Dauphin Island community members are racing against the clock to preserve a piece of the island’s history as Mobile County Public Schools moves forward with plans to build a new elementary school on the same property where the town’s original one-room schoolhouse still stands.
School officials have told island residents that construction of the new building is expected to be complete in time for the 2015-2016 school year, meaning any effort to save the old schoolhouse, long known locally as the Little Red Schoolhouse, needs to happen quickly before groundwork begins.
Dauphin Island Mayor Jeff Collier has been among the most vocal supporters of the preservation push, saying the modest wood-frame structure carries deep sentimental value for generations of islanders. He noted that many longtime residents and visitors who grew up on Dauphin Island associate the little schoolhouse with their earliest memories of the close-knit barrier island community.
Collier recently visited Dauphin Island Elementary School to rally support among the very students who now attend classes near the historic building. He handed out t-shirts printed with the slogan ‘save the school house’ to elementary students, turning the preservation effort into a hands-on lesson about local history and civic involvement.
School counselor Tammy Halliday said the students were enthusiastic about the mayor’s visit and enjoyed learning about the schoolhouse’s place in the island’s past. She thanked Collier for taking the time to highlight the building’s significance, describing the little schoolhouse as a structure that is deeply cherished by the school community and island residents alike.
Organizers behind the preservation campaign hope to raise enough money to physically relocate the schoolhouse before construction crews break ground on the new elementary school. If the fundraising effort succeeds, the plan calls for the historic building to be moved and repurposed as a shared community space, with organizers floating the idea that it could eventually operate as a small local history museum open to residents and visitors.
The Dauphin Island Foundation is coordinating the fundraising drive and is accepting mailed donations at P.O. Box 946, Dauphin Island, AL 36528. Supporters say every contribution helps as the clock ticks down on the timeline tied to the new school’s construction schedule.
For a small island community where landmarks tied to its earliest days are increasingly rare, the schoolhouse has become a rallying point that bridges generations, from the mayor’s office to the elementary school classrooms just steps away from where the original building still stands.