Friends of Historic Claflin sign lease with city to restore site, create 'holistic educational complex'
A year and a half after they started this effort to save the 147-year-old site of the city's first public school for black children, leaders of the Friends of Historic Claflin gathered Tuesday in the Columbus Consolidated Government annex and signed the lease that allows their vision to come to fruition.
"This is a monumental day for us," said the Rev. Richard Jessie, the FHC's executive director of restoration. "... We believe we are getting very close toward realizing a holistic educational complex in the form of Claflin School."
Representatives of 14 programs have expressed interest in being part of Claflin if FHC's $10.5 million fundraising campaign culminates in the restored facility's planned reopening in September 2018 to coincide with the school's 150th anniversary, Jessie said. Some of the programs he mentioned include parenting and adult education, Head Start, the Columbus Black History Museum and Archives, the Sickle Cell Anemia Foundation, the Columbus Urban Debate League and iCivics, which promotes engagement in democracy.
According to the lease, FHC will pay the city $1 per year for 10 years, with options for five-year extensions. City manager Isaiah Hugley congratulated FHC on this milestone.
"If the project is completed as planned, this historic school will have been preserved and the building will continue to be used for educational purpose as specified in the original deed," Hugley wrote in an email to the Ledger-Enquirer. "The building will serve as a showpiece for former students, visitors, and future generations as the story is told about the education of African American children in Columbus, Georgia, in the early years."
FHC board president John House also mentioned Westville possibly locating offices in Claflin after it moves the 1850-era living museum from Lumpkin to Columbus next year. House, a retired U.S. Army colonel, was the Republican nominee in 2012 for Georgia's 2nd Congressional seat before losing to incumbent Sanford Bishop.
House emphasized, although Claflin's historic significance is as a black school, its future significance is broader in scope. So having a white president of the FHC board might help spread that message, he acknowledged.
"We don't want Claflin to be only for people who went to Claflin or only for the African-American community of Columbus," he said. "We want it to be for the entire community."
And the restoration of Claflin could revive more than the historic site at Fifth Avenue and Linwood Boulevard, he asserted.
"Parts of town look pretty grim down there," House said. "If Claflin gets restored and is a nice-looking building, other entities -- other companies, businesses, restaurants, whatever -- might want to come in and establish an operation in that area because, instead of being concerned about homeless people living in Claflin right now, which has been going on, we've got a good-looking building that has good stuff happening in it."
Claflin, among the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation's 10 Places in Peril, is listed on the National Historic Register and the Georgia Register of Historic Places. It was an elementary school from 1868 to 1973. A fire destroyed the original building in 1958. Two buildings remain on the site: an eight-classroom structure with tile constructed in 1921 and a 12-classroom brick structure constructed in 1948.
Mark Rice, 706-576-6272. Follow him on Twitter@MarkRiceLE.
HOW TO HELP
To donate to Friends of Historic Claflin's $10.5 million fundraising campaign, or for more information about the project, visit www.friendsofclaflin.com.
This story was originally published December 29, 2015 at 4:39 PM with the headline "Friends of Historic Claflin sign lease with city to restore site, create 'holistic educational complex' ."