SIDE ONE: In 1898, the City of Miami built its first schoolhouse at 301 NE First Avenue. Located east of the railroad, it was in the part of the city designated for white residents only. At the time of the city’s incorporation in 1896 there were only two Dade County schools: one in Lemon City to the north and one in Coconut Grove to the south. Its four rooms housed all grades through the first year of high school. In 1905, a one-story vernacular wood bungalow-style addition was constructed for $1650 to house the first class of Miami High School and its four students. Before this time, most students left school by age fifteen to work on farm fields or in family businesses. The 20’ x 25’ two-room schoolhouse included one room for recitations and one for high school. It had nine symmetrical bays across the front, with double hung wood windows in each bay and two doors located in the second and eighth bays. The local materials and craftsmanship included a wood shingle roof, weatherboard siding, corner boards, window and door surrounds, and exposed rafter tails. This structure has wood flooring that rests on concrete piers and a shed roof supported by ten evenly spaced, square, wood posts. SIDE TWO: By 1911, Miami’s growing student population north of the Miami River required a new, larger building. The wooden schoolhouse was moved to 79 SW 12th Street and became the first city school south of the river. On October 9, 1911, the two-room building was re-designated as a Southside Elementary School for white students. It was used temporarily until a larger masonry school could be built nearby on SW 13th Street. By 1914, it was again determined to be obsolete, sold to a private owner, and then used as a boarding house until the 1990s. The building was rediscovered in 1983 by local historian Thelma Peters. A coalition of concerned preservation advocates assembled to restore the school. In 2001, they saved it from demolition for a high-rise development, and in 2002 the City of Miami purchased the school. It was moved a third time to 140 SW 11th Street, within Southside Park. The existing building retains original design elements that represent South Florida’s architecture of the early 1900s, with its hipped roof, wide overhanging eaves, and deep-set front porch.
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.