Early 20th Century
On the Everglades Frontier
The wilderness of the Everglades slowly gave way to farmland as the dredging of canals began in South Florida in 1906. The North and South New River Canal opened the edge of the frontier to a new settlement the first pioneers called Zona, the area we now know as Davie. Families that staked their fortune in the reclaimed black muck soil made education a priority and held school wherever they could—first in a packing house along the canal and then in a room of the general store—all the students together with one teacher.
In 1914, a wooden, two-room school house was constructed on a one-acre piece of property, but by 1916, the settlement now called Davie had outgrown the building. They successfully petitioned the Broward County School Board for a permanent school building—the first in the reclaimed lands of the Everglades.
The Davie School was designed in 1917 by August Geiger, one of South Florida’s most prominent early architects, and opened its doors in 1918 to roughly 90 students.
Today
A Splendid Building
The ‘splendid building’ has served as a school, town hall, dance hall, Broward County School Board office space, shelter during floods and hurricanes, and today is preserved as the Old Davie School.
After restoration, the Old Davie School regained the integrity of its early years. The lower-level of the museum houses a restored 1920s classroom, and exhibits illustrating both the history of the pioneers’ westward movement into the Everglades and the town that became Davie. The campus also includes a reconstructed 1909 Pioneer Home, that reveals the realities of life on the Everglades frontier at the turn of the century, as well as the historic 1912 Viele and 1914 Walsh-Osterhoudt homes, which were relocated to the Old Davie School campus. A reconstructed Citrus Packing House demonstrates the stages of citrus growing, picking, packing and shipping that made Davie famous.
Today, the Old Davie School invites visitors to experience South Florida’s agricultural past, and its economically diverse region. With artifacts, photographs, articles and maps, a visit to the museum takes visitors back in time to experience the vibrant history that shaped this community.
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