MELBOURNE'S LITTLE RED SCHOOLHOUSE
At the break of day on one of those perfect days in 1883, Mr. John Goode, living a short distance south of Fountain Heights, South Melbourne, put plans into motion for our first public school by donating the land. Not long after this donation, a one-room school house was erected about 300 yards south of Fountain Heights.
The school house served children of the earliest families living in the Melbourne area. The two teachers were Miss Maude Goode, daughter of John Goode, and Miss May Valentine. The school term was only about five or six months during summer time of the year, but during that time white children attended in the morning and black children in the afternoon. The morning students were Annie Goode, Edith Valentine, Isabella Clohecy, Grace Goode, Fred Valentine, Alexander Goode, Helen Valentine, John Clohecy and Jessie Goode. The afternoon students were Willie Brothers, Susie Allen, Lizzie Trot, George Washington Blaine, Baalam Allan and Lafayette.
A hand-operated water pump stood outside the door and inside long benches served as desks for the students, who wrote on slates. No screens kept the pesky mosquitos and other Florida wildlife from joining the students.
In 1896 Mr. W. T. Wells built the first high school on the west side of U.S. 1, after having used the upstairs of RW. Goode's building on New Haven Avenue and Front Street. Then, about 1916, a new school building was erected in what is now downtown Melbourne. So the little red schoolhouse was not used anymore, and it sat empty near the river at Fountain Heights. In the early 1940s, the city of Melbourne moved it to the grounds of the Melbourne Elementary and High Schools on New Haven Avenue. It was painted red, a picket fence was built around it and, after a while, it was forgotten by all. Thanks to the efforts of the Abigail Wright Chamberlin Chapter of the DAR, the Melbourne Rotary club and the South Brevard Historical Society, the school was restored and placed on the campus of Florida Institute of Technology, where it stands today.
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The little red schoolhouse now resides in the beautiful botanical gardens of the Florida Institute of Technology campus in Melbourne Florida. |
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Riverview Village Victorian Stroll - 9 October 2010 |
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Diane Barile as Elizabeth Eaton |
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Dancing in the street. |
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Dixie Highway Band |
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Society Display at Lagoon House |
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Cattle picture from our collection. Our Jan and Feb 2009 meetings focused on early florida cattle and ranching |
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Feb 2009 meeting with Nancy Platt on growing up on a Florida ranch |
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Karen Raley's presentation on postcards Oct, 2008 |
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Some of the postcards Karen displayed and described |
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A presentation at the Fall for the Arts event Sept, 2008 |
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October 2008 yard sale was very successful |
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April 2008 excursion to the A. T. Anderson property "the South Indian Field" |
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Bob Gross shows how they probed for artifacts |
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April 2008 field trip. Following the crowd. |
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Meeting with members of the Genealogical Society of South Brevard in June 2008 |
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Dec 2008 meeting with the Down Stagers with their "Tales of Old Mosquito County" |
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