Fanneal Harrison and Catherine Gavin visited the Harrison winter home at Siesta Key in 1922 for a restful vacation after their World War I relief work in Europe.
Instead of resting, they founded a progressive school in the sunshine where children studied outdoors. They followed Dr. Ovide DeCroly's principles of education, which taught that instead of teacher-imposed discipline, curiosity, freedom, and self-discipline would motivate learning.
The Out-of-Door School opened in 1924 with ten students and five teachers. Classes "for healthy minds, bodies, and spirits" included not only the academics, music, art, horseback riding, swimming and other water sports, and dancing, but also practical skills like carpentry. After local architect Ralph Twitchell designed their library, students built the library, shingled its roof, and even made the door hinges. "Road kill" ended up on the dissecting table for anatomy lessons. Gavin and the children grew vegetables and flowers and made costumes for their shows and pageants.
Gavin's interest in beauty and theater extended to the community. A founding member of the Sarasota Garden Club, she began a theater group that developed into The Players.
Eleanor Roosevelt, Jane Addams, and Thomas Edison visited the school. The National Geographic carried its picture in 1930. Fourteen years after founding the school, Harrison retired. The Out-of-Door Academy, one Florida's oldest independent schools, opened a second campus at Lakewood Ranch in 1996.