Upon
Lake Worth's (now known as Lake Worth Beach) incorporation in 1913, the charter banned African-Americans from living within its boundaries. However, a segregated neighborhood known as the Osborne Colored Addition was established in 1917, likely named after
Lake Osborne. This five-block, section existed just west of
Dixie Highway and the
Florida East Coast Railway. Like most of
Palm Beach County during the
Jim Crow era, especially before the 1940s, the Osborne Colored Addition lacked educational facilities for African-Americans. Students in this area were instead transported about south of
Delray Beach. In 1945, the
School District of Palm Beach County announced their intentions to build an elementary school in the Osborne Colored Addition. They selected Edgar S. Wortman as the architect in February 1947 and instructed him to acquired excess lumber from the then-recently decommissioned
Camp Murphy. Wortman had previously designed schools within Palm Beach County. Local residents constructed the structure, including Frank Jones, P. W. Odum, and Able Wilson, who by finished with the building, a frame schoolhouse with three rooms. However,
a hurricane on September 16 damaged the schoolhouse enough to require new design to be created. Wortman's new plan, submitted in October 1947, called concrete block construction to be utilized rather than construct another frame structure. According to the school board meeting minutes for December "Mr. Wortman reported the blackboards for Lake Osborne School will be delivered by Mr. George Hopkins and the school should be ready for occupancy by the time the Christmas vacation is over." On February 17, 1948, the Osborne School opened with a gala attended by intended by several local officials and civic organizations. Geoffrey B. Henry, Jared N. Tuk, and Barbara E. Mattick described the school as "a source of community pride. Many of its teachers were locally trained and educated." Despite the
Brown v. Board of Education ruling by the
United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) in 1954, the school continued to operate as a racially segregated educational facility. A
follow-up ruling by SCOTUS in 1969 again ordered the end of segregation. Upon its closure in 1971, Osborne was the last school in Florida to be integrated. The schoolhouse is located at 1726 Douglas Street S. It sits on a property and is a one-story concrete block structure of
International Style architecture, with vernacular features. Henry, Tuk, and Mattick also describe the building's exterior as "three-bay-wide, six-bay-deep" and the interior as having three classrooms, two restrooms, a dining rooms, and a kitchen.
Repurposed In 1980, the building was repurposed as a community education center. The Osborne School was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places on August 1, 2003, and is also part of the
Florida's Historic Black Public Schools Multiple Property Submission. It was a proposed site for affordable housing in 2005. == See also ==