Key West's Bahama Village has a new anchor, and it carries the name of the island's first school for African-American children. The Frederick Douglass Community Center and its Black Educators History Museum held their grand opening on Oct. 15, with speakers, tours, a film and a ribbon cutting.
The Keys Weekly reports that the celebration kicked off with a screening of Trekking Through Bahama Village, a film tracing the neighborhood's history that features Bahama Village native John Wilson Smith. Smith is a local historian who works with the Key West Art & Historical Society. The event also featured a continental breakfast, and Mayor Sam Kaufman welcomed attendees to the new facility.
Guests viewed artifacts from the city's first Black educators after the ribbon cutting, the same account notes. The center preserves and celebrates the history and legacy of Frederick Douglass School, the island's first school for African-American children.
What's Inside the Building
The center sits at 111 Olivia St., according to an earlier Keys Weekly preview of the event. A separate City of Key West facility listing gives the address of the museum subfacility as 101 Olivia Street, so the two sources do not fully agree.
Per another Keys Weekly story, the building features classrooms for after-school tutoring, a 2,600-square-foot event hall, a commercial kitchen and an outdoor courtyard. It also includes music rooms and rehearsal space for the Bahama Village Music Program, which provides free music, singing and theater education to the neighborhood's children.
The building was constructed by local contractors at Keystar. It houses the Black Educators History Museum, which honors the teachers who taught Key West children through more than a century of segregated schools.
A Decade in the Making
Money was the slow part. Funding for the $8 million project took nearly a decade to finalize, but construction took just 17 months, according to that same reporting.
The completion timeline has been reported differently along the way. When work began, Keys News said construction was scheduled to be complete by December 2024, while a City of Key West project page lists a March 2025 construction completion.
That same Keys News story said the city wanted to place art and artifacts from a recent exhibition at the Key West Museum of Art & History into the new center.
Roots of the Neighborhood
The Douglass School itself dates to 1871, when the segregated school was established in Bahama Village. As Keys News has noted, it was the only Black school on the island for children in grades one through twelve.
The neighborhood's story is also told on foot. The Key West Art & Historical Society's Bahama Village walking tour follows the streets where Bahamian immigrants settled in the 19th century and covers segregation-era equality efforts, the local cigar industry and the role of churches, schools and community centers.
Commissioner Aaron Castillo, along with Monica Haskell and Chris Massicotte, commented at the opening. Castillo said the building is for future generations and children, per the Keys Weekly account of the celebration.
