Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
The restoration of the historic A-Building, which has been proceeding in dribs and drabs for more than two decades as the funding becomes available, is about to lurch forward again, thanks to another infusion of money.
Clerk of Court Kirk Reams recently informed the Jefferson County Commission that the county have been awarded another $500,000 for the restoration effort.
The money, Reams said, was coming from the Hurricane Michael funds that the Florida Department of State had been able to acquire for its Historical Preservation Program.
“The grant was obtained because of water intrusion issues that were further exacerbated by Hurricane Michael,” Reams said, referring to the Category 5 storm that made landfall on the Florida Panhandle in 2018 and destroyed Mexico Beach and much of Panama City, as well as wrecking havoc across the region.
Reams said that much of the money would go towards repairing the building’s east wing, where water intrusion has caused extensive damage. Part of the work, he said, would also entail waterproofing the wing against future water-related damage.
Since the restoration of the A-Building began in the late 1990s, more than $4 million has been expended on project, largely from state and federal grants.
And according to the last estimate given to county officials about three years ago from architect Bill Douglas, who has been overseeing the restoration since 1998, it could cost another $4 million to complete the project.
That was $4 million “plus or minus 10 percent in 2018 dollars”, Douglas added at the time, noting that the restoration was then only 50 percent complete.
The estimate also, he said, didn’t include unexpected costs that could arise from unforeseen obstacles or problems, such as the water intrusion, which was already a problem even then.
Built in 1852 from bricks handcrafted by slaves at a nearby plantation, the A-Building – originally 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.
The building, which was known simply as the old house school once it was shuttered, gained its A-Building designation when the state later numbered all the buildings on the Jefferson County High School campus.
The effort to restore the building began in 1999 under the leadership of former school superintendent Bill McRae, when the school district received a $375,000 historic preservation grant from the state to begin repairing the structure.
Following that first grant, a $299,000 preservation grant was awarded to the district in 2000-2001, followed by another for $331,000 in 2002, according to McRae, who has become the building’s historian.
In 2006, the school district received a fourth grant of $347,000 for the restoration effort, after which time, the district turned the building over to the county via a lease-purchase agreement and the county took over the restoration effort, largely under Reams’ guidance.
The county received its first preservation funding for the restoration of the building in 2015, a $350,000 grant. It received another grant for $525,000 in 2016, and in 2017, it received a third for $500,000. And this is not counting other monies that the county has invested of its own in the building through the years.
According to Douglas, when the school district started the renovation and restoration effort, it was estimated that the total project would cost $2 million to complete. That figure is now looking close to $8 million.
The A-Building is today the oldest brick schoolhouse still standing in the state.