A Gem of Floridian History: A look at the process of renovating Jefferson High School

Ashley Hunter
ECB Publishing, Inc.

It was the first brick schoolhouse built in Florida, its history dates all the way back to 1852 – 166 years ago – and the original bricks used to construct the school house were all handmade in Jefferson County at the George Taylor Plantation.
On Wednesday, August 22, the old Jefferson High School was the subject of discussion during the week's Kiwanis Meeting.
Bill McRae led the discussion by sharing the history of the school-house, as well as a brief overlook at the grants that had been obtained and the work that had been made in order to bring back to life a crumbling treasure.
McRae is a former Superintendent of Schools for the Jefferson County School District as well as a former teacher at the old high school in the days when it still served as an educational institute for the county's students.
McRae began his presentation by sharing a bit about the school's birth and the events that led to it being constructed.
According to McRae, the school was paid for by the community, especially the Masons and Odd Fellows Organizations within Jefferson County; the deal made with the groups was that they would have a 100 year lease for the second floor of the school – which, at the time was nothing more than a large open space.
“Long before the 100 year lease ran out, they built their own building, moved out and it became one big school,” added McRae.
The schoolhouse existed for 63 years before it had its first bout of major renovations in 1915; the western and eastern point of the building added new wings, complete with a basement under each wing, cement porches on both the front and back of the schoolhouse were added, the large white columns were built, classrooms were added in both wings and floors, indoor restrooms were added for the first time into the building, and electricity was a new aspect added to the school during the 1915 renovations.
Another addition during that year's renovations was a boiler that was placed in the western wing – directly under the classroom McRae would later teach.
“That boiler was there before I was,” said McRae. “When they fired that thing up, the floor would get hot, the wall – which was one of the original walls of the old school building – would get so hot you could hardly put your hand on it. But, in the wintertime, that was a nice, toasty room.”
All the 1915 renovations cost $21,000.
By 1922, the school was growing.
The high school published their first annual (yearbook), which was named The Perian.
McRae showed a copy of The Perian, and a flip-through revealed the goals, hopes and history of that year's graduating class as well as pictures, class poems, and ads from several business establishments that are still common names around town.
By 1933, the growth of the school had resulted in the need for another school, an elementary school, to be built.
In 1938, the school printed their second annual – this time titled The Jeffercello. In this annual, of which McRae also had a copy, some familiar faces and names could be seen and noted, such as Monticello's Iwo Jima hero, Ernest “Boots” Thomas.
Near where the Kilpatrick Auditorium now stands, an elementary school was constructed and assisted in easing the weight of students, as the enrollments continued to grow for the Jefferson High School.
In 1957, the second floor was renovated again; this time, a hall ran through the main portion and divided the library from the Home Economics classrooms.
In 1972, tragedy struck as the elementary school that was built behind the high school burned down and was a compete loss.
“It burned to the ground on a Sunday night, following a football game where Jefferson beat Chipley 21-20 in the semi-finals in the state play-offs,” said McRae. “We blamed that fire on Chipley. But, I don't think they burned it down.”
Four years later, in 1976, the Kilpatrick Auditorium was built where the elementary schoolhouse once stood.
“In 1980, the old ‘A’ Building was beginning to show it's age,” said McRae.
By this point, the schoolhouse was already 128 years old. It had water leaks, the slate tiles on the roof were weighing down the old wood beams supporting the roof structure and there were termites throughout the west and east wings.
“Pigeons were our biggest problem,” said McRae, who was School Superintendent at the time.
“We had two or three hundred pigeons roosting and nesting in the attic of the old building.”
With the large colony of pigeons only adding to everything else, the schoolhouse was beginning to reach a point of dire straits.
After a series of inspections and surveys, the old Jefferson High School was ordered to close their doors in 1985, as it was no longer deemed safe for students.
Those enrolled at the high school were moved to the buildings built behind original schoolhouse, and life resumed.
Though, it resumed without the old schoolhouse structure, which was called the 'A Building' after the state numbered all the school buildings on the Jefferson High School campus.
“Now, the old high school was sitting there all by itself; locked up, empty, not in use,” said McRae.
McRae was superintendent, and said that he had attempted to find a way to fix the old building, but never found the way (or the funds) to completely bring the building back into service.
Then, in 1998, Jefferson County resident Tim Perry informed the Jefferson County School Board about Florida's Historic Preservation Grant.
“It sounded great,” said McRae. However, there was one major problem: submissions for the grant were due the next week, and the grant was heavy in text.
McRae didn't believe it was possible to have the grant completed in time for the submission deadline.
“A few days later, my wife walks into my office and she said 'that grant that Tim [Perry] was talking about? I've been looking at it and I've gone out and found all the information and I'm filling this thing out. I think I can get a grant together that I can turn in next week.'”
With a willing volunteer to put together the grant, the Jefferson School District moved forward – and the grant submission was accepted.
In 1999, the Jefferson County School District received their first grant towards the renovating of the now-closed schoolhouse – over 10 years after the school had shut its doors.
“That was probably the beginning of the saving of ‘A’ Building,” said McRae.
After being awarded the $375,000 grant, the school district went about removing the colony of infested pigeon and enclosing the attic so the birds would also stay out.
“Those pigeons still fly around and try to get into that building. You drive by and look up there, you'll still see those pigeons trying to get in,” added McRae.
More Historic Preservation Grants followed after the schoolhouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2000-2001 a $299,000 grant was awarded to the district, followed by a $331,000 in 2002.
“A lot of work has gone on in that building now,” said McRae. “All the grants we (school district) had, we fixed a lot of things in there; repaired rotten wood and the walls....Those grants were a lot of work, but it was worth every penny.”
A third grant was received in 2006 for $347,000.
Some time after the 2006 grant, Jefferson County purchased the schoolhouse from the School District, transferring the care, keeping and reconstruction into the County Commissioners hands.
According to McRae, the building sat empty and untouched for a couple of years before then-Clerk of the Court Kirk Reams decided to renew the renovation process on the old building.
At this point, Jefferson County citizen of 40 years and Rotarian Bill Douglas joined McRae to provide information about the renovation related undertakings that the county had performed as the current owners of the schoolhouse.
In 2015, the county received their first grant for ‘A’ Building, which was a $350,000 Historical Preservation Grant.
With that grant, the renovation team went into the center part of the main school building and rebuilt the center to be able to hold the load of people that will be required after the building is complete.
“When you walk into the building, you'll see that it's soft and you can feel it move. When you cross over that threshold to the center section, it is [firm]. You can jump up and down, you could put an elephant in there,” said Douglas.
In 2016, another $525,000 grant was obtained to take care of the elevator shaft, electrical 'rough ends' and miscellaneous exterior restorations.
A third grant was received by the county in 2017 – which is the grant that the current restoration process is still drawing funds from.
With the 2017 grant, the old boiler was removed due to it containing asbestos. The walls, first story ceiling and basement structure was also completely removed in order to make repairs and add drainage for the water table under the basement. Ultimately, all the structure that was removed will be rebuilt, Douglas says.
Throughout the renovations done by the county, the mindset to preserve and not throw out and dated materials has been paramount.
Some of the ceramic bathroom toilets and sinks that were installed in 1915 were still in use when the school was shut down in 1985. Many original radiators were also still within the building when the county took over the renovations, and all of those original accessories are being kept to eventually return to the building and show for historical context.
“The idea is to not throw anything away – we want to reuse it,” said Douglas.
While the old Jefferson High School has seen progress and made gains to be once more an aspect of historical pride, it still has a long way to go.
“Total, where we stand right now, is the state grants through the school board amount to $1.8 million. With the added county grants it is $3.8 million,” said Douglas.
That $3.8 million is already over what the school district expected repair costs to amount to in 1999, when they provided an estimate of $2 million.
“When we started the first grant in 1999, when we estimated what is was going to cost, we were at $2.6 million. Here we are, 20 years later, and we are only about not halfway through,” added Douglas, further explaining that since all the repairs have been made in small increments, the cost for labor and materials have gone up throughout the years and have resulted in escalated costs.
“Right now, the county is searching for other means to augment the state grants so maybe we can finish it a bit quicker.”
Already, $3.8 million has been deposited into the old Jefferson High School – but it is nowhere near complete; in fact, Douglas' estimations add another $4 million to the funds that will be needed to bring the high school back to it's former glory, as long as the price for labor and materials don't continue to rapidly escalate. If they do, that $4 million estimation may end up rising as well.
After the completion, there is no doubt that 'Building A' will be a historical marvel for Jefferson County, but the completion may be far off and cost the county greatly before it is all said and done.
“It's a building that really needs to be saved and we saved it,” said Douglas. “This is really a little gem.”