyon attended the school from grade one to six, beginning in 1949.
“All the teachers were very nice, and they made sure you understood your work,” she said.
Though his father took thousands of photographs over the years, Jackson has not been able to find many depicting the school. Still, he said he will provide some pictures to the new museum, including one showing Murray in front of the school. An older photo shows the senior Jackson in his pre-teaching days when he was a student at the school standing with his classmates.
The Homeless Coalition bought the 6,686-square-foot building in April 2018 for $40,000 from Realtor Alene O’Connor. It spent $16,000 for a new septic system and rewired three rooms that had been damaged in a fire that started with a kerosene heater on New Year’s Day 2018. Stair treads have been replaced, and volunteers with Three Grains of Rice Missions built a wheelchair ramp.
But more work needs done. Redding said some exterior wood needs replaced, a driveway needs to be put in, bathrooms require updating and both the interior and exterior need painted. Because central air conditioning would be cost-prohibitive, the coalition is considering window units. And further rewiring will be needed.
Redding estimated the cost of the renovations at “a couple of hundred thousand dollars.” The coalition has received a $20,000 donation and is seeking further cash contributions from the community.
The museum will occupy a portion of the building. The rest will be devoted to supportive services. Redding said the coalition would like to start a food pantry and perhaps house some homeless people at the site. Currently, the coalition offers services for the homeless and those at risk for homelessness at its Chapin Street address.
Lyon said she remembers that she walked to school each day and brought her own lunch because there was no food service there. Coats and scarves were hung on little hooks rather than in lockers.
Lyon is looking forward to seeing the museum after it opens.
“Of course I would like to see all the stuff,” she said. “A lot of things would bring back some memories.”
The school has had various names over the years, according to historian David Nolan. Sometimes, it includes the number 36, other times 6, though to what this refers is unclear. The “New Augustine” designation refers to a time when that was a separate city. In 1922, St. Augustine annexed that area and it became known as West Augustine.
Despite these inconsistencies, one thing is certain.
“It’s one of the oldest surviving public school buildings in St. Augustine,” Nolan said.
Its only possible contemporary is the former Orange Street school, where the school board is currently located.
A marker erected in front of the North McLaughlin Street building by the Civil Rights/Memorial Projects Committee in 2006 indicates that the school opened in 1901, though Nolan said its first recorded appearance was in the 1911-12 city directory.
The school closed in 1959 and the staff and students transitioned to the newly opened Webster School.
The creation of a museum dedicated to what was once St. Augustine’s only elementary school for African-American students would bring greater recognition of that population’s role in the city’s history. To date, much of the Nation’s Oldest City’s story has been limited to the white experience.
“It shows that we value all of the parts of our past,” Nolan said.
“I always say that when something was going on downtown, something was going on uptown and over town and out west,” Jackson added. “So, if you’re going to tell the story, tell the whole story.”
The coalition is requesting the community’s help in locating anything that it can include in museum exhibits. These would include historic documents, artifacts, pictures, report cards, classroom photos, furnishings from the school or other materials pertaining to the period the school was open. These items may be dropped off at either 405 N. McLaughlin St. or 62 Chapin St.
Cash donations may be mailed to the Homeless Coalition at 62 Chapin St., St. Augustine, FL 32084 or P.O. Box 3422, St. Augustine, FL 32085-3422.