Eatonville Mayor Angie Gardner says she’d like to see the site of the former Hungerford School returned to the town of Eatonville.
Mayor Angie Gardner’s comments came at a League of Women Voters mayoral forum with the Eatonville, Orange County, Orlando and Winter Park mayors.
When asked about the future of the site of the former Hungerford School, Gardner said she’d like to see the land returned to the town of Eatonville.
“What do we do going forward? We secure the land. We secure the land, so we don’t have to readdress this problem every administration, every RFP," said Gardner. "We secure the land, place it in a land trust for our generations to come.”
Gardner said the site should be preserved for its cultural and historical significance, as the first Black school in Central Florida.
“We are a people that made a decision to secure a place to be, it’s a safe place," said Gardner. "Our founding fathers secured that place and it should be there for anyone, any future generation that wants to remain in that space.”
Orange County Schools announced earlier this month that a contract with a developer for the land had fallen through, but that it won’t be donating the land.
The Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community has sued the county over what it claims is an improper use of the land.
