Old Fort Braden School - Tallahassee, FL, USA
N 30° 25.568 W 084° 32.082
16R E 736785 N 3368586
The former Fort Braden School is now the home of the Fort Braden Community Center in Tallahassee, Florida, USA. The building is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
Waymark Code: WMKB42
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 03/13/2014
Views: 4
An historical marker near the entrance to this former school provides the following information:
"Fort Braden was established in 1839 as a military outpost during the Second Seminole War (1835-1842). At the end of the war the fort was abandoned, but the small farming community that had developed nearby continued. A school in the Fort Braden area was first mentioned in an 1847 Tallahassee Floridian article reporting tax collections at the Fort Braden schoolhouse. Early education in rural Leon County was provided at small, one-room schools. The education these schools offered was inferior to that of urban areas. Yet over the next 80 years, many of these schools were built in Fort Braden and around the county. Consolidation of the schools was proposed at the turn of the 20th century, but did not start until the 1920s when motorized school buses and improved roadways made it possible to transport students to a centralized location. In 1926, the four-classroom Fort Braden School was constructed, featuring an inset entrance and double doors with molded accents. The school served as an education facility and community center for the next 66 years until 1993 when the new Fort Braden School replaced it. Today, the Old Fort Braden School continues to serve the citizens of Fort Braden as a community center."
The following additional information is from the Florida Division of Historical Resources website:
"OLD FORT BRADEN SCHOOL Jackson Bluff Rd. 1926. Frame Vernacular. E.D. Fitchner, architect. 1 story. Gable on hipped roof, 6 chimneys. Was the most important educational facility in western Leon County for many years. Built to consolidate the area's many one-room school houses. Public. N.R. 1994."