Henrietta BARBAROUX, Orlando Educator

Henrietta BARBAROUX followed William Palmer and his young bride to Orlando. The year was 1884. The bride, Ida May BABBITT, orphaned as a young girl, had moved from Natchez to be raised by a family friend, Miss Henrietta Barbaroux, of Louisville, KY.

Henrietta was the founder of Louisville’s BARBAROUX School for Girls, but when Ida May married, Miss Henrietta came to Orlando with the Palmer’s, boarding at first at Jacob Summerlin’s Hotel. In 1887, Henrietta Barbaroux founded the Southern Home School for Girls, serving as Principal. Maria LINDSEY and Georgia MADDEN were two of the teachers at the school in 1887.

Like many central Florida settlers, Miss Barbaroux returned to Louisville, and yet her vision for a girl’s school lived on. “That was in the long ago,” wrote Historian Kena Fries in 1938, “when Miss Barbaroux saw the vision of the present Cathedral School for Girl’s on beautiful Lake Eola.”

Henrietta died in 1912, and the Miss Barbaroux obituary said the woman had dedicated her life to teaching young women: “St. Andrew’s Church, Louisville, has lost probably its oldest communicant in the death of Miss Henrietta Barbaroux who died at her home in Louisville at the age of 90. Earlier in life she had conducted a very successful private school.” 

1919: Orlando's Cathedral School for Girls

Henrietta Barbaroux had in fact conducted TWO successful private schools, one in her home town of Louisville, and another in the wilds of central Florida. She had also inspired a third, for the Cathedral School for Girls served its Orlando community well into the 20^th century. 

Tomorrow: Widow Saunders; Town builder.