Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
Although late in coming, Jefferson County recently received another $500,000 grant for continuation of the A-Building restoration, a project that has been ongoing now for about 30 years.
County Manager Shannon Metty informed the Jefferson County Commission about the latest funding on a meeting on Friday morning, May 26.
“They gave us the money late, so we’re having to file an extension,” Metty said. “But it’s something that we’re moving forward on.”
She added that she was working with J. J. Scott of MLD Architects, who was helping with the paperwork for the extension.
Scott also, she said, was helping with creation of the scope of the work to be done on the building’s east wing, the focus of this latest funding.
“We’re going to be rebuilding the stairs and other things there,” Metty
said. “Once we get that done, we’ll bid out the project for a contractor to do the work.”
As for the stormwater issues that the building has long been experiencing, Metty said there was now an idea of how to address the problem.
“I know I would like to get it done,” she said of the overall restoration. “It’s one of those things that’s been sitting there, and we’ve spent a bunch of money on it, and you can’t really tell it. It’s one of those, either get it done or don’t and take it down or something. I don’t know if we’ll make the 2027 deadline that I have in mind to have it finish, but even if we don’t, if we at least have the bottom floor finished by that time, that would be pretty awesome.”
2027 is the year that Jefferson County celebrates its bicentennial.
With millions already invested in the restoration and much more that still needs to be done, the Old Monticello High School – more commonly known as the A-Building – has become a touchy subject among some, who question if the county isn’t throwing good money after bad on the project. There are others, however, who see the historic building as a priceless asset worth saving.
Since 1999, when the building’s renovation and restoration began, nearly $3 million has been poured into it in state and federal funding, plus $600,000 in local contributions, not counting the just received $500,000 grant.
Per a cost estimate provided by the previous architect in 2018, the restoration at that time was 50 percent completed and it could cost another $4 millions or more to finish, depending on a number of factors.
Those factors, the architect said at the time, included rising costs in labor and materials, as well as unforeseen problems and obstacles that could occur as the project moved forward, such as the discovery of the water intrusion problem.
This latest $500,000 infusion is from the Division of Historical Resources in the Florida Department of State. Originally, however, this money was part of a larger amount that was awarded to the National Park Service (NPS) in the U. S. Department of Interior in 2019 as part of the Emergency Supplemental Historic Preservation Fund and Hurricane Michael Recovery Fund.
Of which funding, the NPS awarded the Florida Division of Historical Resources $10,200,000, and the latter made $8,054,000 of it available to local governments “for recovery, repair and disaster mitigation activities directed at historic properties damaged during Hurricane Michael” in October 2018.
Jefferson County, in its application to the state for the $500,000, attributed flooding damage to the building caused by rains from Hurricane Michael.
Per the grant requirements, the $500,000 must be used to repair and mitigate against future damage to the building. Among the permitted uses for the money are the disassembly and storage of the reusable portions of the wood floors on the first and second levels and the staircase; demolition and removal of the existing concrete basement floor slab; installation of a new drainage system; and waterproofing of the interior walls of the basement spaces.
Some of the funding may additionally be used for geotechnical services, including soil borings, soil testing, groundwater measurements and an intensive survey of the underground piping within the building’s footprint and throughout the site.
The latter is to identify, if possible, the causes of the flooding and water infiltration problems in the building basement.
The new money is generally supposed to go towards the repair of the building’s east wing, where the water intrusion has caused extensive damage. Part of the work also will entail waterproofing the wing against future water-related damage.
The restoration effort in 1999 began under the leadership of the school district, which still technically owns the building. The county, however, has been involved in the restoration effort since 2012, when it negotiated a lease/purchase agreement with the school district for the upkeep of the historic structure and ultimately its ownership.
Since its takeover of the building, the county has put at least $1,800,000 into the restoration, $1,200,000 of it in state funding and $600,000 in local contributions.
Built in 1852 from bricks handcrafted by slaves at a nearby plantation, the A-Building served as this community’s high school until 1985, when it was shuttered because of safety concerns over its structural integrity.
It is today recognized as the oldest brick schoolhouse still standing in Florida.