Oakland Park Elementary School
Built 1926 and Auditorium built 1927, listed in the National Register of Historic Places 1988
936 N.E. 33rd Street, Oakland Park
Photo captions:
Early Image of Oakland Park Elementary School
Image Courtesy of the Oakland Park Historical Society
Oakland Park Elementary School, 2011
Image Courtesy of Broward County Libraries Division
Designed by Thomas D. McLaughlin Associates and built by Mills & Norton Construction Company on land donated by the Florida East Coast Railway company, the original U-shaped one-story school building is representative of the Spanish style of architecture prevalent in Florida during the 1920s. The McLaughlin firm also designed the Deerfield School, another site listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
It was built at an original cost of $29,155 and the school was meant to accommodate 200 students. Its arcaded walkways, wrought iron gates and open courtyard give the main classroom building its Spanish character. All classrooms in the original core building face the courtyard to take advantage of the cross breezes. Many older Florida schools, because they were built before the widespread use of air-conditioning, were designed with arcaded walkways instead of enclosed corridors.
The auditorium building, which is adjacent to the school, is also Spanish in style. The auditorium was designed by Sutton and Routt and built by Gahan Construction Company. Both buildings are of concrete block and stucco over wood frame. The auditorium has hardwood floors, 250 seats, a projection booth at the back, eight chandeliers and a high timbertrussed roof with massive pecky cypress beams. It served as a hurricane shelter during the deadly 1926 storm and continues to be one of the area’s prime hurricane shelters because of the structure’s strength.
The school initially served a small farming community, Florinada, which was established in 1923. The school has been and continues to be an educational and cultural center for Oakland Park. Political debates were held there, and the school has served as a polling place. It opened January 4, 1926, for the first day of school with about 200 students and is the oldest school still in operation in Broward County.