Let's Save Echo House From Demolition

St. Augustine City Commissioners will hear a presentation to save historic Echo House (what's left of it) from demolition at their Monday, March 26 meeting.

A new 501c3 dedicated to preserving African-American history in Lincolnville will make the ten minute presentation.

I support and commend their efforts.

The presentation is sponsored by Commissioner Nancy Sikes-Kline and the agenda describes the item as "

0. Presentation by Madeline Wise of the Lincolnville Historical Preservation and Restoration Society Inc. (LHPRS) regarding Echo House asking that the property revert back to the City with the LHPRS committing to obtaining grants to ensure the property is made whole again to be used by the Community 
   

Why this matters: In 2015, five craven St. Augustine City Commissioners heard and rejected my appeal from the demolition permit granted the Rev. RONALD RAWLS, JR to demolish Echo House, a 1923 historic building that was once a retirement home for retired African-Americans and later a community center.    As a compromise, RAWLS agreed to preserve 1/3 of it.  Then last year he got a conditional demolition permit to destroy the remaining part of the structure.

The City of St. Augustine has a "right of reverter" and could sue to exercise it, because Rev. RAWLS is no longer using Echo House for a charitable purpose.

And no, my friends, parking for a church is not a charitable purpose.

And no, God did not tell Rev. RAWLS to tear down an historic building for parking, as some of St Paul A.M.E. pastor RAWLS' rowdy parishioners told HARB in 2014.

RAWLS is the Gainesville resident who demands to tear down a monuments to Confederate veterans in the Plaza de la Constitucion (rejected by City Commission, which appointed a seven-person contextualization committee) and a monument to General William Wing Loring in the West Plaza (being considered by the University of Florida Historic St. Augustine board, which is unlikely to go along with his demand).

Update: St. Augustine Report, by former Mayor George R. Gardner, March 24, 2017:

Only one building of Echo House remains

Group wants Echo House returned to city

  A nonprofit organization formed in 2017 will ask the City Commission Monday to take back the historic Echo House property, "so other community organizations may take over and work to fulfill the dreams of the founding family and community's wishes."

   The request, by the Historical Preservation and Restoration Society Inc. (LHPRS), comes three years after the City's Historic Architectural Review Board authorized demolition of two-thirds of the property and less than a year after it approved demolition of the remaining structure, asking that demolition be delayed to seek ways to save it.

   St. Paul AME Church Pastor Ron Rawls spearheaded the takeover and demolition of the property, first to provide space for a now defunct School of Excellence and later for church parking.

   LHPRS Co-Chair Madeline Wise wrote that, "Members of our organization are current or former residents of the Lincolnville Community. We started our organization in February 2017 because of our concerns for the African American community and Historic Lincolnville being gentrified, effectively destroying over 100 years of history in the nation's oldest city."

   A petition with 37 names accompanied the letter.

The historic property, originally a nursing home for African American seniors, was willed to the city, which turned it over to Rosalie Gordon-Mills in 1973, to be "used exclusively for nonprofit, charitable and philanthropic purposes; otherwise, title to said property shall revert to the City of St. Augustine."