HISTORIC PRESERVATION
Photos by Ed Drondoski
New life for an
Four generations of the Yates family have attended the yellow brick school on Delaware Avenue and matriarch Sally Yates Richeson, right, is leading an
effort to make the vacant west wing of the school is renovated and utilized as a magnet arts high school. Richeson’s father, Joe Yates, was the first in the
family to attend the 100-year-old school and planted oak trees on the grounds that still stand. Richeson’s daughter, Lillah Cruce, center, also attended the
school and Richeson’s granddaughter, Sarah Cruce, left, attends the school as a seventh-grader.
School Board considers options for the west wing of
Fort Pierce’s century-old school on Delaware Avenue
BY EMELIA NUNN
The impressive fortress stands guard on the corner
20
of Delaware Avenue and 10th street, as it has for
the past century, while generation after generation
of school children played outside under the
cover of antique oaks. Throughout the years, the
site of the Fort Pierce Magnet School of the Arts has had its
highs and lows, including an empty west wing. But community
support for the building, which serves arts students in
kindergarten through eighth grade, promises the possibility
of future expansion.
Just last spring, the school board considered closing the
school because of the high cost of upkeep and low enrollment.
But a loud outcry from the community, including past
and current students, saved it from being shut down. The
public’s attachment to the building prompted board members
to form a task force to evaluate the building and possible
uses. “We want to keep it restored as a magnet school of the
arts,” school board member Debbie Hawley said, “and further
the cause of keeping it all things art.”
The familiar yellow brick building with the bell tower is the
oldest standing school in Fort Pierce. Designed by Jacksonville
architect W.B. Camp, the school was constructed between
1914 and 1915. The building opened as St. Lucie High School
— it later became known as Fort Pierce High School — and
subsequent additions resulted in a complex that housed all
grades. The school is so woven into the fabric of Fort Pierce
that it seems that many natives either attended the school or is
related to someone who did. And countless others remember
plays or musicals performed in the school’s theater.
“I’ll never forget, the way that school’s set up, you started in
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