The new historical display at the entrace of the Edge Elementary School. The display was designed in part by staff from the Northwest Florida Heritage Museum.
Students and parents look through old yearbooks from Edge Elementary's past in the media center.
Students and parents look through old yearbooks from Edge Elementary's past in the media center.
Jil Watson, a former Edge Student, smiles next to a photo of herself from her time at the school as a student. She is one of five teachers at Edge who also graduated from the school. ran
Former Edge Principal (and current Niceville PA announcer for Eagle Football games) Robert Love walks the halls of the school he used to manage along with his son, Bobby.
attendees of the 100th anniversary celebration for Edge Elementary get up after the end of the program to explore the school and the exhibits created for the special events.
An Edge Elementary textbook sits atop an old desk as a display.
Members of the Okaloosa School Board: Parker Destin, Brett Hinely, and Tim Bryant listen along with Superintendent Marcus Chambers and Niceville City Councilwoman Cathy Alley.
Desks topped with past textbooks decorate the Edge Elementary School multipurpose building.
Principal Melissa Kearley speaks to an audience of about 500 gathered to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Niceville School. Kearley has served as principal for four years.
Edge Elementary celebrated a happy occasion this week – their 100th anniversary.
The school, which began as the Niceville School in 1925, was the first school in southern Okaloosa County. The Nathey family, some of the original Boggies, donated seven acres of land for the purpose of building a school.
The school burned down in a fire in 1926. The board of Public Instruction (the name of the school board at that time) rebuilt the school immediately afterward.
In 1936, a massive hurricane devastated the Emerald Coast area – and claimed the school as one of its victims in the maelstrom.
With money from President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and muscle from the local detachment of the Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps, locals rebuilt the school and it began to educate children once again.
Niceville was the first school to adopt a nine-month instruction schedule to accommodate the children of the growing Army Air Corps gunnery range at Valparaiso, which was subsequently renamed Eglin Army Air Field.
In the 1950s, the school was renamed Niceville Elementary School and separated from the high school.
In 1962, a couple of years before the opening of the city’s second elementary school (Plew Elementary), the school was renamed Edge Elementary – to honor the most influential Superintendent of Schools in Okaloosa County up to that time – Lula J. Edge.
The School has matriculated tens of thousands of students over its 100-year history – including notables such as longtime Niceville Mayor Randall Wise, Developer Walt Ruckel and others.
Pro Communi Bono
St. Francis De Sales, Ora Pro Nobis!
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