F. D. McArthur School

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F. D. McArthur School
McArthur School.jpg
Active 19101997
School type Public
District Birmingham City Schools
Grades 1-5
Colors green and white
Mascot Hornets
Location 2416 17th Avenue North, (map)
Birmingham

F. D. McArthur School (originally 17th Avenue School, also Frank Duncan McArthur Elementary School) is a 29,800 square-foot former Birmingham city school located on a 4.27-acre site on the northwest corner of 17th Avenue North and 25th Street in Druid Hills, near Carraway Hospital. It was built in 1910

An 8-room addition to the school, designed by Warren, Knight & Davis, was completed in 1941 in replacement of the classrooms lost when Barker Elementary School was destroyed by fire. In 1949 it was named for long-time Birmingham Board of Education president Frank Duncan McArthur, who died that same year.

The school's colors were green and white, and its mascot was the Hornets.

McArthur School closed in May 1997. A 2003 agreement to sell the property to a church fell through. On June 13, 2004 the Birmingham City Council agreed to buy the McArthur School, Baker Elementary School and Fairview Elementary Schools from the school system for a total of $654,000. The purpose of the transaction was to bank land for future residential use.

In 2008 Mayor Larry Langford announced that Shinsegae USA, Inc., a South Korean-owned firm which was interested in the adjacent medical center, would also purchase the school building and invest $2.5-3 million to renovate it as a nursing school for Korean students who wanted to work in the United States. That project was never realized.

In August 2021 the city solicited proposals for redevelopment of the site. Zimmerman Properties of Atlanta, Georgia announced that they were planning to submit a bid.

Principals

References

  • "Birmingham sells McArthur School" (September 24, 2003) The Birmingham News
  • DeButts, Jimmy (June 25, 2008) "Physicians Medical Center's South Korean investors to buy, restore McArthur School." Birmingham Business Journal
  • Velasco, Anna and Joseph Bryant (June 26, 2008) "South Koreans to invest in Norwood as well as hospital." The Birmingham News
  • Mann, Joshua (September 30, 2021) "Zimmerman Properties eyes two more Birmingham projects." Birmingham Business Journal