Lewis Archway Plaza dedication tomorrow

Historic City News has been notified that Florida Memorial University, South Florida’s only historically black university, will officially dedicate the recently restored A. L. Lewis Archway Plaza during a ceremony celebrating the school’s former entryway and historic roots in St. Augustine.

The event will take place July 14, 2011, 11:00 a.m., at the Collier-Blocker-Puryear Park located at CR-214 (West King Street) near the intersection with Holmes Boulevard in St. Augustine. A reception will follow with an opportunity to view informational kiosks chronicling the story of Florida Memorial University.

Florida Memorial University traces its origins to 1879 and is the product of two institutional mergers combining Florida Baptist Institute in Live Oak, Florida, and Florida Baptist Academy, founded 1892 in Jacksonville, Florida.

Both institutions served former slaves and their descendants, with a curriculum focused on industrial education, domestic arts, teacher education, and agricultural, mechanical and religious training.

In 1918, the institution relocated to St. Augustine where it remained for the next fifty years. From 1924 to 1940, the institution achieved numerous milestones, including construction of several new buildings and dormitories and a change of name to “Florida Normal and Industrial Institute”.

The archway, built by students in the 1930s, served as the entrance to campus until 1968 when the school moved to Miami, Florida. With the addition of graduate degree programs in education and business, the school was renamed Florida Memorial University in 2006.

The dedication launches the school’s redevelopment of the hundreds of acres surrounding the archway, which Florida Memorial University still owns.

“Florida Memorial University has a prosperous and inspiring history,” said Dr. Henry Lewis, III, president of the university. “The vision of our former presidents led to establishing St. Augustine’s first college and shapes a legacy of educational excellence we still honor today. We are building upon that legacy and transforming it from good to great.”