ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – The City of St. Augustine Archaeology Program will host a public meeting to discuss a grant-funded project to develop an exhibit about Lincolnville’s historically segregated Black schools.
The meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 20 at 5 p.m. at the Willie Galimore Center, 399 Riberia St. Current and former residents of Lincolnville and descendants of community members are encouraged to attend and join the discussion.
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Between 2021 and 2024, the Archaeology Program excavated several sites tied to segregated Black education in the Lincolnville National Register Historic District, including School No. 2, Excelsior High School, St. Benedict the Moor School and the Eddie Vickers “Little Links” recreation fields. The investigations produced artifacts and other evidence that shed light on the educational experiences and daily lives of Black children in St. Augustine’s earliest post‑emancipation schools.
School No. 2, also called the Junior High and Graded School, was built in the late 1890s and was Lincolnville’s first public Black school. Overcrowding led to the opening of Excelsior High School in 1924. St. Benedict the Moor School, established in 1898 and staffed by the Sisters of St. Joseph, was the neighborhood’s first Black Catholic school. Both schools closed after desegregation in the 1960s and their properties were repurposed. The institutions played a central role in community identity and place-making.
The Archaeology Program said it will combine excavation data, artifacts, oral histories and archival research into an online interactive StoryMap and a traveling pop-up exhibit, with completion expected in fall 2026. Final exhibit locations will be announced later.
The project is supported by a Small Matching Grant from the Florida Division of Historical Resources. Excavation and documentation were conducted in accordance with the city’s Archaeology Preservation Ordinance.
Questions about the meeting or project can be directed to the Archaeology Department.