The Town of Orange Park will unveil a Historical Marker dedicated to the Orange Park Normal & Industrial School in February.
The school, one of the first desegregated schools in Florida, was built on the site of the current town hall and police station.
Local historians are hoping a new historical marker will bring awareness to a part of their history they feel has been lost.
“Nobody knows the story of the Normal School,” Orange Park Junior High history teacher Cindy Cheatwood said. “We can't say it was the first school, but we can say it was one of the first.”
Before the turn of the century … Brown vs. the Board of Education and desegregation, a school existed in Orange Park that was already making history.
The school, founded by American Missionary Association of New York, opened in 1891 and focused on training black teachers.
According to a 1997 Florida Times-Union story, “A generous endowment from the philanthropist Joseph P. Hand allowed the purchase of 10 acres of land sprinkled with oak and orange trees in the very center of town at the southwest corner of Kingsley and present-day U.S. 17.
The imposing complex included a pair of two-story, frame buildings and several smaller structures to provide two dormitories, an industrial arts building, academic classrooms and faculty housing. The Hand School, as it was informally called, offered an education equal, or in some cases superior, to Florida's other normal schools. Included in the curriculum were classes in carpentry, cabinetmaking, agriculture, horticulture, masonry, mechanical industries, teaching, stenography, typing and printing.”
“People who have not heard this story cannot fathom how much this school had to offer these kids,” Cheatwood said. “It was so fantastic the white kids would not stay away and that's where the problems came in for the school.”
Among the problems the school faced included state laws that were passed to make it illegal for whites to teach blacks and vice versa, according to the group behind the historic markers. Also illegal were having any integrated classrooms at the time.
Because of the legislation, arrest warrants were issued for the principal, 5 teachers and others associated with the Normal School. The school closed its doors around 1911 when the school's chapel burned down … a piece of history people knew but didn't recognize, according to historians.
It's a piece of history people knew but even fewer recognized.
“I was stunned to find out it was sitting on our town hall property,” Town of Orange Park councilwoman Connie Thomas said.
Thomas believes the “Normal School” deserves its proper place in history. The town of Orange Park will officially unveil the historic marker next month. She hopes the marker will bring awareness to the school's history and allow the town to connect with descendants of the school's ancestors.
“If there is anyone with a former connection to the school, we would love to hear from them.”
As for Cheatwood, she says the school's impact on history goes deeper than just Clay County.
“I think as far as Florida history, it should be right up there,” Cheatwood said.
To learn more about the school, click here.
