EDUCATION
Landmark St. Anastasia building
St. Anastasia Catholic School was built in 1914 on Orange Avenue in Fort Pierce. The three-story stone structure was not used as a Catholic school until
1926, when three Sisters of St. Dominic from Adrian, Michigan, arrived to teach the students.
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may be school once again
BY PATTIE DURHAM
If these walls could talk is an oft-used phrase regarding
old buildings and the St. Anastasia School in Fort
Pierce is no exception. It has been more than 50 years
since the laughter of children and the joy of learning,
mixed with the corrections from teachers, were heard in its
halls and classrooms.
If the optimistic plans of Cindy Bridges, president and
director of Lindsay School of the Arts, come to fruition,
these walls once again will be ringing with the joyful sounds
of children in its classrooms. In a unique partnership with
the City of Fort Pierce, Bridges has signed a 20-year lease,
with the possibility of a 10-year extension, permitting her
to apply for grant funding and to seek donations for the
expected $4 million renovation of the more than 100-yearold
structure.
Lindsay School of the Arts was opened in 2017 in Fort
Pierce. Bridges and her husband, Dorrian, founded the
school, which is named after her lifelong friend, Lindsay
Pashkow, who died at age 21 of a brain aneurysm. Bridges,
a graduate of Treasure Coast High School, grew up in Port
St. Lucie across the street from Lindsay and the two quickly
became best friends.
“Lindsay had three major open heart surgeries in her life,”
Bridges says, “but she got to live out her wish to work at
Shands Hospital in Gainesville, working with the nurses
and doctors who helped her. She was working there when
she died.”
Bridges’ plans for the school building have begun. She
purchased an insurance policy on the property and has spoken
with local architect Don Bergman. The City of Fort Pierce
added a metal roof on the building and put in new storm
windows on all floors some time ago. In 2000, the structure
was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
“I am working on a grant application for the National
Trust right now,” Bridges says. “We can legally ask people to
donate money, whereas the city, the owner of the property, >>