Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center (formerly Excelsior Museum and Cultural Center) is an African American history museum located at 102 Martin Luther King Avenue in

St. Augustine, Florida St. Augustine ( ; es, San Agustín ) is a city in the Southeastern United States and the county seat of St. Johns County on the Atlantic coast of northeastern Florida. Founded in 1565 by Spanish explorers, it is the oldest continuously inhabit ...

. It is located in the former Excelsior School, St. Augustine's first black public high school. The museum opened in 2005.

History

Lincolnville is now a neighborhood of the city of St. Augustine, but was originally a distinct town. It was settled by freed Black slaves after the American Civil War. The museum is located in the former Excelsior High School, the first public high school for African Americans to open in St. Augustine. The first public school for African American children was built in St. Augustine in 1901. As with all public schools in Florida at the time, it was segregated. "School #2" or "the Colored School" was built in 1925 as St. Augustine's high school for Black students. It was designed by St. Augustine architect

Fred A. Henderich Fred A Henderich (1879 – 1941) was a leading architect of the Florida land boom of the 1920s. He was a native of New York and graduated from Columbia University. Henderich came to Saint Augustine in 1905 to work for Henry Flagler's Florid ...

, and renamed Excelsior in 1928. Alumni include

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

star

Willie Galimore Willie "The Wisp" Galimore (March 30, 1935 – July 27, 1964) was an American professional football player who was a halfback in the National Football League (NFL) for the Chicago Bears from 1957–1963. He attended Florida A&M University, ...

and

St. Augustine Movement The St. Augustine movement was a part of the wider Civil Rights Movement, taking place in St. Augustine, Florida from 1963 to 1964. It was a major event in the city's long history and had a role in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. B ...

civil rights leaders Henry and Kat Twine. Excelsior School closed in 1968 and was used for several years for local government offices.

About the museum

The museum was primarily founded by Otis Mason. Mason was an Excelsion High School alumnus who, in 1984, became the first Black superintendent of the

St. Johns County School District St. Johns County School District (SJCSD) is the public school district for St. Johns County, Florida. It is the sole school district in the county. History *1866 – St. Joseph Academy was founded and is the oldest Catholic high school in Flor ...

. It opened as the Excelsior Museum and Cultural Center in 2005, and changed its name to the Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center in 2012. The museum's focus is on the history, culture, and contributions of African Americans in the greater St. Augustine area. This includes the history of Lincolnville, the role runaway slaves played in building

Fort Mose Fort Mose Historic State Park (originally known as Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose, and later Fort Mose; alternatively, Fort Moosa or Fort Mossa), is a former Spanish fort in St. Augustine, Florida. In 1738, the governor of Spanish Florida, M ...

, the history of the area's Black churches, Black historical and social societies, Black businesspeople in the area, and visits to St. Augustine by Martin Luther King Jr. The museum's collections include artwork, memorabilia, and photographs. Most of the exhibits focus on the civil rights era in St. Augustine history, but in 2016 the museum began expanding its coverage to other parts of area history. It had of exhibit space in 2019. In 2018,

St. Johns County St. Johns County is a county in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 United States Census, its population was 273,425. The county seat and largest incorporated city is St. Augustine. St. Johns County is part of the ...

used a portion of its bed tax revenues to support a new exhibit at the museum. The new exhibit, Lincolnville LifeWays, focuses on individuals and places of importance in Lincolnville history. Included are photos by Richard Twine, an African American photographer who took extensive photographs of everyday people and places Lincolnville in the 1920s. The Lincolnville Museum received a $500,000 grant from the National Park Service in September 2019 for the repair, preservation, and renovation of the building and exhibits.

References

External links

Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center
{{coord, 29.8856, -81.3151, type:landmark_region:US-FL, display=title Museums in St. Augustine, Florida African-American museums in Florida History museums in Florida Historically segregated African-American schools in Florida Defunct black public schools in the United States that closed when schools were integrated