Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
After multiple years of delays and back-and-forth rounds with the Florida Division of Historic Resources (DHR), a change in the scope of the work to be performed for the A-Building (pictured above) has been approved by the latter. This allows the county finally to proceed with the use of a $500,000 grant that was awarded in 2023 related to damage from Hurricane Michael in 2018.
On Thursday, Oct. 22, the Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners accepted an amended grant agreement that revises the scope of the work to include the abatement of hazardous material; the repair and replacement of exterior rotted wood features; the repair and restoration of the concrete staircases and landings to mitigate water intrusion into the basement; the repair or replacement of 13 windows; the repair of the damaged roof; and the cleaning and repair of all gutters.
The original scope of the work included the disassembly and storage of the reusable portions of wood floors and related historic elements on the first and second floors and staircase; the demolition and removal of the existing concrete basement floor slab; the installation of a new drainage system; and the waterproofing of the interior walls of the basement spaces.
The grant agreement approval followed a presentation by County Manager Doug Baber and MLD architect J.J. Scott a little more than a week earlier, in which they first informed the commission that the county would finally be able to use the $500,000 grant.
In the discussion on Oct. 8, Baber told the commission that after multiple discussions with the DHR, the latter had finally agreed to the county’s proposed scope of work, which was different from what had been described in the original grant application. The new proposed work, he said, aimed at the hardening of the building, as opposed to addressing exterior aesthetics.
Scott, who has been working pro bono on the project for several years, expounded on the theme, saying that the updated scope of work would better address the structure’s current problems.
“It addresses a lot of the wood rot situations and some of the leaky gutters that are causing some of the wood rot,” Scott said. “This is a grant that was applied for years and years ago from Hurricane Michael funds, and we've gone round and round and round with the DHR over the years. I’m the second architect to attempt this. Nevertheless, we were able to secure the funds, and we got an approved scope of work from the DHR. Everything is being amended as we speak, and we should be receiving something back from the DHR very soon so we can get started with the bids.”
The proposed work, he added, was in line with what he had discussed with the commissioners a year or so earlier in terms of the need to keep the project moving forward.
To underscore Scott’s point, Baber noted that if work wasn’t continued on the A-Building, the county stood to lose ground.
“I’d be remiss if I didn't mention that if we don't continue the progress on this building we stand a chance of some clawback on some of the dollars that we've already spent,” he said. “So we need to make sure that we keep the ball moving forward.”
Commissioner Gene Hall raised a question that comes up periodically in discussions of the decades-long effort to renovate and restore the A-Building.
“I’ve been on this board for a while, and we have spent $500,000 here, $600,000 there, and another $800,000 on the A-Building,” he said. “We knew about the water intrusion and pumping the water out and all these other problems and stuff. Years ago we took a tour of the building, and we were able to go inside and see everything that had been put in to harden the building, and all the other stuff. You know, the aesthetics and cosmetics and all the small and big things that had been done. Now we're spending another $500,000 to upgrade the building. The question is, when will we be able to move in?”
Scott agreed that historic preservation projects often seemed to become never-ending endeavors. He reminded the board, however, of his presentation about a year earlier in which he had proposed budget and a scope of work to complete the project.
“I would love to tell you that it's soon,” Scott said of the A-Building’s completion, “but it really depends upon what kind of funding we get.”
He noted that starting in November, the county was expected have on staff a grant-writing specialist, who should be able to help secure additional DHR funding. The state agency, moreover, had recently upped the grant amount to a $1 million award, which should speed the renovation process if the county were able to secure such grants, he said.
He also planned, Scott said, to approach State Representative Allison Tant to see if the latter would do a legislative budget request so that the county could get the necessary appropriation to complete the project in one fell swoop. That, at least, was his plan, he said.
“We’re going to do our best to get it done as quickly as possible, because I want you in that building as well because it needs to be used,” Scott said. “It's too dadgum good of a resource not to be used. Nobody else in the state has it. In just purely square footage, it's unbelievable, and then to have that historic aspect to it – the skill and labor that went into building it. Goodness gracious, it’s just totally impressive.”
Commissioner J. T. Surles suggested the idea of approaching large landowners in the county to ask them for donations to help complete the renovation.
“There's not only some millionaires but there are some billionaires in our community who may just want to have a plaque,” Surles said. “They’re just probably sitting there with a check, but we’ve got to ask them. Find a way to serve it to them. Once that grant writer comes in here, you all may come up with a plan to approach some of these people who love to give back to their community and help push this thing along. The idea caught traction years ago, but I think we’ve got the people in place now to actually go and serve them something that they would be ready to write a private check to. I just think it's a stone that we need to uncover.”
Scott agreed that the idea was a good one, calling the county’s large landowner an untapped resource and expressing a willingness to approach for donations.
Clerk of Court Trey Hightower observed that when Jefferson County returned to the legislature for funding in future, it would find itself in a much better position to do so because of its current financial soundness.
“I feel like we are in a much better place now because when you're so far behind on your audits and your finances and you go to ask for money that doesn't look good,” he said, “but we have since caught up and we're trying to show the state that we’re doing things the right way. I feel like our request may not fall on deaf ears in the future.”
In his presentation to the commissioners in mid 2025, Scott put the cost of completing the A-Building restoration at about $5.1 million, not counting the nearly $5 million that had already gone into the restoration project. Were local officials to decide to construct a building of similar size on a new lot, the cost would exceed $11 million and the new structure would lack the high quality and historical significance of the A-Building, he told them.
As part of his presentation, Scott then provided the board with a plan for the completion of the restoration in phases over a six-year period, with the DHR largely funding the endeavor through grants, or at least through Phase 5. The county, he said, would be responsible for financing the last phase, which he estimated would cost about $660,000, unless other funding sources could be found.
This latest $500,000 infusion was originally part of $50 million that Congress awarded 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 for recovery from Hurricanes Florence and Michael and Typhoon Yutu.
The NPS then 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 by Hurricane Michael in 2018.”
Jefferson County applied for the $500,000 sometime in 2021, representing it its application that rains from Hurricane Michael had caused extensive damage to the A-Building.
Since 1999, when the A-Building restoration project began under the auspices of the school district, which then owned the building, more than $5 million have gone into the effort, not counting this latest grant.
Built in 1852, the A-Building, then known as Monticello High, 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 in the state.
ECB Publishing, Inc. Photos by Laura Young, October 26, 2026