FLORIDA INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL FOR GIRLS

The Florida Industrial School for Girls (FISG) was the state’s first reform school for white girls aged 9-18. The legislature authorized the school, and it opened in a temporary facility in Ocala in 1915. Two years later, FISG moved to its permanent location on a 122-acre campus several miles east of downtown Ocala. The site had been a part of a prison farm called Marion Farm. Beginning with 40 girls, the population of the school ranged between 100 and 200 students. East Hall, constructed by the Public Works Administration in 1936, was designed for confinement. In 1942, the Forest Hill School for Negro Girls opened fourteen miles north, in Lowell. Alyce P. McPherson served as superintendent of both schools from 1943 to 1970. The state renamed FISG the McPherson School for Girls upon her retirement. FISG integrated in 1966. Throughout its almost 70 years of existence, FISG changed to reflect evolving attitudes about reform. It became coeducational before closing in 1984. Marion County bought the property in 1986 for use as the McPherson Government Complex. The State required the county to renovate East Hall into a museum. The building was added to the National Register of Historical Places in 1995.