Florida Colored School Gets Historic Marker

The Salerno Colored School is a one-room schoolhouse that Black children used in the early 1900s.

A Florida one-room school house in Port Salerno has been approved for a historic marker by state officials. The 1934 Salerno Colored School could be looking at more awards in the upcoming years in recognition of its rich history.

Chair of the school for the Martin County Black Heritage Initiatives, Holly Griffin, told Treasure Coast Palm, “We have this incredible structure. People should know it’s there.”

Her organization strives to improve current race relations by preserving and teaching Black history so that the surrounding area can better understand the legacy the Black community has had on Port Salerno.

The school was officially dedicated by the county Board of Public Instruction on Feb. 22, 1934, as a project headed by the Civil Works Administration. The one-room elementary school was one of the first in Martin County for Black kids and is only 25-by-31-foot. At the time, Black children were still not allowed to attend school with white children, so the Salerno Colored School was a place to support Black education.

Griffin and others have been pushing to open the school again for educational programming and to further connect to the rich history of the space.

“It’s important to remember the past,” Griffin explained. “Going back and touching the past is bringing us closer to who we are.”

According to an interview with Treasure Coast Palm, Boyize Herring was a student at the Salerno Colored School in the 1950s. He recalled that the teachers taught first through fourth grade in the same schoolhouse.

“It was pretty strict, [but] I call myself very fortunate to be able to live to see the school receive a historical marker,” Herring said.

The Salerno Colored School could potentially be looking at a place on the National Register of Historic Places next, despite being rejected in the past.

Julie Preast, a historic research volunteer who is in charge of completing the application for the marker, said the school was trying to get listed under a different criteria than the first time.

Martin County Black Heritage Initiatives initially applied for the National Register of Historic Places designation based on the building’s architecture, but it was rejected because a small portion of the original building had to be reconstructed in the past.