Osprey School served the Osprey and Vamo communities from 1927 through June 1976. It was one of four boom-time schools designed by Tampa architect M. Leo Elliot and built along the Tamiami Trail between 1926 and 1928. The school stood on land that had been part of the 145-acre homestead of John and Eliza Webb, originally from Utica, New York, who settled Spanish Point in 1867. Their granddaughter, Mabel Webb Johnson, and her husband Ernest recognized the need for a new school and sold the plot to the school board for $10 on December 28, 1926. Elliot designed the Spanish Colonial Revival-style building with cross-ventilation suited to a hot, humid climate, and the firm of Becchetti and Romersa received the $19,600 construction contract. The one-story, six-classroom school first served grades one through nine. By the time it opened in 1927, the real estate boom had collapsed and Osprey's population had declined. With a dwindling tax base, Osprey School and nearly all other Sarasota County schools closed for several months in 1933 because of a lack of revenue. During hard economic times, parents, families, and teachers helped sustain the school by making repairs, providing picnic lunches for outings, donating supplies, and purchasing vegetables and fruits for school lunches. After World War II, renewed county growth and a soaring population required major school improvements and expansion, but Osprey School was the last county school to be improved in the postwar period. It was finally rewired in 1959, allowing air conditioning and heating units among other repairs. The school remained open without further improvements until June 1976, when it closed and Osprey students transferred to schools north or south of the community. The school board then used the building as a Teacher Education Center until 1989. Gulf Coast Heritage Association, Inc. later acquired and rehabilitated the former school for use as a Visitors Center for Historic Spanish Point, and in 1994 the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.