Funding for the brand new Frederick Douglass Neighborhood Middle took almost a decade to finalize. However building took simply 17 months.
Bahama Village residents on March 6 celebrated the completion of the brand new heart at 101 Olivia St., behind the historic Douglass Gymnasium. The brand new neighborhood heart options lecture rooms for after-school tutoring, a 2,600-square-foot occasion corridor, a industrial kitchen and outside courtyard. The brand new constructing, constructed by the native contractors at Keystar, additionally will home the
Black Educators Historical past Museum, which honors the academics who guided and taught Key West youngsters by way of greater than a century in segregated colleges. The brand new heart additionally contains music rooms and rehearsal area for the ever-growing Bahama Village Music Program, which offers free music, singing and theater training to the neighborhood’s kids.
Metropolis Commissioner Aaron Castillo, whose district contains the neighborhood heart, alongside along with his predecessor Clayton Lopez, celebrated the ribbon-cutting.
“This constructing is for the longer term, for our children, their youngsters and different individuals’s youngsters,” Castillo stated.
Lopez stated he was proud to have been part of the challenge, and acknowledged the 4 metropolis managers — JIm Scholl, Greg Veliz, Patti McLaughlin and present supervisor Brian L. Barroso — who supported the brand new $8 million neighborhood heart and labored to get funding in place for it.
Following the March 6 ribbon-cutting, a grand opening will probably be scheduled as soon as the applications are moved in.
