QUINCY, Fla. (WTXL) - A historic high school building in Quincy caught fire early Sunday morning.
UPDATE FROM THE GADSDEN COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE:
"On March 26, 2017, 911 calls rang out at approximately 1:19AM at the Gadsden County Sheriff’s Office Communications Center advising that the historic building of the Old William Stevens High School in Quincy, Florida was on fire.
The William Stevens School was built for all grades in the 1920s as the Dunbar School, with funding from the Rosenwald Foundation. Dr. William Spencer Stevens, for whom the school was named, graduated from Florida State Normal and Industrial College and in 1904 received a medical degree from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee. Stevens became the first African American to open a medical practice in Quincy. In 1906, he opened Stevens' Drug Store in downtown Quincy and in the 1930s built a two-story building that served as a community hospital for the black community. In 1914, Stevens was named supervisor of the Quincy City Schools and in 1925 he began a four-year process to expand Dunbar School. The new school building was renamed in his honor and Dr. Stevens continued to serve the city of Quincy as Supervisor of City Schools until his death in 1949.
Sheriff Morris A. Young said that “the loss of the school is going to have a grave impact on the people and the community as a whole and there were easily a thousand people lining the street watching the building as it burned and people didn't want to leave.” On Sunday evening, the remains were still smoldering with a plume of gray smoke towering over the community and a few walls still standing as many people drove by and stated they just wanted to get that last memory and called it a "surreal" scene.
State Representative, Ramon Alexander also stated that “It will take a while for us to assess the full impacts of the loss of this historic landmark and Florida has lost a part of its rich history.”
The Old William Stevens School, which was owned by the Gadsden County Board of County Commissioners, and was home to an African Artifact and Cultural Museum which had many valuable artifacts and art work as well as other small programs which also utilized some of the space.
No injuries were reported and the fire was declared under control at about 7:30 a.m. six hours after it was reported. The Old Williams Stevens School as many called it covered a half square-block area in a residential neighborhood in the city limits of Quincy."
