Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
The landmark Old Howard Academy on Mamie Scott and Chestnut streets in the northeast part of town is now officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places, effective Monday, July 19.
The Bureau of Historic Preservation, an office within the Florida Department of State (FDOS), informed Gladys Roann-Watson of the building’s placement on the register on Tuesday, July 27.
Roann-Watson is with the Howard Academy Educational and Recreation Council, Inc., (HAERC), the entity that pursued the historic designation and that also has plans for the building’s restoration.
Roann-Watson largely did the research for the application nominating the buildings for inclusion in the national register, a process that required the approval of the Monticello Historic Design Review Board, Monticello City Council and the Division of Historical Resources with the FDOS.
Ruben Acosta, the surveys and registration supervisor with the bureau, related the information to Roann-Watson.
“On behalf of the Secretary of State Laurel M. Lee and our preservation staff, I congratulate you on achieving the formal recognition of the historic significance of this property,” Acosta wrote. “We appreciate your interest in preserving this important element of Florida’s cultural resources.”
The effort to restore the Old Howard Academy and nominate it to the National Register of Historic Places has been a longstanding goal of the African-American community.
Consisting of two wood-frame buildings constructed between 1934 and 1940 during Roosevelt’s New Deal, the Old Howard Academy served as the African-American community’s official high school in Jefferson County from 1936 until disintegration largely undermined its purpose in the early 1970s.
Following its closure as a public school, the buildings served for a time as a day-care center and later as home to the Boys and Girls Club. The buildings have been vacant now for years.
HAERC owns the Old Howard Academy property and is heading the effort to restore the buildings with the idea of one day making the facility again a viable community center.