Terra Ceia School/Village Improvement Association Hall

Terra Ceia School/Village Improvement Association Hall. . (side 1) , Terra Ceia School, The first school on Terra Ceia was held in the parlor of the W.H. Abel home on Bayshore Drive. In 1894, residents built a wooden one-room schoolhouse here on Center Road. It was designed and built by Captain Charles F. Hobart who donated the land for the building and constructed it based on the model for the new York State rural schoolhouses, which he designed. Hobart also dug the artesian well used for the school. Meetings of the VIA were held in this small building until the Hall was constructed. In 1912, the School Board purchased additional land to the north from James and Elizabeth Anderson and built a four-classroom brick school building which was used until 1948. The building burned in the 1970s, but the foundation remains under the residence located to the north of this marker., (side 2) , Village Improvement Association Hall, In May 1901, a group of nine Terra Ceia island women organized a Women's Club, which became one of the first to be established in Florida. The goal of this club called the Terra Ceia Village Improvement Association (V.I.A.) was to improve and beautify the island of Terra Ceia. Club members paved streets with shell, installed a cistern and library for the Terra Ceia School and hired a janitor for the school. This property was purchased in March of 1905. Ice cream socials, boating excursions, picnics, oyster suppers, bazaars and vaudeville entertainment raised funds to purchase the land and build the Hall. Construction began in 1906, and the building was first used on January 10, 1907. During World War II, a look out tower was attached to the northwest corner of the building and manned around the clock to look for enemy aircraft.