The George Washington Junior High School was formerly located on this site. Along with the local Woodrow Wilson Junior High School, located in the Hyde Park neighborhood, the George Washington Junior High School was among the first junior high schools constructed in the state, and set precedent at the time for the organizational structure of schools throughout the United States. Erected in 1915, the George Washington Junior High School was also significant as an example of the Mediterranean Revival style adapted to academic architecture in Tampa
As early as 1903, Tampa began constructing brick schools that displayed a variety of regional architectural styles. By 1915, masonry construction replaced the mainstay of wood frame construction as witnessed in the nearly 300 area cigar factories. The George Washington Junior High School was designed by D.F. Hagy and Frank Iredell as a symmetrical, three-story, 41-room structure that exhibited an "E-shaped" plan consisting of a principal large central block with three lateral classroom wings. The traditional five-bay red brick building had a slightly projecting middle section featuring large brick piers at either end. Mediterranean Revival ornamentation evident in the George Washington Junior High School included Mission-style parapets adorned with "Star of David" medallions, arched windows with contrasting yellow brickwork, barrel tile-covered window hoods with brackets, heptagonal wood-frame cupolas with arched vents, and brickwork pendants.
The impetus for the construction of the George Washington Junior High School occurred when Tampa was transitioning from a rural agricultural community to a booming city with and industrial economy. Henry B. Plant and other prominent landowners established new business interests that were crucial to area development and resulted in an influx of workers and their families in Tampa. One industry was cigar manufacturing. This industry brought a rich cultural mix of people to Ybor City and West Tampa who held a deep understanding and value of public education, the foundation for cultivating a better way of life. The George Washington Junior High School primarily served the children west of the Hillsborough River whose families had settled into the nearby new suburban developments of Tampa Heights and Seminole Heights, now listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The years spent at the school prepared students for their transition into the new Hillsborough County High School. The importance placed on education corresponded with a dramatic increase in the construction of quality schools.
Tampa Bay developed into a metropolitan commuter area that had to accommodate nearly 2.3 million citizens by the turn of the millennium. The Tampa Interstate Study project resulted in the expansion of Interstate 4 and Interstate 275, the principal transportation arteries that service the Tampa Bay area. Unfortunately, the original locations of Interstate 4, completed in 1964, and Interstate 275, completed in 1968, precluded improvements to the roadway without impacting the school. Relocation and rehabilitation were considered but deemed unreasonable due to the unavailability of vacant property and prohibitive moving and rehabilitation costs. In 2001, the George Washington Junior High School was documented following the National Park Service's Historic American Building Survey standards as mitigation required by a Memorandum of Agreement signed between the Federal Highway Administration, Florida State Historic Preservation Officer, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. A major salvage effort was undertaken prior to demolition to recover any of the school's usable and distinctive architectural features. The school's historic pine floors were salvaged and used to replace floors at its sister school, Woodrow Wilson Junior High School. Additionally, salvaged bricks and a cupola were also removed and will be utilized in historic preservation projects in the Ybor City Historic District. The building was then demolished in 2004.
This marker commemorates the historic George Washington Junior High School, a representation of Tampa's earliest decades of growth and an exemplary educational building that exhibited the Mediterranean Revival architectural style, which stood at this site from 1915 to 2004.
January 15, 1926 photograph by the Burgert Brothers, Tampa, Florida
August, 2001 photograph by Janus Research, Tampa, Florida
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