State agency urged saving historic school
The future of Orlando’s historic Grand Avenue School remains uncertain, but records show Orange County Public Schools began laying the groundwork to demolish the facility years before its doors closed June 7.
School district officials stress that they have not yet decided what to do with the school, where students in the Holden Heights neighborhood south of downtown have been educated for 90 years.
“While demolition is a possibility, no final determinations have been made as to the future use of the property,” School Board Chairman Bill Sublette wrote in a letter to local preservationists this week.
However, records show local and state education officials were weighing the merits of demolishing the school as far back as 2013, which continued despite the urging of the state’s Division of Historical Resources to pursue alternatives to tearing it down.
“Grand Avenue School reflects early Orlando development, and such archi-
tecture would be extremely difficult to replace if lost,” wrote Robert F. Bendus, then the division’s director and the state’s historic preservation officer, in a March 2014 letter.
Raymond Cox, president of the Orange Preservation Trust, said he was “not at all” reassured by Sublette’s letter. He said Bendus’ 2014 analysis only bolsters the argument for preserving the school.
“It is the state [preservation] officer’s job to interpret and to maintain the standards that they put forth for local as well as state [historic] designations, so I think they’re well within their rights to come up with that interpretation,” he said.
Sublette wrote to the Orange Preservation Trust after the group raised concerns about the building’s future, joining Orlando City Commissioner Sam Ings, who argues it could be repurposed to house a charter school, a library or other programs.
Ings and the preservationists say the two-story Mediterranean Revival building, which was designated as a historic landmark by Orlando in 1995, is a valuable relic of Orlando’s past.
In 2014, records show Bendus made a similar case, writing that Grand Avenue would be eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. He called its loss an “adverse effect.”
“We find it unfortunate that Orange County has not chosen to consider alternatives to demolition of the school, such as incorporation into a new school campus or an alternative reuse of the building,” he wrote.
Lauren Roth, an OCPS spokeswoman, said the district is currently conducting health and safety inspections on the building. Its historical value is not a part of that process, she said.
“We’re looking at the condition of the building and what costs we would incur, either to renovate it or demolish it,” she said.
The school’s future is complicated by the possibility that it could be included in a land swap. The school district owes the city $1.58 million in land or cash, in exchange for property used to build a new K-8 school soon to open 2 miles away in Parramore.
While Ings favors acquiring the property, Mayor Buddy Dyer’s office has indicated it is seeking to add recreation facilities to the area and hasn’t determined whether the Grand Avenue site can fill that need.
Roth said OCPS attorneys are also working to determine whether the district would be subject to Orlando’s process for altering or demolishing landmarks, which would require the district to seek approval from the city’s Historic Preservation Board.
The board would consider factors including the structure’s architectural significance and rarity, whether the building is a hazard to health or safety or whether there are viable alternatives to destroying it. The City Council would then have final say.
The district has already cleared the hurdles needed for the state to approve razing Grand Avenue School, Roth said. Part of that process was soliciting input from the state Division of Historical Resources, which prompted Bendus’ 2014 analysis.
“It would not be unusual for a municipality and the state to both have their own rules that we would need to follow,” she said.
Dyer spokeswoman Cassandra Lafser said in an email the city is “not currently aware of any exemption” that would allow the school district to sidestep the city’s process for demolishing a historic landmark.
“We believe that as a City landmark, any exterior work or demolition would be subject to our Historic Preservation process,” she said.
Ings has argued that the school building would be a good fit for the recently displaced Nap Ford Community School, an expansion of Parramore Kidz Zone or an Orange County Public Library branch.
However, Orange County School Board member Kat Gordon argued the building is in poor condition and should be torn down for something new — possibly a Boys & Girls Club facility. Gordon said she hopes to meet with the preservationists soon.
“We’re willing to sit down and talk, but I know I would not try to put anybody back in that building,” she said.