| City/Town: • Weirsdale |
| Location Class: • Educational |
| Built: • 1923 | Abandoned: • N/A |
| Status: • Abandoned |
| Photojournalist: • David Bulit |
A Short History of the Old Weirsdale School
The Old Weirsdale School opened in 1923 to serve students in grades 1-12 from East Lake Weir, Weirsdale, and the surrounding areas. The schoolhouse was built by the construction company Ray & Thomas of Ocala for approximately $17,000. The building’s design is a near carbon copy of the Reddick High School building in the nearby town of Reddick. In 1955, with the opening of Lake Weir High School, the school became Weirsdale Elementary School for grades 1-6. It closed in the 1970s when the present Stanton-Weirsdale Elementary School was constructed.
Early homesteaders began settling around Lake Weir in the 1870s. The region boomed with the arrival of the railroad in 1883, which allowed the local community to easily ship agricultural goods to major markets and attracted winter tourists. Local sawmills dominated the economy, with E. Stanton Perrin’s being one of the largest in the region. He invested $50,000 in a large lumber mill and a steamer that transported lumber, citrus, and passengers across Lake Weir. The community of Stanton grew around the mill, along with other communities and small towns surrounding the lake, some boasting hotels for vacationing New Englanders. When the trees were gone and the sawmills shut down, many of these towns disappeared.
Future Use
The old Weirsdale School sat empty until around 2000, when the gymnasium was converted into an opry house. Over the years, it operated under several names, starting as “Hawhee’s Country Music Opry,” then the “Weirsdale Opry,” followed by a one-year stint as “The Great American Music Hall” before finally becoming “The Orange Blossom Opry,” which is still active today. Meanwhile, the main schoolhouse has remained largely unused, serving only as storage and a backdrop for a few interior scenes in the 2001 horror film Jeepers Creepers. Other parts of the movie were filmed at the nearby Old Reddick High School, which famously served as the police station in the film’s finale.
Photo Gallery
