One of the first public schools built in Pinellas County may be getting a new beginning. The City of Clearwater held a community event Thursday evening to discuss the future of the North Ward Elementary School property, 900 N. Fort Harrison Avenue.
“It means so much to our residents,” Clearwater Mayor Bruce Rector told the Catalyst. “They have an emotional attachment to these buildings. We’re not 250 years old like a lot of the cities in the United States. Our history is shorter than that. It’s about 100 years. But, we don’t have a lot of it. So, we need to preserve what we have.”
He explained that the City’s main goal is to reactivate the site. This could encourage more development in the area.
Chris Edwards, Clearwater’s economic development and housing director, said the City is interested in a potential mixed-use concept. This could include office or retail space or even affordable housing. Within the next couple months, a formal solicitation process will begin and developers will be able to submit proposals for the site.
Bringing residents, stakeholders and alumni together to gather input was a logical step.
“What I’ve found over the years is that the best ideas can come from anywhere,” Rector said. “To gather the community to get a broad range of ideas, I think that’s really important.”
Irene Odell attended North Ward in the 1970s. Greek was her first language. For Odell and her family, the school was their first authentic American educational experience.
“One of my favorite things in kindergarten was that they had a little shop where they had little trial-sized things such as Tide laundry detergent and cookies,” she reminisced. “We were all issued fake money and we learned how to shop and budget.”
“My mom would just drop me off and wouldn’t say a word because she was worried that maybe they wouldn’t let me go to school and I would be deprived of an education,” Odell continued. “So, I was just really quiet and shy because I couldn’t communicate with people. But, the shopping experience transcended language and that’s how I got to bond with my classmates.”
She recommended turning the site into a shopping mall with antique stores. This could pay homage to the property’s past.
Clark Greenleaf attended North Ward from 1962 through 1965. He remembered his teachers fondly. At the Thursday event, Greenleaf reconnected with a former classmate that he has not seen in 60 years.
“We did a Christmas pageant at the Peace Memorial Presbyterian Church two of my years here,” Greenleaf added. “We got to sing and enjoy the music.”
He believes it is important to preserve the North Ward site because “there are too many buildings like this that are no longer in existence.” Greenleaf said the property could be used for low-income housing or veteran programs.
Cheryl (Weatherilt) Schoonderwoerd and her brother Allen Weatherilt were students at North Ward in the 1960s.
“My teacher made me sit in the cafeteria to eat my lima beans and I wouldn’t eat them,” Allen remembered. “So, everybody cleaned up and left. After school was done, she came back and I was still sitting here and wouldn’t eat my lima beans and she said ‘you can go home.’”
Cheryl explained that she was forced to sit under a table in the cafeteria after trying to switch places with another student. This was a particularly embarrassing moment.
“North Ward was not just a school,” said Clearwater Historical Society president Allison Dolan at the Thursday gathering. “It was a community, family and home to thousands of children who still speak about the school with deep affection.”
According to the City, the original North Ward Elementary School building was constructed in 1915. A second structure was built in 1926. By the mid-1940s, a cafeteria and library wing was added. Like many educational institutions of the era, the school was segregated until the 1960s and ’70s. It permanently closed in 2009.
In 2019, the Clearwater government purchased the property from the Pinellas County School Board for $1.8 million. North Ward Elementary School was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2021. Additionally, it was designated as a Clearwater Historic Property in 2022.
To learn more about the North Ward Elementary School site and the City’s efforts to repurpose the buildings, visit this link.
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