Graduate hopes past is salvaged at Gibbs

To make room for a new school, old buildings at Gibbs High are being razed. But some don't want to lose the past.

By JON WILSON

© St. Petersburg Times, published January 24, 2001

ST. PETERSBURG -- Minson Rubin is a caretaker of memories, and there is one in particular he fears will die.

Gibbs High School, a longtime symbol of pride among African-Americans, is scheduled to be rebuilt in the next few years. Old buildings, some first used when black students and teachers marched to open the school during the 1920s, will be razed.

With them, Rubin fears, will go part of a community's soul.

"In 20 years, no one will know what Gibbs High School meant," he said.

School district officials say plans call for preserving historically significant aspects of the old buildings.

"It definitely will be attempted," said Tony Rivas, the school system's facilities director.

"We don't have any details yet, but we will be working with the school and the community to decide what is important. We don't want to be the ones who will decide what was important, because we might leave something out," Rivas said.

During segregation, which comprised most of St. Petersburg's 20th century history, black students attended Gibbs, the city's only black high school.

It was named for Jonathan C. Gibbs, an African-American who was Florida's secretary of state in 1868 and superintendent of public instruction in 1873.

Through the years, many of Gibbs' teachers, principals and coaches achieved near-legendary reputations as molders of young people.

Even the school's dramatic beginning has become a part of community lore.

Rubin, a 1963 Gibbs graduate, tells the story of how students and teachers walked from the old Davis Academy to Gibbs, where school buildings had been built for white students but never used. According to the story, officials told the black community it could have the buildings -- if it wanted to walk to them and move in.

Concerned though he is with the past, Rubin, now a teacher at Bay Point Middle School, appreciates the idea of a new school.

"It would be a magnificent thing to look at. I'm happy to have that part of it. It's a long-deserved, awaited thing," he said of plans for the $51-million building project.

And though he would like to find a way to keep some buildings, Rubin will push for other ways to recognize the old school's significance.

Among his suggestions:

Preserve the front entrance to the original, brown-brick high school building. "Or make a replica of it if it has to be torn down," Rubin said.

Acknowledge some of the school's historic principals and teachers by naming rooms after them.

Provide a room for memorabilia.

Build a shrinelike memorial using bricks from the old building.

Rubin noted that Blake and Middleton high schools, historically black schools in Tampa, were not torn down although new schools to serve their communities were built.

"On the St. Petersburg side, it didn't happen," Rubin said. "Jordan Elementary School and Gibbs were the last entities we could hold onto and make something out of them."

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright