J Magazine Summer 2018

The interior of the auditorium of the Old Stanton High School once was a hub of activity, seating up to 600 students.
witnessed countless hours of educational
progress.
Robert Mitchell, who graduated as a senior
during the school’s final year in 1952,
remembers the liveliness and laughter that
filled the school’s halls each time the bell
sounded to change classes. He also recalls
the intoxicating events performed on the
school’s stage by visiting African-American
entertainers.
Most importantly, however, Old Stanton
provided a nucleus for the
African-American students
and their families.
“We had a lot of marvelous
teachers and administrators,
and from them came a community
… built around just one
school,” Mitchell said.
“You were able to grow and
appreciate what it means to
work together as a group and
the achievements you could
witness. We knew there was always
faith in a better day.”
Historically, Old Stanton
represents the fight by African-Americans
intent on gaining
an education in a society
that excluded them from its
public schools.
The building that today stands on West
Ashley Street was the third building to bear
the name of Edwin Stanton, President Abraham
Lincoln’s secretary of war, and serve
African-American students. The first structure
burned in the Great Fire of 1901, and
the second, a poorly constructed replacement,
was later demolished.
Old Stanton counted as its alumni
such luminaries as journalist T. Thomas
Fortune, Eartha M.M. White, James
Students work on a lesson during an adult education typing class at Old
Stanton High School in 1935.
Rosamond Johnson and James Weldon
Johnson, who later served as its principal.
Despite the success of its graduates, the
school was consistently underfunded, and
maintenance of the building was a continuing
problem.
It closed as a high school in 1953 when
the “New” Stanton High School on West
13th Street opened its doors. It existed as a
middle school for one year then was transformed
into a vocational school
for African-Americans until
1971.
In that same year, the Duval
County School Board decided
to relinquish the building and
give it to a court-appointed
board of trustees. Since then,
the building has been mostly
vacant. The city gave the board
$300,000 to begin restoration in
1982. In 1987, the state gave it
an additional $500,000.
It’s been partially utilized off
and on for various purposes, including
as the home for Edward
Waters College’s Academy of
Excellence until 2003. Today
it houses a day-care facility as
well as the Jacksonville Centre
of the Arts on its first floor.
Florida Photographic Collection
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J MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2018