#Thread:

Okay, I'm taking a crack at this. This photo is beautiful. I'm going with two schools—one in Ocala and one on the outskirts of Ocala. One is Howard Academy, which would have been Howard High School when this photo was taken. The other: Fessenden Academy. https://twitter.com/spacedemands/status/1381414037150371840

Howard Academy was a school established for Black children by the Freedmen's Bureau in 1866-67. By 1880, it was run by all Black teachers. It was destroyed by a fire in 1887 and was rebuilt one year later. It became a high school in 1921.

This depiction is from 1915--post-fire.

Fessenden Academy was founded in 1868. Initially led by white women, they hired their first Black teacher in 1887. It was named for a man who toured the school and donated $ and resources. Their principal, Joseph Willey, mysteriously disappeared in 1915.

This is Joseph L. Wiley. I have a theory about him, but that's another thread entirely.

From what I can gather, Fessenden had many buildings. It was a campus. Here are a dorm and a business office.

In this picture, Howard Academy's windows have 4 panes. The image provided in the RT shows students standing in front of windows. These windows seem to have more window panes.

The pictures are taken 16 years apart. Perhaps the windows were changed?

Because that window to baseboard/foundation proximity looks about the same...