OVIEDO, Fla. — Seminole County commissioners cleared the way for a museum at the former Gabriela Colored School in Jamestown this month when they voted unanimously to approve rezoning the property.

Construction is set to start this summer on the Historic Oviedo Colored Schools Museum, which will chronicle the history of six schools in the Oviedo area from 1913 to 1967. Organizers say the goal is to open the museum to the public in summer 2026.

The original property was built during the racially segregated days of the Jim Crow era at the intersection of West State Road 426 and James Road in Oviedo, and is the last of the county's historic colored schools.

Judith Dolores Smith says her mission to open the museum started when she was driving by the property — which is located at 2170 James Drive in Oviedo — and noticed a hole in the roof.

“It doesn’t look like much, but what they accomplished was extraordinary,” she said.

What took place inside the walls of the old wooden building is something Smith loves to share. She even authored a book about the schools, a history that’s deeply personal.

“As a matter of fact, she was one of the first teachers at the Oviedo Colored School,” Smith said, pointing to a photo of her mother in the book.

“Can you imagine with just a one-room school — and the people that came out of here what they did? People who went to the military. People who became professionals, earned their doctorates,” Smith added. “They held classes in this particular school until 1950, when all of the schools were incorporated into the Oviedo schools, and then there was just one colored school for the area.”

All that history could have been forgotten forever when a gaping hole was left in the building's tin roof after a storm.

“That hole was there for six months or more,” Smith said. “Rain’s coming into it, and I pass by most every day. I think, and I kept saying, 'Why doesn’t someone fix that hole, because it’s a historic building?'”

She said something in her spirit spoke to her.

“It said, ‘Why don’t you fix it?’ And that began the journey,” Smith said.

She says it was a journey powered by faith.

Smith asked the property’s owner, the African Methodist Episcopal Diocese, about repairing the hole.

“This is the only area where the school was held inside of the church," Smith said of the historic colred schools. "The rest of the schools were held alongside of churches.” 

Certified Best Roofing donated a new roof, and five of the schools' former students stepped up to form a board of directors for a nonprofit dedicated to saving the space. Smith is now the president of Historic Oviedo Colored Schools Museum, Inc.

“And then I thought, ‘Let’s renovate it’, and in renovating, I said, ‘Let’s make it a museum’," she said. 

A grant from the state of Florida will help pay for renovations.

With so much history within the four walls, Smith said the community was happy to share their memories with her. She said she got pictures from individuals and “just from any and everybody.”

Smith, sitting on one of the 13 original church pews that remain in the building, said she wants to make sure the history of the area's colored schools is preserved.

“Our faith was there when nobody else’s was,” Smith said. “Our faith was there when there were laws on the books that kept us from being our best selves.”

She said faith and education were a powerful combination that led to brighter futures for so many.

“Especially with God — Anything is possible,” Smith said, smiling broadly. “And it’s important, because it’s a part of history, our history, that must not be lost.”