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Before the Sisters of the Holy Name opened St. Mary’s Academy in 1865 in what is now Beekman Square, they briefly operated St. Joseph’s School for Boys in this building at 310 North 5th Street. They obtained the deed in 1864, the same year they had been brought to Jacksonville by Rev. Francis Xavier Blanchet, who for many years served as the parish priest of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church. The school was short lived, before being replaced by St. Mary’s. This structure, known as

May is teacher appreciation month, but it’s questionable whether teachers were truly appreciated in the late 1800s—or at least whether female teachers were. Teaching was one of the few acceptable occupations that single, middle-class females in need of some income could pursue—and then only until they married. The work was hard and the standards high. Most schools of the time were 1-room and teachers were expected to instill reading, writing, math, history, and geography i

The oldest section of the house located at 560 North Oregon Street in Jacksonville has been described as the town’s first schoolhouse. But then it may NOT have been! In diaries and memoirs, Reverend Fletcher Royal tells of renting a house in 1853 from Col. John Ross for $15 a month to “have room for a school and church purposes.” Winter and spring classes were conducted there. In the spring of 1854, Royal bought another house from a Thomas Pyle for $250. In the front room