About Hopper Academy

Hopper Academy is the oldest-known public school for blacks in Seminole county, dating back as early as 1886. The Sanford School was know as Colored School #11 and consisted of one staff member from 1886 until 1894. The 1898 Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction William McLester as principal and states the lot for the school was donated in 1881 by the Land and Colonization Co.

J.N. Crooms came to Sanford in 1906 to serve as principal of the schools serving the African American community of Georgetown. In 1906, under his leadership, a new high school was constructed at 11th Street and South Pine Avenue, the current Hopper Academy. An addition to the building was made in 1916. In 1926, Prof. Crooms and his wife Mabel opened a high school on the east side of town on land they donated. This became Crooms Academy. As high school students moved, Hopper Academy became a grammar school. Hopper Academy ceased to be used as a school in 1968 when Goldsboro Elementary School and the new Hopper Elementary School on Bay Avenue opened. 

Years of neglect led to the building being offered in 1989 to the Sanford Fire Department for use in a training exercise. At news of this possibility, the Georgetown Community Association began efforts to rescue the historic structure. City of Sanford Ordinance No. 3090, adopted December 9, 1991, designated Hopper Academy as an historic landmark within the City of Sanford. In 1993, the building became the property of the Community Improvement Association of Sanford. In 1994 the school was placed on the Florida Black Heritage Trail. In 2015 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and it is a contributing structure of the Historic Georgetown Neighborhood National Register Historic District.

Repairs and renovations in 1999, 2016, and 2026 have allowed Hopper Academy to continue to serve as a focal point of the Historic Georgetown Neighborhood, serving as a cultural, arts, and community center.