Camp Walton Schoolhouse Museum keeps history alive - News Article Locations on Waymarking.com

FORT WALTON BEACH — The Camp Walton Schoolhouse Museum sits in the heart of downtown and educates visitors on the community’s history.

The museum is housed in a historic two-room structure that interprets items from the early history of Camp Walton and education in the county covering 1911 to the ’30s. It was originally located across the street from the present day Chamber of Commerce on U.S. Highway 98, but has been moved three times.

This building was the first schoolhouse constructed for the children of Camp Walton, now Fort Walton Beach. Locals built the school of native pine and oak in 1911. When the school opened in 1912, there were 15 students and one teacher. Eight grades were taught in the one-room school.

“The town’s cows and pigs far outnumbered the people,” said museum manager Gail Lynn Meyer about this time period. “All travel was by dirt trails, laughingly called roads, or by water if you could. People grew vegetables in their gardens and caught plenty of fish in the bays and bayous.”

In 1927, another room was added to the building for the high school students.

“This was more than a town school,” Meyer said. “On Saturdays the building was the town’s community center. On Sundays it functioned as a church. It was used for dances, socials, visiting lecturers, and many political candidates gave their speeches from its front porch.”

In 1936, the school was closed when the new all-brick Fort Walton School was built. The old school building was purchased by John Brooks of the Gulf View Motor Company and moved to Fourth Street and Tupelo Avenue intersection. It was used as apartments for several families during World War II.

The building was eventually sold and used as a rental. By the 1970s, the building had been left to deteriorate. It was scheduled to be burned by the fire department, but members of the Junior Service League convinced the owners to donate the building to become a historic museum.

They moved the school to First Street in 1974 and opened the building to the public as an educational museum in 1976.

In 1986, the city assumed the operation of the building and its programs. It continued to serve as an educational museum for field trips and summer visitors through 2005.

In January 2006, the Camp Walton Schoolhouse Museum was moved to join the Indian Temple Mound Museum, the Fort Walton Temple Mound and the Garnier Post Office Museum to create Heritage Park.

“Former teachers and students have visited the school in past years and share with us their stories. They remember the feelings of warmth, of caring and of fun,” Meyer said. “Keeping the historic buildings open to the public, presenting educational programs, and outreach in the community are all ways to share the past with the future.

“We have a precious job.”