Historic Stanton High to be restored in Jacksonville [Video]

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville’s oldest high school for African Americans got some love and attention Saturday morning as area groups got together for a community clean up event.

The Historic Stanton Building sits in Downtown Jacksonville on Ashley Street, but after years of sitting empty, the building is now a shell of its former glory.

Sunday morning, crews spent hours landscaping and restoring the area. Some volunteers had a special connection to the Historic Stanton School.

“When I went here, the service with the teachers was amazing,” Bejion King, a volunteer, said.

In 1869, a group of former slaves built a two-story wooden schoolhouse on the property. The name Stanton in honor of a champion of education for negro boys and girls, Gen. Edwin McMasters Stanton, President Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of War.

That building …