Admiral Farragut
Academy was founded in Pine Beach, New Jersey, in 1933 under the
leadership of Admiral S. S. Robison, SN, former Superintendent of the United
States Naval Academy, and Brigadier General Cyrus S. Radford, USMC. The Large
School was located right on the water with a dock extending from it to
theToms River
In 1945, a Florida school was
established in St. Petersburg. The school was a Naval Honor School,
authorized to nominate graduates to compete for special appointments to the
various service academies. In 1989, both schools became coeducational, breaking
a fifty-six-year tradition of only enrolling boys. But even after this not many
girls joined. In 1992, the two schools became separate corporations under the
laws of the respective states in which they reside. In 1994, the Admiral
Farragut Academy in New Jersey closed.
The St. Petersburg
Admiral Farragut Academy (still located in florida) took possession of academic
records from the Pine Beach school and integrated its alumni into a combined
Alumni Association located in St. Petersburg. The Academy is the alma mater of
two of the twelve men who walked on the moon, Admiral Alan Shepard, class of '41
and Brigadier General Charles Duke '53. Along with them Lorenzo Lammas graduated
from there, he is an actor that played in desperado and grease among other
movies. But now the school has been torn down. It’s was a
wonderful sight to see inside and out. And legend has it that there were
actual engines of airplanes located in the main building and that an "active"
torpedo used to lie near the docks.
Admiral
Farragut had about 5 buildings that lay abandoned. The main
building was once a popular sight in the area.
After years in shambles
and completely boarded up.
The fire escape like
stairways led to several different entrances of the building.
Many narrow cluttered
hallways could be found through the main building that was used as a Mess
hall and offices of the workers.
The bathrooms seemed
as if they were still in pretty good condition.
There were showers and
lounges.
Much of the
ceiling was falling apart do to extensive water damage.
Restoring this historic
building would have been rather costly.
Once inside,
there were very few ways out. Almost all of the exits and
windows were boarded shut completely, making light very scarce.
An
picture of men in swim suits was found hidden behind a picture frame.
was
someone keeping a secret?
Someone read too
many Steven King novels, or did they. Redrum was written backwards, unless
the person was trying to write each letter to murder in reverse which doesn't
make much sense. On the right looks like two devil tails that were painted
on the wall. Was this before or after this building was left abandoned, as
you can see the paint was chipping showing it's age. Does this have
any connection to the jersey devil or is it just a coincidence?
On two of the abandoned
building that were used for schooling, was a nicely carved ship and a ships
steering wheel.
There is also was
an abandoned gym complete with a dilapidated scoreboard.
There was an
abandoned olympic size pool and an overgrown tennis court.
As you can see the
abandoned academy was rather large.
