As early as 1843, the Christ Episcopal Church Parish wanted to construct a building for education. In 1856, rector John J. Scott built a parish school house on Church Street. This building served as a church school until it was burned during the Civil War. A second building, which replaced the original parish school also burnt down in 1884. The Pensacola Commercialreported that the 1884 burning occurred because of “fire bugs” and because of the broken fire engines of the Germania Company Volunteer Firemen. Scott paid Pensacola builder, A.V. Clubbs, to rebuild a new wood framed school building. The church opened this new school building in 1886 as a place for schooling, Sunday school, and chapel. Sunday school was conducted by Misses Mellie Dorr, Ruth Moreno, Adelaide McClellan, and Julia Yonge.

In 1897, the Escambia County School Board rented out the parish school as a public school. For a few years, the public school flourished under principal Miss Ethel Clarke, as school No. 74 The Moreno family purchased the building in 1900, and converted it into a rental home. The parish school building transferred hands, until the early 1970s, when the Historic Pensacola Preservation Board bought the property.

Today, the UWF Historic Trust owns the schoolhouse building, but rents it out to local businesses, including the University of West Florida History Department, who used the building at one time for additional classrooms.

Credits and Sources:

State of Florida Department of State. Florida Master Site File Site Inventory Form: Christ Church Parish School(Pensacola, FL, 1982).

“And Still Another,” Pensacola Commercial (September 27, 1884).

Patricia A. Finnell, “Christ Church Parish School” (Historic Pensacola Preservation Board, July-August, 1974).

Photographs courtesy of University of West Florida Historic Trust