Fellsmere Landmarks Guide: National Register Sites, the 1915 Library and the 1916 School

Fellsmere has five National Register entries: the Marian Fell Library, the Fellsmere Public School and the First Methodist Episcopal Church from 1996, the Heiser House from 2017 and the Fellsmere Historic District from 2021.

The dates in the table come from the NPGallery records for the Marian Fell Library, the Fellsmere Public School and the First Methodist Episcopal Church, from the Florida Department of State announcement for the Heiser House (Florida Department of State), and from the National Park Service weekly list for the Fellsmere district (NPS weekly list). Four of the five sit under the Fellsmere MPS, the shared cover study that lets Fellsmere buildings be nominated one at a time.

The Heiser House stands apart. Its NRIS record lists industry as the area of significance for 1925 to 1943, and the state release ties Frank William Heiser, who lived there from 1915 to 1943, to the Fellsmere sugar cane and fertilizer industries and calls his Fellsmere Sugar Company the origin of the Florida Crystals brand (NRIS 100001862; Florida Department of State release). The Historic District and National Register Sites guide explains each Fellsmere listing in detail.

The Marian Fell Library at 63 North Cypress Street in Fellsmere opens Tuesday and Thursday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., and its phone is (772) 783-6950 (Indian River County Library System).

Eight public hours a week make timing the first thing to plan at the Marian Fell Library. The Fellsmere building is a working branch of the county system, which lists it alongside the Main branch in Vero Beach, the North branch in Sebastian and the Brackett Library at the Indian River State College Mueller Campus (Indian River County).

The 2010 state marker calls it the oldest library in Indian River County and dates the opening to May 1, 1915; Marian Fell paid for it with royalties from translating Anton Chekhov, and two grass courts north of the building hosted the 1916 Fell Cup tennis match (Florida historical marker). One small trap for anyone hunting the marker: the state database gives the marker location as 65 North Cypress Street, next door to the library address. The Marian Fell Library guide covers the building, its additions and the Fell family.

The Old Fellsmere School is the 1916 Fellsmere Public School at 22 South Orange Street, the first masonry school erected in Indian River County (National Register nomination, page 8).

Orlando architect Frederick H. Trimble, who began his career in Fellsmere, designed it, and it taught Fellsmere children until a new building replaced it in 1967 (nomination, page 8). The cornerstone went down in January 1916 and the school was done that October for nearly $40,000, with twelve classrooms, administrative offices and an auditorium (nomination, page 9).

The school board deeded the property to the City of Fellsmere about 1980; when the nomination was written in 1996 the Fellsmere police department used the basement, several social services had offices on the first floor and the Frog Leg Festival was held on the school grounds (nomination, page 10). Those uses are a 1996 snapshot, so current office hours belong to the City of Fellsmere. The Old Fellsmere School guide covers the architecture and the school years.

The Fellsmere Historic District, listed on September 17, 2021, covers blocks along North Myrtle Street, South Carolina Avenue, North Oak Street and Virginia Avenue in the old town grid (NPS weekly list, September 24, 2021).

Broadway holds two older landmarks near the district. The First Methodist Episcopal Church, a brick church finished in 1924, sits at the northeast corner of North Broadway and Orange Avenue, one block north of County Road 512; its 1996 record gives the address as 31 North Broadway (church nomination, page 3). Its NRIS entry names Corydon Nourse as architect and the Bungalow and Craftsman style (NRIS 96001521).

Farther up Broadway, the Fellsmere Estates Corporation Building is a large Mission style building finished about 1926 at 40 North Broadway, developed by the Ammoniate Products Corporation and apparently used as its sales office (NPS Fellsmere study, page 11). It is not one of the five National Register entries. The Historic District and National Register Sites guide maps each of these.

Three Florida historical markers carry a Fellsmere city listing: equal suffrage on Broadway, the Marian Fell Library on Cypress Street and the Fellsmere Grade on County Road 507.

The 2004 Birthplace for Equal Suffrage for Women in Florida marker stands on Broadway at block 99, lots 12 to 14, and records the June 19, 1915 Fellsmere city election in which Zena M. Dreier became the first woman in Florida to vote (suffrage marker). The 1997 Fellsmere Grade marker is on County Road 507 near the road to the Goodwin Wildlife Management Area and tells how the road across the St. Johns marsh carried Fellsmere traffic from 1919 until its bridges burned in the late 1940s (Fellsmere Grade marker).

A practical route for a Fellsmere landmark visit: start at the library marker on Cypress Street on a Tuesday or Thursday afternoon when the library is open, walk to the school on South Orange Street, then back to Broadway for the church and the suffrage marker. The Fellsmere Grade marker needs a car.

Three Fellsmere landmark guides go deeper: the Historic District and National Register Sites guide, the Marian Fell Library guide and the Old Fellsmere School guide.

The Fellsmere history hub explains the farm colony, the 1915 vote and the sugar years that produced these buildings, so the landmark guides stick to what stands in Fellsmere today and how to find it.