MIDDLEBURG – The Middleburg Colored School, fondly remembered as the “Little Old School,” was built in the early 1900s. The wooden schoolhouse was the first place Black residents in Middleburg could receive a formal education. 

Maude Jackson, an 82-year-old retired teacher, settled into her desk just like she did as a schoolgirl.

Taking a seat at the desk, which was more of a bench, was like traveling back in time. Back to the beautifully sketched tulips on the chalkboard that welcomed her in the mornings. Back to the frigid winters, when she was sent to the woods to fetch firewood for the furnace. Back to the palmy summers, when lessons were held outside underneath shady trees and arithmetic was practiced with sticks in the dirt. 

The schoolhouse was a second home. Her teachers told stories and recited poems every day. They were her heroes, who did so much with so little. Jackson always knew she wanted to be just like them. 

“I always wanted to be a teacher. I wanted to be a teacher here. I was given work to do like a teacher. I helped my bench mate learn how to read and write,” Jackson said. 

Students sat two to a bench. Jackson said she would never forget her bench mate, a young skinny girl (and luckily, Jackson said) who often spoke in a conflicting way. 

She would say things like, “Can I have some cold, hot water?” or “Look at that blue, brown cat!”

Jackson was tasked with guiding her bench mate through her lessons. Sadly, she lost her life later in a fire in Green Cove Springs. For Jackson, the memory is as painful now as it was then; she lost a close friend and her first student. 

For Jackson, the schoolhouse is how she remembers that time. It was the beginning of her education and the foundation of one day being a teacher. 

She was devastated when she learned her old schoolhouse was going to be burned down. 

Sometimes when buildings get old, the county decides to conduct a controlled burn for instructional purposes. This would have happened to the Middleburg Colored School. Jackson said it would have been burned in a demonstration at the fairgrounds.

Like a sit-in, Jackson sat out in front of the schoolhouse, often eating a picnic lunch when it was originally located on the corner of 4003 Everett Ave. and County Road 220. 

When the schoolhouse was being cleaned out for its scheduled burn, Jackson said someone working for the county came out to her as she sat by. 

“Do you want one last look? Because it will be the last look you are ever going to get.”

 With the help of historic societies across the county, Jackson rallied together to champion the schoolhouse so that it could be preserved for future generations. The Middleburg Volunteer Fire Department donated the historic school back to the county. 

In 1995, the schoolhouse was moved to Hunter Douglas Park on Longmire Avenue in the historic Hill Top Community, where it still stands today as a museum and as a monument to education. Hunter Douglas Park was named after two elementary school teachers who instructed at Middleburg Colored School and then later at A.E. Hall Elementary, which is now a community center also located at Hunter Douglas Park. 

Maureen Jung, a member of the Clay County Historic Preservation Board, has been fascinated by the rich history of the “Little Old School” and the surrounding Hill Top Community.

Jung met Jackson while working as the project director for “Embedded in Clay,” an anthology series that tells stories about the underserved populations in Clay County.  

The story of the schoolhouse drew the women together and forged a lasting friendship. Jung was particularly interested in the school’s records.

“The school (Middleburg Colored) operated until the 1950s, although the exact date is uncertain. An unfortunate common theme is that many of the records for colored schools were lost or damaged. The records weren’t kept. There was a silent treatment as well as many other issues,” Jung said.

Jung poured through achieved records to find more information. She found out that the school cost $176 and the desks cost $81. The Black community in Middleburg donated the land and their own labor to construct the schoolhouse. 

“It was a labor of love. They did a decent job. It’s still standing,” Jung said.

Middleburg Colored School was originally one of 10 colored schools in Clay County. Then one of eight. Then one of six. 

“The school is believed to have been operational until following the Brown v. Board of Education,” she said.

Now, the duo is working to get state approval for a Florida Historic Marker for Middleburg Colored School. They also want the building to continue being preserved. Jung said grant writers from the county wrote a grant proposal to do the preliminary assessment of the building. If it is found to be structurally sound, another grant will have to be written to explore and propose a plan to restore or rehabilitate the building, she said. 

“It’s still so special to us,” Jackson said.

“Maureen has been a great inspiration. The older I get, the more I love this place,” Jackson said.

While reminiscing, Jackson shared one of her favorite poems from her time as a schoolgirl.

If all the world was apple pie

And all the seas were ink

And all the trees were bread and cheese

What should we have to drink?

Not all the world is apple pie. And not all the seas are ink. 

The trees are not bread and cheese, yet we still have good things to eat.