| Camp Walton Schoolhouse |
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Congratulations to the Camp
Walton Schoolhouse. The schoolhouse has received recognition from the Country School Association of America, National Schoolhouse
Registry as a school building that has contributed in a positive way to the appreciation and understanding of the country
school experience.
Located in the heart of historic downtown Fort Walton Beach, Florida sits a restored two-room school,
now known as the Camp Walton Schoolhouse Museum. Step back in time to view rows of wooden desks, a pot belly stove, well used
chalk boards, a Victrola, recitation bench, slate boards, a dunce seat and hats and bonnets hung neatly on their pegs.
The school opened in 1912 as a one-room school for children in grades one through eight with one teacher. In
1927 another room was added on the back of the building for children in grades nine through twelve with another teacher. In
1936 this school was closed and a new all brick school was built called the Fort Walton Grammar School
The Junior
Service League and the Okaloosa County School board adaptively restored the building in 1974. The City of Fort Walton Beach
assumed the operation of the building and programs in 1986.
In January 2006, the Camp Walton Schoolhouse Museum
joined the Indian Temple Mound Museum, the Fort Walton Temple Mound, and the Garnier Post Office Museum to create a Heritage
Park & Cultural Center at 139 Miracle Strip Parkway (Hwy. 98).
The schoolhouse is open Sept - May: 1:00
pm - 3:00 pm / June - August: 12:00 - 4:00 pm. Admission is paid at the Indian Temple Mound Museum for the Heritage Park
site.
A great resource book on early schools is America's Country Schools by Andrew Guilliford publiched
by The Preservation Press ISBN 0-89133-179-4.
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