Florida Historical Markers Programs - Marker Detail

Description: Side One: African American families living in DeLeon Springs in the 1920s needed a better school. The Mt. Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church was no longer adequate and classes moved to St. Joseph Lodge, but it also was too small. In 1928, a group of African American residents, including teacher Carrie Malloy, approached the school board about building a new school. The board rebuffed them, and they turned to school trustee and businessmen Fred N. Burt for help. Burt, a New York native who arrived in DeLeon Springs in 1909, developed the Burwyn Park subdivision, Burt’s Park, and Spring Garden Ranch, which included stables, horse track, and quarters for black laborers. A respected local leader, Burt was a benefactor to the African American community and took up the mission to build the new school. Burt donated the land, financed the construction, and used his own carpenters. Plans for the school house and additional funds were provided by the Julius Rosenwald Foundation, which helped build schools for African Americans all over the south. The school was completed in 1929, and the school board reimbursed Burt half the cost, about $2,000. Side Two: The two-teacher community school faced north as required by the Rosenwald foundation. It taught grades first through eighth. Younger students sat at the front of the classrooms, while older students sat in the rear. Teachers employed between the 1920s and early 1950s included Jamie B. Allen, Carrie L. Malloy, Lou Alyce M. Reddick, Mary Turner Simmons, Eliza H. Staples, Mayo D. Staples, Annetta V. Stokes, Frankye A. Straughter, and Annie May Washington. After World War II, the few high school students who attended were transferred to the Euclid Avenue School in DeLand. The school was renamed the Malloy School in 1955 to honor Carrie Malloy’s early efforts here for black children. Renewed growth compelled the school board to expand the campus in 1954, adding two buildings and a kitchen. Due to the integration of the Volusia County public school system, the school was closed. In 1969. That same year, Doris McWilliams, an educator who had attended the school in the 1940s, started a community center and Head Start Program here. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003 and is one of the few Rosenwald schools left in Florida.