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Meacham School Tries To Dodge The Wrecking Ball
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Published: June 28, 2007
TAMPA - City council Chairwoman Gwen Miller is sentimental about Meacham Alternative School, where she served her teaching internship in 1957.
In October 2006, Miller and other council members approved the revitalization of Central Park Village, which earmarked the historical school for destruction.
But now she says, 'We can't let Meacham go like that.'
Miller isn't alone in her sentiments.
'Meacham is very important to the African-American community,' said Councilman Tom Scott, who approved the Central Park Village plan while serving as a Hillsborough County commissioner.
Scott plans to appeal to Bank of America and the Tampa Housing Authority, which are developing Central Park Village, to seek an alternative to the wrecking ball.
Leroy Moore, the housing agency's chief operating officer, said removing the school is crucial to the plan for the mostly vacant public housing complex. The school, set for demolition in October, will be replaced by a town square of stores and offices serving the 2,030 residences.
Moore said the development partners have agreed to pay the Hillsborough County school district almost $1.3 million for the building, at 1225 India St. They also will give the district 2 acres north of Scott Street to build a school in exchange for the 1-acre Meacham site.
The school opened in 1926 as India Street School. The elementary school was renamed for Christina Meacham, Tampa's first black female principal, a week after her death in 1927.
In 2004, Meacham changed from an early childhood center to an alternative school. School district spokesman Steve Hegarty said Meacham's 160 students have been transferred to North Tampa Alternative School, 8602 N. Armenia Ave.
For most of its history, Meacham was considered a community beacon, a place where the children of freed slaves learned to read and write.
'This is where people congregated,' Miller said.
Moore said Meacham's relatives originally opposed razing the school.
'But we've been sensitive to preserving the history and they've come around,' he said.
A marker at the site is planned to reflect on the life of Meacham, who was principal at Harlem Academy, the city's first black school, which was demolished in the 1970s.
The school board has said the new school north of Scott Street would be named Christina A. Meacham Middle School.
The Meacham family supports the proposed middle school as a better environment for children. Meacham's great-granddaughter Arndreeta Harris, who works at the Tampa Bay History Center, said the housing authority will rescue bricks from the old façade to use in the new school.
Told of Scott's call to save the school, Harris said: 'He hasn't been around as this has been planned and just doesn't know of the effort and thought.'
The city's Architectural Review Commission recently approved Meacham's demolition, said Cynthia Miller, the city's growth and management director. She said a demolition permit has not been pulled.
The building was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2005 but does not have local landmark status. City preservation manager Dennis Fernandez has said a 1954 remodeling destroyed the character of the two-story brick school.
'As far as the city is concerned, this is out of our hands,' Cynthia Miller said.
Scott said that's the issue.
'The school has National Historic Landmark status but not local, which would have saved it from demolition,' he said.
Scott said he's working with a community group headed by Sharon Miller, dean of continuing education at Hillsborough Community College. He said it's worth pausing to consider Meacham's fate.
'We need to hear people out,' he said.
Reporter Janis D. Froelich can be reached at jfroelich@tampatrib.com or (813) 835-2104.
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