On March 5, 2025, the Seminole County Board of County Commissioners voted to rezone a historically black school and church in Oviedo - a decision that’s helping the Historic Oviedo Colored Schools Museum take a huge step forward on one of their biggest projects.
For the last seven years, the Historic Oviedo Colored Schools (HOCS) Museum has been working to restore the Gabriella Jamestown Colored School located along State Road 426. Built in 1931, the school was one of six colored schools constructed across Geneva, Snowhill, Chuluota, Winter Springs, and Jamestown, which was once called Gabriella.
The schools served Oviedo’s sizable black population while segregation policies were still in effect.
They were built during a massive push for education in the rural south brought on by philanthropist and businessman Julius Rosenwald. While many black schools of the time were built near churches, the school in Jamestown is notable for having been built inside the St. James AME Church.
As time moved on and desegregation took hold in the 1950s and 60s, the school fell out of use, and it would spend decades as a simple abandoned building before the HOCS Museum, headed by president and Oviedo native Judith Dolores Smith, set its sights on restoring the building to share the history within its walls.
The decision to rezone the property as a museum instead of a church has paved the way for the HOCS Museum to receive a state grant of $228,000, which will go towards the nearly $400,000 renovation costs to turn the historic building into a functional and accessible museum.
When asked about her plans for the property, Smith said she plans to turn it into a living museum, similar to Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, where visitors can take tours and learn about the struggles of the local black community in the Jim Crow-era south.
“Even though desegregation is, as far as I’m concerned, recent history, most people don’t know about that part of history,” she said. “And it’s not just about segregation and desegregation - it’s a much more complicated vision that we have.”
When renovations are complete, Smith shared that she wants the new museum to embody an “everyman statement” inspired by the descendants of African slaves who were taught in one-room schools like the one in Jamestown.
“It’s a story that says no matter if you have a little or a lot, if you put your mind to it [and] determine that you’re going to accomplish a goal, you can do it,” she said. “Don’t let circumstances stop you from achieving - do it. We’re evidence of what happens when you do.”
While the renovations are still ongoing, tentative plans are in place for the new museum to open sometime in 2026.
