BAKER — On Jan. 3, 1915, 128 students in eight grades and their three teachers entered the portals of Baker School, a new, two-story, $4,500 brick institution.
The school — built with a local bond issue and county education funds — had an inscription at the entrance that read, “1915, Board of Public Instruction, Santa Rosa County." A few short months later, Baker became part of the newly formed Okaloosa County, and the community was vying with Crestview to be voted county seat, but the inscription remained.
Baker School had a brick façade and high-ceilinged classrooms, but today's students probably can't imagine life back then, without modern conveniences. Water came from a hand pump — with students and faculty members drinking from the same cup — and bathrooms were outhouses behind the school.
A metal fence surrounded the school to keep out livestock, which, until Florida’s stock laws were established, wandered communities at will. A visiting pig or goat interrupted many rural classes.
EARLY SCHOOLS
The new building wasn’t Baker’s first school. Griffith School — the area's first recorded school, built 3 miles east of present-day Baker, near the Yellow River and Old Spanish Trail — operated from 1892 to 1898.
In 1899, School No. 36 opened at Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church in what was then called Cobb. In 1910, the school closed and students moved to the nearby Jim Miller School. In 1915 it, too, closed when Baker School opened.
Schools also operated in Milligan, Galliver, Holt, Blackman, Escambia Farms, Beaver Creek, Hester, Bon Terra, Red Oak and Penny Creek.
Two other area schools were Red Wash School, about 3 miles north of Cobb, and Stanley School, built in 1917 in Baker.
By the 1920s, most of those schools’ students were consolidated at Baker School.
ACCREDITATION
High school classes were added in the early 1920s as the new Baker School’s population grew.
To prepare these extra students for college, educators saw the need to accredit Baker’s high school program, which required employing certified teachers and buying required textbooks.
Charles Morris and Dewey Henderson, who represented themselves and 73 other students, petitioned the school board for accreditation.
“Getting Baker School accredited was a long, hard job which took us several years to complete,” former Baker School student, teacher and then Okaloosa County School Superintendent George Barrow said.
But in 1923, with 348 students enrolled, Baker became Okaloosa County’s first accredited high school, immediately attracting students from Crestview, Munson and neighboring communities.
Students would travel to Baker and stay at boarding houses during the school week, returning to their homes on weekends.
GROWTH
As its student population grew, so did Baker School. In 1927, a second building across the road was built. In 1948, a wood-and-tin gymnasium was added.
The same year, Baker School fielded its first football team, with a cleared blueberry field serving as the gridiron, adding to the school’s successful basketball squad, which originated in 1924.
The 1927 building burned in 1953 and was rebuilt in 1955. The original red brick building was torn down in the 1950s, replaced on the same site in 1954 with the current building, which has since expanded to provide more than 80 classrooms for kindergartners through high school students.
The student population has grown substantially in 100 years, from the initial 128 students a hundred years ago, to 1,390.
Today, Baker School’s campus is more than a rural educational institution; it’s the center of the community, which regularly supports Gator sports, concerts, classes, parades and other school activities.
Baker has one of Okaloosa's oldest-recorded continuous education histories, dating back before the county’s establishment.
Here are some highlights:
1892-1898: Griffith School opens in Cobb (now Baker) with John Mapoles as teacher
1899-1910: School No. 36 opens at Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church in Cobb
1910-1915: Jim Miller School opens in Baker
1915: Baker School opens at its present location
1921: Consolidation of 64 one-room Okaloosa County schools into 14 larger schools — including Baker School — begins
1923: Baker School becomes Okaloosa County’s first accredited high school and is renamed Baker High School
1924: Baker School’s three-member, first senior class graduates
1927: A new Baker High School building is constructed across Jefferson Street from the original school
1928: The Baker School Alumni Association, one of the state’s oldest, is formed. It is still active.
1953: Baker High School burns, is rebuilt in 1955 and renovated in 1957
1958: Baker High School’s gymnasium is constructed
1970: More classrooms are added and a football stadium is built
1973: The original Baker High School building is demolished
2014: Baker School is designated a state heritage site
Sources: Baker School; Baker Block Museum; 1963 “Baker Gator” yearbook; and The Heritage of Okaloosa County, Florida
EDUCATION IN BAKER
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: CENTENNIAL: Baker School celebrates its first 100 years