According to a speech delivered in 1921 by a local historian, the second location for the school was a second floor room above a storefront, just south of a cigar factory.

Finally, circa 1899, the first purpose-built building for the school was erected on land donated by the S. A. L. Railroad.

It was in this building that the high school held classes, having been founded about ten years earlier in 1889.

The report stated, "The South Florida Normal Institute, Dade City, has reached an enrollment of 322.

No school in the State is doing better work or making more rapid growth than the South Florida Normal Institute.