Eastport Walking Tour Stops 15-16
Stop #15 is where the Burn's House once stood. Today it's an apartment building, but it doesn't talk a lot of imagination to envision this old house surrounded nay farmlands and pastures. In the 128th and early 19th centuries, raising horses and farming were the economic mainstays. Railroad executive Wm. H Burns built this house in 1894, then developed the surrounding farmland next to the village of Eastport, spurring a spread of housing south of the Horn Point peninsula. At first, the numbered streets in Eastport started with First Street where the bridge is today, and Sixth Street was at the far end of the point. In 1938, the street numbers were reversed, presumably so the new streets could rise in number. Ironically, after all the that bother, those streets were mainly named for Presidents.
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Stop #16 is the Eastport Elementary School. The original square, two-story brick building was completed in 1909 as a school for Eastport's white children. There were 225 students that first year. The school has been remodeled and enlarged over the years to accommodate Eastport's growing population. While the Supreme Court declared separate public schools for black and white children to be unconstitutional in 1954, it wasn't until 1963 that this school merged with the "colored" school on Third Street. Today, with about 260 students, the school is respected for it's dedicated faculty and staff, the level of parental involvement and broad community support.
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