The Historical Society of Avon ParkAVON PARK, FL · EST. 1886
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Hopewell School, Avon Park

Built in 1926, Hopewell School was the first permanent public school for Black children in Avon Park, serving for over four decades as the anchor of the community’s educational, cultural, and civic life.[newssun-hopewell][maxwell-1976]

The Name Origin

The school’s name originated directly from its pupils. When the children entered their academic and handicraft projects in a local fair, they repeatedly chanted the rallying phrase “hope we’ll win, hope we’ll win,” which the community adopted as the permanent name for the school upon its construction in 1926.[maxwell-1976]

Predecessors and Educational Sequence (1910–1926)

Hopewell was the culmination of a sixteen-year institutional sequence to establish schooling for Black children in Avon Park:

  1. Hagan’s Turpentine Still (c. 1910): The earliest classes met in the quarters of the Hagan Naval Stores Company south of town, taught by Mr. Abraham.[maxwell-1976]
  2. Mrs. Wilson’s Home: Following the closure of the turpentine camp, Mrs. Wilson gathered neighborhood children in her home on Pineland Avenue to teach basic literacy, reading, and arithmetic.[maxwell-1976]
  3. St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church (1916): Classes met temporarily in the sanctuary of St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church on East Green Street under Rev. G. W. Epps.[newssun-churches][maxwell-1976]
  4. Crate Mill School (1920s): The Highlands County School Board operated a temporary classroom in a frame building in the eastern Crate Mill section, where early instructors included Mr. Lindsay, Rev. Zanders, Prof. and Mrs. Jones, and Lucille Nemins Miles.[maxwell-1976]
  5. Hopewell School (1926): A permanent brick facility was constructed at what is now 100 Ernest E. Sims Street, initially accommodating grades 1 through 8.[maxwell-1976]

Where it Stood, and What is There Now

The site is identified. Hopewell School stood at what is now 100 Ernest E. Sims Street, Avon Park. The Highlands County Property Appraiser’s record for the parcel carries a legal description ending “-HOPEWELL SCHOOL-” and a building note reading “SIMS CENTER R.C.M.A. … ORIGINALLY HOPEWELL SCHOOL.”[hcpao-hopewell] The street itself is named for the school’s long-serving principal.

The 1926 building does not survive. The physical plant assessed on the parcel today was constructed during modernizations in 1959, 1963, and 1965.[hcpao-hopewell] Following desegregation, the facility was enlarged to serve early childhood and migrant education programs.[maxwell-1976]

The property was held by the City of Avon Park before being transferred to the Highlands County School Board in 2000.[hclerk-2000-school-board] Since March 2009 it has been owned and operated by the Redlands Christian Migrant Association (RCMA) as the RCMA Hopewell Child Development Center, continuing its educational service to local children.[hclerk-2009-rcma]

Elementary Scope and the County Training School Arrangement

Hopewell School taught grades 1 through 8; throughout the period of de jure segregation, Highlands County maintained no four-year public high school for Black students inside Avon Park.[maxwell-1976][dpi-1934-1936]

In the state’s Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction for 1930–1932, Table XV (“Disbursed from Slater Fund”) records the only state-level funding line in the early 1930s that couples Avon Park’s name with Black secondary education. After disbursing $500 to "Highlands — Sebring" in 1930–1931, the John F. Slater Fund disbursed $325 to “Highlands — Sebring-Avon Park” in 1931–1932.[dpi-1930-1932] Because the Slater Fund subsidized teacher salaries at only one central County Training School per county, the hyphenated "Sebring-Avon Park" designation reflected a joint county-wide catchment served by the consolidated secondary school at Sebring (later E. O. Douglas High School), rather than a separate grant to Hopewell School itself (see Finding: For one year Highlands County’s Black secondary school was named for Sebring and Avon Park together).[dpi-1930-1932]

In the 1932–1934 biennial report, the Slater Fund schedule reverted to “Sebring Negro School” ($200 for salaries in 1932–1933 and $100 for equipment in 1933–1934) before Slater disbursements to Highlands County ceased altogether.[dpi-1932-1934][dpi-1934-1936] The 1934–1936 state biennial report confirms that Hopewell remained strictly an elementary facility in state accounting: its statewide directories of twenty-eight accredited and non-accredited Negro public high schools omit Highlands County entirely, and its federal vocational home economics table pairs "Highlands — Avon Park" (allocated to the white school) with "Highlands — Sebring 'C'" (allocated to the colored school at Sebring).[dpi-1934-1936] Upon completing eighth grade at Hopewell, Avon Park students commuted ten miles south by county school bus to Sebring for secondary instruction.[census-1950-ed-28-8]

Teachers and Principals

  • James Ellerbe (1941): Documented as principal of the Avon Park school in the Atlanta Daily World.[adw-1941-04-05] See James Ellerbe and the Ellerbe Family of Florida Educators (1941).
  • Howard L. Warner (1950): Recorded in the 1950 federal census as elementary principal alongside his wife Dorothy W. Warner and teachers Alberta Jones, Julia Williams, Freddie Gibson, Eva Butler, and Blond E. Austin.[census-1950-ed-28-8]
  • Prof. Ernest E. Sims (1950s–1968): Led Hopewell until desegregation, completing 35 years in Avon Park schools before serving as assistant principal of Avon Park Middle School until his retirement in 1971.[maxwell-1976]
  • Honored Educators: Long-serving faculty members honored in local retrospectives and oral history efforts include Clara Tolliver Boone (who began teaching at Hopewell in 1956) and Ernestine Johnson. See Entity: Clara Tolliver Boone.[newssun-hopewell-2026]

Desegregation and Integration (1966–1968)

Highlands County initiated public school integration in 1966 on a voluntary basis for high school seniors, followed in 1968 by complete consolidation of student bodies and instructional staff.[maxwell-1976] Former Hopewell students transitioned into Avon Park Middle School and Avon Park High School, while Hopewell School was repurposed for kindergarten, primary grades 1–2, and migrant education under administrators including E. Leon Garner.[maxwell-1976][newssun-hopewell-2026]

Not a Rosenwald School

Hopewell was not a Rosenwald Fund school. The Fund’s card file at Fisk University contains only one entry for Highlands County: the 1926–27 Sebring School; no grant was recorded for Avon Park.[fisk-sebring-card][fisk-rfc-search]

References

Where this comes from

Evidence
corroborated — More than one independent source agrees.
Review
unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.
Rights
society

Sources

  1. Highlands News-Sun, Hopewell Elementary School educators encouraged Black students to excel (2026)
  2. Robert Miller, Highlands News-Sun, 29 January 2023, 100-year-old churches in Avon Park (2023)
  3. Atlanta Daily World (Atlanta, Ga.), Obituary notice naming James Ellerbe, principal of the high school at Avon Park, Atlanta Daily World, 5 April 1941, page 3 (1941)
  4. Margaret Graham, Highlands News-Sun, Hopewell Elementary School educators encouraged Black students to excel (full text) (2026)
  5. Highlands County Property Appraiser, Highlands County Property Appraiser, parcel A-27-33-28-160-00A0-0000, 100 Ernest E. Sims Street, Avon Park (2026)
  6. Highlands County Clerk of the Circuit Court, Quitclaim deed, City of Avon Park to Highlands County School Board, Official Records 1493/1460, recorded 7 April 2000 (2000)
  7. Highlands County Clerk of the Circuit Court, Warranty deed to Redlands Christian Migrant Association Inc, Official Records 2184/540, recorded 31 March 2009 (2009)
  8. Florida Superintendent of Public Instruction, Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Florida, 1930-1932: Table XV, Disbursed from Slater Fund (1932)
  9. Florida Superintendent of Public Instruction, Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Florida, 1932-1934: Table XVI, Disbursement of Aid from the Slater Fund (1934)
  10. Florida Superintendent of Public Instruction, Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Florida, 1934-1936: the Slater Fund, Negro high-school directories, and vocational funds (1936)
  11. Julius Rosenwald Fund Collection, Franklin Library, Fisk University, Sebring School in Highlands County, Florida — Rosenwald Fund school card, budget year 1926/1927 (1927)
  12. Fisk University, Franklin Library (Forging Future Pathways Project), Julius Rosenwald Fund Collection, searched by state and county for Florida / Highlands County and by keyword for 'Avon Park' and 'Hopewell' (2026)
  13. Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell, The First Hundred Years of Avon Park (references/the-first-hundred-years-of-avon-park_leoma-bradshaw-maxwell_1976.md) (1976)
  14. United States Bureau of the Census, 1950 Census population schedules, Florida, Highlands County, enumeration district 28-8, Avon Park city (1950)

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