St. Johns County approves contract to renovate historic Old Jail. (Lucia Viti, St. Augustine Record, April 23, 2026)

Another day, another public interest victory in St. Johns County!  

Thanks to County Commissioners, Sheriff Robert Hardwick, Trey Alexander Asner, David Nolan, St. Augustine Jewish Historical Society and thousands of others for supporting preserving the 1953 Old Jail, where 1000 people were illegally incarcerated during 1963-1964, some tortured, including some 16 Rabbis supporting Civil Rights laws arrested for praying on June 11, 1964.  

Others arrested here were the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., local resident Barbara B. Allen, the  Rev. Ralph Abernathy, Hosea Williams, Rev. Andrew Young (later our United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Congressman and Mayor of Atlanta, Dr. Robert B. Hayling, D.D.S., Mary Peabody, mother of the Governor of Massachusetts (Endicott Peabody), the St. Augustine Four (Audrey Nell Edwards, JoeAnn Anderson Ulmer, Willie Carl Singleton, and Samuel White)who were illegally incarcerated by segregationist St. Johns County Court Judge Charles Mathis, who locked them up in state juvenile penitentiaries for six months after they and their parents refused to give in to his indecent proposals that they stop demonstrating against segregation and for civil rights.    

The 1953 Old Jail was almost demolished. We found out about the proposal during Black History Month in 2023.  We stopped the sneaky satraps in. their tracks.  

After sneaky St. Johns County officials spoke of demolishing this historic structure in a budget meeting, We, the People spoke out and were heard and needed.  

I spoke quietly with Sheriff Robert Hardwick about it in 2024.  

Acclaimed civil rights historian David Nolan, the St. Augustine Jewish Historical Association, Rabbi Merrill Shapiro  and other Rabbis spoke out in favor of preservation.  

Fired former County Historic Preservation Officer Trey Alexander Asner wrote a reasoned and documented proposal.  

Yet smug, unthinking County apparatchiks, led by County Administrator JUYYAO "JOY" ANDREWS, graduate of a Chinese Communist law school, actually signed a demolition contract! 

Willful blindness and ignorance of historic preservation were defeated, once again.  

Pray for them.  

By unanimous vote on April 20, 2026 Consent Agenda of St. Johns County Commission Item 13, the historic Old Jail will be preserved and protected.  Forever.

As Alexander Hamilton said, "Here, sir, the people govern."

Let freedom ring!

More here:

https://stjohnsclerk.com/minrec/agendas/2026/042126BCC/04-21-26CON13.pdf

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/08/blog-post.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/05/recommendation-to-nominate-historic-st.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/08/draft-statement-of-ed-slavin-to-sjc.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/06/xxxxxx-dear-ms.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/06/st-augustine-will-commemorate.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/05/big-victory-no-demolition-of-1953.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/05/county-administrator-please-change-june.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/03/statement-of-ed-slavin-to-st-johns.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/02/liz-ryans-february-23-2025-interview.html

As I, Ed Slavin, wrote County Commissioners in 2025:

During Black History Month, we learned that Administration applied for a demolition permit to tear down the old county jail where Dr. King and other civil rights leaders were illegally incarcerated for demonstrating in support of civil rights laws.  Shame on them. Last year, I advised the Sheriff to take the matter to our SJC Cultural Resources Review Board.  But the current County Administrator in her unmitigated arrogance did not do so; Administration sought a demolition permit.   Too many County managers do not give a fig about civil rights. 

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/02/liz-ryans-february-23-2025-interview.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/02/could-st-johns-countys-old-jail-where.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/01/read-trey-alexander-asner-letter-to.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/02/pitiful-february-4-2025-sjc-press.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/02/advocates-try-to-save-civil-rights.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/01/speak-out-february-10-re-saving-st.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/01/beaten-by-klan-in-1963-black-man-just.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2023/08/thank-you-for-saving-historic-canright.html

From April 23, 2026 St. Augustine Record:

St. Johns County approves contract to renovate historic Old Jail

Lucia Viti

St. Augustine Record

April 23, 2026, 4:09 p.m. ET

Last year, the building that once jailed the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and was the site of the largest mass arrest of Jewish rabbis in American history was under consideration for demolition because of maintenance issues and the need for office and parking space.

The consideration to demolish the Detention Center Annex, formerly known as the Old Jail, at 4025 Lewis Speedway, created a firestorm among local historians, rabbis and residents St. Augustine. Backlash paused the decision while the county considered additional options.

Earlier this month, the St. Johns County Commission approved a contract to move forward with the renovation of the county’s Jail Annex to preserve the historically significant structure while maximizing public assets.

According to a news release issued by the county's (sic), collaboration between the St. Johns County’s Infrastructure Delivery Team, the St. Johns County Facilities Management, the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office and the Cultural Resource Review Board.

"The project would not have been possible without meaningful input from residents and stakeholders following earlier discussions about the building’s future," the release said.

County Administrator Joy Andrews described the project as emblematic of the county and the community working together.

“We listened carefully, evaluated all options, and ultimately identified a path forward that preserves an important piece of our history while ensuring the facility continues to serve a functional purpose for our residents,” she said.

St. Johns County Sheriff Robert Hardwick said that he was happy with a solution that respects the building’s legacy and supports the office's operational needs.

“This outcome reflects a thoughtful balance between preservation and progress,” he said in the release.

The Cultural Resource Review Board played a key role in evaluating the building’s historical significance and advising on preservation considerations.

“This is a meaningful step forward in protecting a site that holds deep historical and cultural importance in our community,” Cultural Resource Review Board Chair Susan Schjelderup said. “Preserving structures like the Jail Annex helps ensure that future generations understand and appreciate our shared history.”

The Historical Significance of the Old County Jail

Constructed in the 1950s, the jail's historical significance dates to 1964, when President Lyndon B. Johnson was told that if “he wanted to keep an eye on the leaders of the civil rights movement, he should just look at the St. Johns County Jail because that's where they all were incarcerated.

On June 18, 16 rabbis were arrested and jailed with King in the St. Johns County Jail. The rabbis composed the famous, “Why We Went Letter.” The story made national headlines, including The New York Times, which touted “16 Rabbis Arrested as Pool Dive-In Sets off St. Augustine Rights Clash” on its front page.

s St. Augustine’s drama unfolded center stage, the U.S. Senate ended its 83-day filibuster and signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law two weeks later.

“Why We Went Letter,” is publicly read at the site of the St. Augustine arrest every June.

In an earlier interview with the St. Augustine Record, local historian David Nolan detailed the building’s historical significance and underscored that it was "the government’s responsibility to maintain the historic buildings they own.

"Discussions must focus on preservation," he said. "Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

Thomas May Construction Company will provide the labor, supervision, equipment and materials for $1.63 million. Construction will include casework and countertops, new commercial doors and hardware, a new roof, storefront window assemblies, exterior stucco, framing and drywall along with new flooring, painting of the building’s interior and exterior, new toilets, plumbing fixtures, an HVAC System, electrical circuits, VE lighting and fixtures, a new Fire Alarm System and more.

“The Old County Jail offers a historical educational value, while serving as an important function for tourism,” Nolan said. “St. Augustine is a history teacher to America at large, and we must show America's children something more than ghosts, and pirates and Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum. We must show historical places where real things happened.”

ANNALS OF TRUMPI$TAN: White House Allowed Officials’ Text Messages to Be Deleted, Lawsuit Says (Minho Kim, NY Times, April 24, 2026)

From The New York Times:

White House Allowed Officials’ Text Messages to Be Deleted, Lawsuit Says

Two watchdogs say internal White House guidance that text messages need not be preserved unless “they are the sole record of official decision-making” contradicted the law.

Listen · 6:49 min

The lawsuit comes amid a torrent of accusations that President Trump and his administration have disregarded record-keeping and document disclosure required by law.Credit...Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times

By Minho Kim

Reporting from Washington

April 24, 2026Updated 3:53 p.m. ET

Two government watchdogs sued President Trump and the White House on Friday over internal guidance that instructed that some text messages exchanged between officials could be deleted, despite a law generally mandating the preservation of presidential records.

The watchdogs, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the Freedom of the Press Foundation, also asked a federal judge to overrule a separate but related Justice Department memo, which declared unconstitutional a longstanding federal law requiring safeguarding of presidents’ records, including text messages. The White House guidance cited the memo.

Their lawsuit comes amid a torrent of accusations that the Trump administration has disregarded record-keeping and document disclosure required by law, even as the president and his officials have sought to transform the government and push the legal bounds of their power. They have displayed a particular willingness to skirt record-keeping requirements on text messages exchanged among top officials.

In their complaint, the two watchdogs said the “deficient instructions” from the White House would “result in the irreparable loss or destruction” of presidential records.

“These text messages capture the day-to-day business of the most powerful office in the country — and arguably the world,” said Lauren Harper, who advocates government transparency for the Freedom of the Press Foundation.

She added that the memo “sanctifies” the idea that the president and his White House officials “get to decide what becomes part of the American story,” which she views as “fundamentally wrong.”

Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said the administration maintains “a rigorous records retention program.”

“President Trump is committed to preserving records from his historic administration,” she said in a statement, adding that staff members “undertake records training so they properly preserve all materials” and that the White House was retaining the program “for electronic records — emails and documents cannot be deleted from the White House system.”

On April 1, lawyers at the Justice Department asserted that the Presidential Records Act, which became law in 1978 after the Watergate scandal engulfed Richard M. Nixon’s presidency, was unconstitutional. The act “aggrandizes” Congress “at the expense of” the executive branch and presidential powers, lawyers claimed.

The law stipulates public ownership of presidential records and mandates that documents that reflect “the performance” of the president’s duties and record White House “deliberations, decisions and policies” be “preserved and maintained.”

A day after the Justice Department issued the memo, however, the White House issued internal guidance telling employees that text messages need not be preserved unless “they are the sole record of official decision-making.”

The guidance argued that texting had become “akin to speaking every day” and that preserving all of it would “create an enormous technological burden while chilling the ability of presidential advisers to provide candid advice.” It also said that “complying with” the requirements of the Presidential Records Act “would be immensely time consuming and costly.”

The lawsuit follows another legal challenge to the Justice Department memo by the American Historical Association and American Oversight, another nonprofit watchdog, which led to the disclosure of the April 2 guidance.

Jason R. Baron, a former director of litigation at the National Archives and Records Administration, which manages presidential and agency records, called the White House guidance “deeply flawed.” He said it gave employees “wide latitude in deciding whether or not to preserve records.”

He also questioned the White House claim that text message retention was burdensome, citing detailed National Archives guidance from 2023 on how federal agencies could automate the capture of officials’ text messages.

The lawsuit also lists the National Archives, which is led by a Trump appointee, as a defendant, saying that the organization gave “no indication” that it would resist Mr. Trump’s potential attempts to “assert personal ownership over presidential records.”

Mr. Trump has long shown little regard for records laws. He was known to tear up White House documents and leave them on the floor during his first term. Politico reported in 2018 that some administration officials even had to tape back together shredded documents to ensure compliance with federal laws. At the end of his first term, Mr. Trump took presidential records including classified documents to his private Florida residence, leading to his criminal indictment. (A judge later dismissed the case, and the special counsel dropped it as Mr. Trump re-entered the White House.

In August, the Department of Homeland Security told a government watchdog that the agency “no longer has the capability” to produce copies of text messages on its immigration crackdown that were sent among its top officials. It was later revealed that the department ditched software that enabled automatic capture of officials’ text messages, citing national security concerns, and instead resorted to manual screenshots.

Ms. Harper and Mr. Baron warned that White House records, even from Mr. Trump’s first term, could never be released if the Justice Department’s assertion — that the Presidential Records Act was unconstitutional — stands.

That means accounts of internal White House deliberation on a lethal strike on an Iranian general, Mr. Trump’s reaction to impeachment proceedings and the president’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election could be lost, Ms. Harper said.

He also questioned the White House claim that text message retention was burdensome, citing detailed National Archives guidance from 2023 on how federal agencies could automate the capture of officials’ text messages.

The lawsuit also lists the National Archives, which is led by a Trump appointee, as a defendant, saying that the organization gave “no indication” that it would resist Mr. Trump’s potential attempts to “assert personal ownership over presidential records.”

Mr. Trump has long shown little regard for records laws. He was known to tear up White House documents and leave them on the floor during his first term. Politico reported in 2018 that some administration officials even had to tape back together shredded documents to ensure compliance with federal laws. At the end of his first term, Mr. Trump took presidential records including classified documents to his private Florida residence, leading to his criminal indictment. (A judge later dismissed the case, and the special counsel dropped it as Mr. Trump re-entered the White House.)

In August, the Department of Homeland Security told a government watchdog that the agency “no longer has the capability” to produce copies of text messages on its immigration crackdown that were sent among its top officials. It was later revealed that the department ditched software that enabled automatic capture of officials’ text messages, citing national security concerns, and instead resorted to manual screenshots.

Ms. Harper and Mr. Baron warned that White House records, even from Mr. Trump’s first term, could never be released if the Justice Department’s assertion — that the Presidential Records Act was unconstitutional — stands.

That means accounts of internal White House deliberation on a lethal strike on an Iranian general, Mr. Trump’s reaction to impeachment proceedings and the president’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election could be lost, Ms. Harper said.

Minho Kim reports on breaking news for The Times from Washington.

See more on: U.S. Politics, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, U.S. Justice Department, Donald Trump

TISEMENT