The death of a neighborhood: Inside Public School #8

Over the years, the school’s name changed several times. In 1910, the School Board had called it Graded Springfield School, later East Springfield School, and then East Jacksonville School. In 1956, it was renamed James Allen Axson Elementary School. Born in Orangeburg County, South Carolina in 1894, Axson served as the school’s principal from 1938 until his retirement in 1955.

The school’s fortunes declined with the aging bungalow and frame vernacular neighborhood it served. As the city began to sprawl, expressways were used as solution to efficiently move traffic and as a tool for urban renewal and blight removal. By the mid-1960s, the Haines Street Expressway (now MLK, Jr. Parkway) had been completed just east of the school, physically severing neighborhood connectivity and accessibility.

Seeking to repurpose aging and under-performing schools in blighted neighborhoods, Axson eventually became a Montessori school as a part of the Duval County Magnet Program in 1991. The hope was to provide specializations in education that parents across the entire county might select for their children, attracting them to attend schools in the inner city.

By the late 1990s, the time had arrived where the school board needed to invest money in what had become the second-oldest public school building still in operation. Estimating spending as much as $10 million, being cost-prohibitive, a decision was made to abandon the inner city neighborhood in favor of a new $10.4-million, 23.7-acre suburban site 17 miles away. After the 2005 opening of the new Southside campus, Public School No. 8 operated as the Northeast Springfield Head Start Center before permanently closing after the 2012-13 school year.