Old Boynton High historic, a landmark
The Boynton Beach City Commission, on Aug. 4, voted 3-2 to demolish historic Boynton Beach High School.
One commissioner claims the building is not historic. Another said that since they tore down the black high school, he wants the white school torn down, too. The third says the building is only wood, concrete and nails, and people should not be emotional about it.
The commission previously voted for this same school to be protected under the city’s own local historic-preservation ordinance.
I join citizens in petitioning Mayor Jerry Taylor and the city commissioners to save the Boynton Beach High School building. I ask this not as a director of the Boynton Beach Historical Society. I ask this not as a Boynton Beach resident; though I lived and worked in the city for 25 years and raised a family there, I recently moved to a nearby city.
My appeal to see the 1927 Boynton school saved from the wrecking ball, preserved and repurposed is apolitical and not emotionally driven. This building is one of only a handful of nonresidential structures remaining from the Florida boom-time era.
The building served as a high school from 1927 to 1949, as an elementary school and junior high school from 1949 to 1990, and as a school for students with special needs until at least 1996. For eight decades, our community used the school for educational, recreational and cultural purposes. The school served as a hurricane shelter during the killer hurricane of 1928.
The gymnatorium hosted dances, stage productions and sporting events. In 1994-96 came planning and implementation of the community-built playground, Kids King- dom. The school’s east side, first-floor kitchen became “meal central” for preparing and distributing meals to the 2,000 volunteers.
Just as life constantly changes, the topography of our land is constantly changing. In Boynton Beach, we have many layers of history. It is not feasible or reasonable to save every building; however, the school is a historic building and Boynton landmark.
Saving this building from demolition — and preserving and repurposing it — will not only unite our community; the structure will serve generations of Boyntonites long after this City Commission and this generation are gone.