Old school building in Florida

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South Side School opened in 1923 as part of an expansion of school facilities intended to serve the growing population of Fort Lauderdale that was driven by the early stirrings of the 1920s Florida Real Estate Boom.

The earliest white settlers of the New River area were a Bahamian couple, Surles and Frankee Lewis, who were farming in the area in the 1790s. Once Florida had been ceded by Spain to the United States, Surles' widow, Frankee, who had left the farm, in 1825, applied for, and was granted, a 640 acre land grant along the river east of the family farmstead. Other early settlers in the area were some Seminole Indians, who had been driven from their lands in north Florida in the First Seminole War and were living and near Snake Creek in southern Broward County.

In 1824, Key West businessman and magistrate William Colee established a plantation on the north bank of the New River opposite the abandoned Lewis farmstead and began processing the native coontie plant into an arrow-root like starch. While Colee was away from home salvaging a wreck on the coast, a band of Seminoles, disgruntled by a supposed decision made by Colee as a magistrate, attacked his farm. Colee's wife, children and the children's tutor were killed by the Indians. Other settlers in the area escaped harm. Among them was Richard Fitzpatrick, a slaveholder from Key West, who had purchased the Frankee Lewis Land Grant or Donation and established a plantation there in 1830. This incident, called the Colee Massacre, was one of the root causes of the Second Seminole War (1835-1842).

During that conflict, Major William Lauderdale and the Tennessee Volunteers were dispatched to the New River to secure the large coontie plant reserve located between the forks of the river; the coontie plant was an important starch source for the Seminoles. Major Lauderdale and his soldiers established the first fort at the forks in 1838. Later in 1839, a temporary camp was set up at a bend of the river in the Lewis Donation and a permanent fort was built on the beach. The forts, named for the first commander, gave a name to the region. The third fort was abandoned at the end of the war in 1842.

The geographical area south of the New River, west of the Atlantic Coastal Ridge and the, Lewis Donation, sometimes called the south side (Fort Lauderdale), was first platted in 1887 as Palm City. The land, approximately 66 acres, was purchased from the Florida Land and Mortgage Company, a corporation owned by a syndicate formed by Englishman Sir Edward James Reed and other American and European businessmen. Sir Edward had established an association with Hamilton Disston of Philadelphia who had acquired 4,000,000 acres from the State of Florida. The syndicate took over one half of Disston's holding. The Palm City Company offered 50 by 100 foot lots for sale at $10.00 each; but, without reliable transportation to the area (train service was not established until 1896) land sales were flat.

Miami pioneers William and Mary Brickell acquired the Frankee Lewis Donation in the 1870s. In 1842, donation owner William Fitzpatrick had been forced to mortgage his property to Harriet English of South Carolina; the Brickells purchased the property from English's son William who had title to the donation. The astute Mrs. Brickell planned to build an upscale housing estate on the hammock land of the donation as soon as it was warranted by settlement in the area.

In 1891, construction was started on a road along the old Seminole Wars military route on the high ground of the Atlantic Coastal Ridge. A stage line went into business and an overnight camp for the travelers and a ferry across the New River were set up at Colee Hammock. In 1893, Frank Stranahan took over the ferry and camp operations; Mary Brickell discovered his presence shortly after his arrival. Mrs. Brickell informed Stranahan that he was trespassing; Stranahan moved the camp and ferry about one half mile west along the river bank. Likewise, the Lantana to Lemon City road was forced to jog west to avoid Brickell property; helpfully, the Brickell's son, William, surveyed and supervised the construction of the new route.

At this time, Standard oilman, Henry Flagler, was using his fortune to build a railway system and luxury resorts on the east coast of Florida. To encourage his efforts, the state of Florida gave Flagler's company 8000 acres of land for every mile of railway completed south of Daytona Beach. Flagler had established cordial relations with Mary Brickell's fellow Miami pioneer Julia Tuttle, when, after the disastrous north Florida freeze of 1894, Mrs. Tuttle sent a blossoming orange branch from Miami to him at St. Augustine. Her purpose was to convince Flagler to bring his railway to Miami; to sweeten the pitch she proposed to give him half of her Miami property. Flagler, who had already extended the railway to Palm Beach, was interested. William Brickell was prevailed upon to offer part of his Miami holdings and the Brickell's Fort Lauderdale land was brought into the discussion.

Like the road builders, Flagler was siting his railway on the high ground of the Atlantic Coastal Ridge. The Brickells declined to sell or give a right-of-way through any part of the donation. The section of land where the Lantana/Lemon City Road had been rerouted was cut through with sloughs. A large swamp was to the immediate northwest so the area was unsuitable for a railway roadbed. In 1890, the Brickells had purchased lands to the west and southwest of the donation, from the Florida Land and Mortgage Company. The land, mostly palmetto and pine woodland, was more suitable for Flagler's purpose. A deal was struck; Flagler agreed to plat a new town and his F.E.C. subsidiary, the Model Land Company, would share land sales in the community with the Brickells. In 1895, A.L. Knowlton, an engineer working for Henry Flagler's F.E.C. Railway, platted the original one and one half square mile of the original town of Fort Lauderdale, which included the south side area and excluded the Frankee Lewis Donation.

In the late nineteenth century, Philemon Nathaniel Bryan was a substantial businessman of New Smyrna, Florida, and the first mayor of the town; he owned a large general mercantile store in New Smyrna. Bryan dealt with contractors for the railroad and shipped grapefruit from his extensive groves by Flagler's F.E.C. He was such a large shipper that he was able to make the acquaintance of Flagler, himself.

Bryan's groves were wiped out by the freeze of 1895; his store had burned just before the freeze. Bryan still had large cattle holdings, but he was at a loss for ready income. Flagler had set up his road-building plan, deciding that the roadbed would be laid down in ten mile increments; he was looking for contractors for each of the sections. He asked Bryan if he had any experience in construction; Bryan said that he had not, but Flagler offered the job anyway. P.N. Bryan agreed to build the section from the New River north to Pompano. In New Smyrna, Bryan hired four hundred African-American workers and with his sons and his workers boarded a boat and sailed down the coast to the New River.

Construction on the section began immediately, but problems soon arose. Although higher than the local wetlands, the pinelands were still low lying; the roadbed needed to be raised. Predictably, when the September rains came, the land flooded and only the new embankment was visible above the water.

While building the section, the Bryans lodged at Mrs. Andrew Jackson Wallace's boarding house, one of the few buildings on the south side of the river. Bryan opened a commissary to serve the needs of his road crew. Once the roadbed was completed he opened the store to the public for a short while and then sold the store to a member of the pioneer Marshall family. The railway was completed in1896 and the first train to Miami, carrying dignitaries and some of Fort Lauderdale's first settlers, arrived in South Florida that year.

The first business of the pioneer community was agriculture, although sportsmen were encouraged to visit in an early form of tourism. A quotation from 1904 brochure described the town: "So named from an old fort of Seminole War times. Seminole Indians come here to do their trading. Numerous vegetable farms and groves of citrus fruits surround the town. Plenty of good hunting and fishing."

Nineteenth century efforts at producing a cash crop in the New River area had been hampered by the lack of transportation to markets. Flagler's railway opened the territory to commercial agriculture. Early in the twentieth century many small farms producing winter vegetable crops were scattered about what was to become Broward County.

Farmers located in the everglades barged their produce downriver to the docks, which had been built, adjacent to the railway, in downtown Fort Lauderdale. The crates of vegetables and fruits were loaded on special trains chartered to take them to markets in the north.' Throughout the winter shipping season the town was a hive of frenetic money making activity.

Another resident of New Smyrna, Edwin Thomas (E.T.) King, along with his brother, Richard Stubbs King, sailed a catboat to the New River in 1895, camping near the Tarpon River. King purchased twenty acres of land, including his camp, from an early settler named Denny O'Neil. He started farming; local people began to call the (Tarpon) river King's Creek.

Mrs. King and the couple's children, arriving on the first F.E.C. train, joined E.T. in 1896. The Kings became one of the first families to reside on the south side. Utilizing his construction skills, King became the town's first building contractor. King was a boat builder as well; he established a boatyard and marine ways on the south bank of the New River, just east of the railway, near Mrs. Wallace's boarding house. This was probably one of the first established businesses on the south side. He also built coffins at the boatyard.

As early as 1895 the little settlement had need for a burying ground. The Brickell land on the south side, just east of the railway was considered a suitable location. The site had been platted by the Brickells as Block 60 of the original Town of Fort Lauderdale. In the absence of a professional undertaker, Ed King in his capacity as the town coffin maker performed the burying duties.

The Kings were settled in their home at King's Creek by 1896. By 1899, the older King children were ready for school. Ed King traveled to Miami and asked the Superintendent of Dade County Schools what the Fort Lauderdale community could do to bring a school teacher to their town. The superintendent told King that if the townspeople could find at least nine children to enroll, provide a room for the teacher and build a school building, Dade County would send a teacher. King agreed to build the schoolhouse and offered room and board for the teacher. The School Board provided eighty dollars worth of lumber and arranged for used school desks to be purchased and shipped from West Palm Beach.'"

King, with help from other town residents, built the schoolhouse on a lot near his boatyard about two blocks north of Block 60, the burying ground and the future site of South Side School. Eighteen year old Ivy Julia Cromartie, a recently qualified teacher from Lemon City, opened school in 1899. Twelve students, including the three eldest King children, attended that first session.

In 1906, Mary Brickell sold Lot 1 of Block 60 to Frank Stranahan. Townspeople began to call the parcel the "Stranahan Cemetery". About a year later, 1907, Ed King's farmhouse at King's Creek burned; King rebuilt on the south bank of the New River. Three years later, in 1910, Fort Lauderdale's population had increased from 52, in 1900, to 143. The settlers began to recognize the need for a proper cemetery. The Kings decided to use part of their farmland at King's Creek as a cemetery. Sue Clifford King platted Evergreen Cemetery, which was filed with the Clerk of the Dade County Court in November 1910. In 1910 or 1911, a brother of Walter H. Combs, a Miami funeral director came up to move the bodies from the south side lot to Evergreen.

In 1910, the community petitioned the Dade County School Board for a new school to meet the growing population. The one-room wood frame schoolhouse was moved off its lot and a two-story, four room concrete block structure was built, by Ed King, in its place. This building, in addition to an elementary school, would, for the first time in Fort Lauderdale, house a high school. The second Fort Lauderdale school opened in 1911; in 1915, the school graduated its first high school class. The south side was growing but most development was on the north side of the river.

1915 was a big year for the community. Broward County was established; Fort Lauderdale, which had been incorporated in 1911, became the county seat and the Seventeenth Circuit Court was established. In September 1915, a new centrally located school, housing both high school and elementary classes, was dedicated at North 6^th Avenue and Broward Boulevard. The second school became the first Broward County Courthouse. Although several townspeople complained that the new Central School was too far "out of town", it became the sole education facility in Fort Lauderdale; the south side was without a school.

The Sanborn Map for 1918 shows that the south side neighborhood had expanded several blocks west of the F.E.C. Railway; this map shows significant development on the south side as far east as East Avenue (6^th Avenue or U.S. 1, the old Lantana/Lemon City route). The city fathers were anticipating big growth for the community. By 1920 developers were dredging the mangrove swamps south of Las Olas Boulevard to build finger isles. Investors from the north looking for opportunities were visiting, registering at the new luxury Hotel Broward on Andrews Avenue. Less well founded visitors were settling in at the city's tourist camp located on Block 60 of the Original Town, located on the west side of Andrews Avenue. Real estate was big business.

In 1920, the widowed Mary Brickell platted the south side (of the river) portion of the Frankee Lewis Donation as Rio Vista; the plat was recorded in October. She sold the development in February of 1921, to C.J. Hector and his partner William Sunkel. This was the first of the big developments planned for the south side. Other subdivisions were being platted or were in the planning. In March of the same year, a four hundred acre tract called "South Lauderdale', located south of the New River on either side of Andrews Avenue, was sold to a New York syndicate; building was expected to begin immediately. A population boom was anticipated.

By 1921 a need for expanded school facilities to meet the growing population was recognized by the townspeople. Frank and his wife Ivy (Cromartie) Stranahan deeded the north portion of Lot 1 of Block 60 to the Special Tax School District #3 as a site for the proposed South Side School. Later the Stranahan's deeded the remaining part of Lot 1 to the Special District. Local businessman J.C. Spangler announced in May 1920 that he had secured a site on the south side for a tourist campground. In July, Mr. Spangler announced that the camp located on a block of ground belonging to the School Board was ready for business. In 1922, the executors of Mary Brickell's estate deeded Lots 2 and 3, Block 60 to the City of Fort Lauderdale.

In April 1922, the city began to pave Andrews Avenue from South 2^nd Street (6^th Street) south to South Street (9^th Street). Work started on the New York real estate investors' 400 acre south side development, called Placidena, early in 1922. The school board let the contract for the new school to Cayot and Hart, General Contractors in January 1922. One of the "tin can tourists" who had made use of the camp facility was John Morris Peterman, an architect from Columbus, Ohio, who, in 1921, with his young family, had come to town to look for business opportunities.

Architect John Peterman was born in Iowa in 1886. Peterman acquired his training in architecture by first enrolling in the School of Architecture at the University of Colorado and then apprenticing with Graham and Burmham a Chicago architecture firm. Once qualified, Peterman moved to Columbus, Ohio, and worked for ten years, specializing in bungalows targeting entry level and low income home buyers. The Petermans came to Miami to see if work could be found in the expanding south Florida market. He did not care for Miami and decided to try his luck in Fort Lauderdale. Peterman, his wife, and two children were renting a house on Las Olas Boulevard, when soon after opening his office he was approached by Bob Dye, a member of the Broward County School Board and James Rickards, the Superintendent of Broward Schools. They asked him to draw plans for the new South Side School.

Peterman accepted the commission, which was the first of three that Peterman would design for the School Board. His second commission was for the West Side School in the Waverly Place (Sailboat Bend) subdivision at 1300 SW 2^nd Street. Peterman's design for the West Side School was similar to the South Side School plan; the distinguishing design feature for this school was the entry porch, which featured an arched entry. As Florida was racially segregated at the time, these two schools were for white children. The town did recognize the necessity of serving the black population, which was also growing. Peterman's third commission from the School Board was for the Old Dillard School, called the Colored School located at 1001 NW 4^th Street. Again the design for this school was similar to the other Peterman designed schools, but the front facade was simpler and it did not have a projecting entry porch.

The South Side project was the start of an auspicious career for the architect. Peterman was the first resident architect to open an office in Fort Lauderdale. Over the next five years, Peterman was the most successful architect of public and commercial buildings working in the county. At one time he was working on $5,000,000 worth of projects. Among his important commissions was the $1,500,000 second county courthouse, built in 1927. He had a gift for elaborate architectural detail that became characteristic of his later 1920s designs. John Peterman retired from the practice of architecture in 1962.

The two-story 11,000 square foot South Side School opened in 1923. It was built at a cost of $16,360.08, excluding land costs. The school boasted an active Parent Teacher Association (PTA), which raised funds to build additions, started a cafeteria, installed a telephone and added landscaping to the school grounds. The school, used as an elementary school until 1967, was expanded twice to accommodate the growing population of Fort Lauderdale and retained most of its historical features. Notable alumni of South Side School include Virginia Shuman Young, pioneer resident and first woman mayor of Fort Lauderdale.

The school closed as an elementary school in 1967, but the building was immediately put to use as a school for emotionally disturbed and handicapped children. The school was closed permanently in the 1990s. In 1996 the City of Fort Lauderdale designated South Side and two other schools as historic landmarks; in the same month the school board declared two of these schools, South Side and West Side Elementary, surplus property. In 2001, South Side School and the adjacent Florence C. Hardy Park were under consideration by the federal government as the site of a new U.S. courthouse, but the City of Fort Lauderdale succeeded in purchasing the school for $756,700. The building and property together were purchased for $4,600,000. The City has committed $3,500,000 in Capital Improvement Funds to the South Side restoration project.

Building Description

The South Side School is an 11,000 square foot, two-story Masonry Vernacular building with Pueblo inspired decorative elements. It has a stucco exterior, flat roof with a parapet, and banks of awning style windows (now boarded up). As originally built in 1922, the building had a regular T-shaped footprint and its parapet was accented with pent roofs. In 1949 the building was expanded on the west and the east sides, and in 1954, a further addition was made to the southeast corner (rear) of the school.

South Side School is located on Parcel "A", Lot 1, Block 60 of the Original Town of Fort Lauderdale; Parcel "A" is at the northeast corner of the city block. Block 60 is located a little over a quarter mile south of the New River at the southwest corner of the crossroads of South Andrews Avenue and 7^th Street. The school building is sited diagonally at the northeast corner of the parcel facing the crossroads. Immediately to the east, across Andrews Avenue, is the ca. 1925 South Side Fire Station (No. 2) now used as a law office. North of the fire station, across SE 7^th Street on the east side of Andrews, is the ca. 1926 Coca Cola Building, now adaptively reused as TV/cable studios. Low rise commercial buildings are located across SW 7^th Street to the north of the school site. The western edge of Block 60 is bounded by the F.E.C. Railway tracks; the southernmost boundary of Block 60 runs with the south border of the plat of the Original Town of Fort Lauderdale. Today, commercial establishments, including a fast food restaurant and residences are located to the south of Block 60.

From the 1920s on, the remaining acreage of Block 60 was managed as a city park called in city correspondence' South Side Park. In the 1930s the H.C. Davis Baseball field was built at the southwest corner of the property and tennis courts, shuffleboard courts and a lawn bowling club and clubhouse were built with WPA funding at the northwest corner. Now called Florence C. Hardy Park, the City plans to upgrade the park amenities and restore the historic school. The site will become a major cultural and recreational resource for the city and the surrounding south side neighborhoods.

The school site has several mature trees of both native and non-native species, including Schefflera, Royal Poinciana, Ficus, Solitaire, Sabal and Areca Palms, Laurel oaks and Gumbo Limbos. None of these trees would be considered particularly historic. Early photographs of the school show mature slash pines, which have been gone for many years. The city plans to add appropriate landscaping. An exterior courtyard (performance space) will be built adjacent to the west side of the school building and a children's playground will be built south of the school. Public parking will be added to the site on Parcel "B" immediately south of the school site.

The architect designed the main (northeast) facade to have three bays, a central bay with the main entrance and two wider side bays. The two side bays have two triple windows on each floor and centered pilasters, which reach above the first floor, in a line with the base of the second floor windows. All of these decorative details, except for the pent roofs, remain in the modern configuration of the building. As it is presently configured (after the 1949 and 1954 additions), it has a truncated L-shaped, irregular footprint. The front facade has five bays, a narrow central bay with the main entrance and two bays on either side each with four triple windows (two on each floor). At the northwest corner (rear) of the building there is a two-story open porch and stairway.

South Side School was built on a raised foundation with square masonry vents centered below each of the original bays. The foundation wall, which projects slightly, is extended beyond the actual height of the first floor to just below the base of the first floor windows; the aforementioned pilasters rise from this extension. The foundation wall was painted a different color from the rest of the building to emphasize it as a decorative element.

The foundation wall can be seen through a rectangular hole cut in the floor to give access to the crawlspace beneath the building. The foundation was constructed of a specialized clay interlocking tile, which could be used to build walls eight or twelve inches thick depending on how they were configured. According to Michael A. Tomlan of Cornell University, this type of tile was used in commercial buildings, apartments and institutional buildings such as schools where strength was desired.

Architectural design details are concentrated at the central bay. Depressed rectangular panels are separated by five canales on the centered gable. Eleven wooden vigas, a Pueblo style detail, are spaced across the bay just above the centered second floor double window; decorative tiles are placed on either side of the central window; the latter details show a Mission Style influence. The most notable detail of the central bay is the first floor entry porch which consists of two flat side panels stepped back at the top, with rectangular openings and decorative tile. A decorative wood beam spans the entry and pierces the side panels. Originally this beam supported a shed roof with projecting rafter beams. This roof was largely concealed behind a front facing panel carrying the name of the school in block letters. At some point in the school's history the original shed roof and exposed rafter ends were removed and replaced with a roof without exposed rafters. Design elements on other parts of the front facade are rectangular vents on the parapet wall, depressed rectangular panels located below the raised corner elements of the parapet, and decorative tiles on the pilasters.

Original windows were wooden sash windows with twelve over twelve lights, surmounted by a four light transom. With the exception of the centered double window on the second floor front, all were triple windows. The sash windows were later replaced with awning windows. The main entry had double doors with multiple lights, with a six light transom above and side lights. These doors were replaced with solid wood doors with raised panels as were the doors of the rear entrance.

Additions were made to the original building in 1949. The north and south wings of the building were expanded and the south wing was bumped out to the rear (west). An open two story porch was added to the rear of the north wing. The triple windows were replicated in the new addition as were the raised corner elements and wooden cornice of the parapet wall. A pilaster, similar to the original pilasters, is centered between the new windows; however, the tile detail of the pilasters and the depressed panels at the parapet corners were not replicated. The building front facing elevation today has a narrow central bay and four double width side bays, each having four triple windows, two on each floor with the first floor windows, of each side bay, separated by a pilaster.

An irrigation pump house is located immediately to the southeast of the School. This four and one-half foot by six foot structure was a later addition and is separate from the School.

As originally constructed, the building contained four classrooms on each floor. The stem of the T contained girls' and boys' restrooms. South Side School was built with Dade County pine floors, of which some remain. The restrooms retain the historic tile flooring. The walls were plaster with wide wooden baseboards. Original classroom doors, a few of which remain, were wood paneled with single light operable transom windows above. A few original double-hung, twelve over twelve light windows with operable four light transoms, remain. The original double leafed front and rear entry doors with lights have been replaced with solid wood panel doors. However the sidelights and transom of the front entry remain.

The main entry doors lead to a central hall that bisects the central part of the building. This hall is crossed in a T-shaped configuration, with another hall that leads to the classrooms of the side additions. Flanking the central hall and rear entrance at the back of the building are girls' and boys' restrooms. As one enters through the front door, the stair to the second floor is to the left. A similar hall and restroom arrangement is on the second floor. Classrooms border the central hall on either side.

In the earlier 1949 addition a two-story open gallery and staircase was constructed at the rear of the extended northwest wing and the interior hallway was extended on each floor to the new classrooms of southeast wing. The double gallery and extended hallway was retained in the 1954 addition. More classrooms were added to the rear of the southeast wing in the 1954 remodeling.

The school was closed as an elementary school in 1967. The building was then used by the School Board as a school for emotionally disturbed and handicapped children, and as psychology department offices. Classrooms were partitioned into smaller spaces; original wall surfaces were covered with plywood paneling; and floating acoustical ceilings were installed. Some original building details were lost, but many remain, concealed by the new improvements.

Once the school was finally closed in the early 1990s, it suffered damage from vandalism and neglect. Some of the damaged areas have exposed the underlying construction of the building. One photograph reveals the hollow clay tile structure; another shows the plaster and wood lath of the walls.

Front exterior, taken from S. Andrews Ave. and SW 7^th St., facing southwest (2005)

Historic photo of main elevation from S. Andrews Ave. and S.W. 7^th St., facing southwest (1923)

Southeast corner of building with front and SE exterior, taken from across S. Andrews (2005)

Northwest and front exteriors of school, taken from across SW 7^th Street, facing south (2005)

Front exterior North (outer foundation casing details/1949 addition, facing southeast (2005)

First Floor foundation showing 2 layers of flooring materials, interior facing northwest (2005)

View of interlocking clay tile at South Side School (2005)

Front exterior of south stairs (1949 addition), front entrance in background, facing northwest (2005)

Front exterior of front entrance. Boarded-up door, steps, facing west (2005)

Main entrance, facing south (1923)