In the late 1800’s, as the railroad pushed farther west into Gadsden County, the Humphrey Company established a settlement in 1897. Owned by W.P. Humphrey, the company dealt in land, timber, and general merchant services. After Gretna was platted as a town in 1905, residents wanted a school within the town limits. In 1908, W.P. Humphrey and his wife Sarah M. Humphrey, together with J.W. Mahaffey and his wife Addie Mahaffey, deeded the land for the school to the Board of Public Instruction for $100. R.A. Gray, who later became Florida’s longest serving Secretary of State, was a principal there from 1910-1911. The building served as a school until 1935 and still stands with only minor changes from its original design, consisting of three rooms on the first floor and one great room upstairs with a stage on the south side. Since then, it has also been used as a health clinic, town hall, community center, and for church-related activities.