Camp Walton Schoolhouse

Back when we were in Florida we went to the Camp Walton Schoolhouse. It was in amazing condition since it was built in 1912 and they even had some of the original desks and chairs that the children sat on! It would have been really cold, and the girls got to sit in front of the heater. Lucky. The younger kids would sit closer to the heater at the front of the class, and that means if you were a grade 8 boy you would be freezing! Since chalk was expensive and messy they would write with soapstone on slate.

One really cool artefact they had was a real Victrola record player! It was really big and sounded really scratchy and quiet, but it was super impressive for the time. 

They also had a Dunce Cap, which none of us had ever seen before. A Dunce Cap is a tall hat you wore if you failed a test or got in trouble. The school used to only have up to grade 6, but then later the law changed so they had to add a high school. 

The classroom was really small, at least for today’s standards. It would have been cramped, especially for the high school which was smaller than the primary school. They had a small civil war exhibit out the back too, which showed a little of what it would be like as a confederate soldier. My favourite part was definitely seeing the record player. Above the blackboard they had a picture of George Washington, which wasn’t finished because he died before it was painted.

Thanks for reading! And until next time, don’t take Spotify for granted.