by Sean McManus
Staff Writer
When the Weaver Family Foundation donated $250,000 in the form of a grant last week to help restore the Klutho apartment building on North Main Street, it was like déja vu all over again.
Almost four years ago, FreshMinistries — armed with $300,000 from the City — acquired the former upscale lodge used by silent film stars such as Oliver Hardy and Charlie Chaplin to begin a makeover. The buzz then, like now, was that the restoration would trigger a new wave of promise for the entire neighborhood.
That was in 1999. Prominent architect and Klutho expert Bob Broward signed on to handle the $2 million restoration, which involved recovery from a massive fire earlier in the decade that destroyed more than 75 percent of the building’s interior. But after a year, the money ran out, renovations stopped and the residents of Springfield rolled their eyes in a way that speaks volumes about being anesthetized to unfulfilled promises.
But some local activists believe that maybe this isn’t the same tired, old Springfield. Besides the fact that the entire city is on overdrive, sprucing up for the 2005 Super Bowl, the overall economic and real estate climate in the neighborhood just north of downtown is breathing with a new vigor.
“There has been a negative cycle where things weren’t getting done but this is different,” said Rita Reagan, who has been lobbying to renovate the Klutho apartment building, now called simply the Klutho Building, for 10 years. Citing long term support from Mayor John Delaney and an increase in the critical mass needed to support local businesses, Reagan said the Klutho Building is already igniting other renovation efforts.
It is telling that one of Henry Klutho’s most important buildings is located in Springfield. Klutho, who is responsible for much of Jacksonville’s architectural heritage, including the St. James Building, now City Hall, and is considered by many as one of the best Florida architects ever, gravitated toward the historic area. Springfield was where many of Jacksonville’s early industrialists lived. It was considered downtown’s gateway.
And nobody knows that better than Reagan, who is perhaps the best - known Springfield community activist and serves on the Springfield Preservation And Revitalization Council (SPARC), which promotes the idea of a Springfield renaissance. It was Reagan, knowing the importance of the Klutho Building as a harbinger for the whole neighborhood, who rallied initial support from Jacksonville Jaguars co-owner Dolores Weaver and the Weaver Family Foundation.
Two buildings bookend the Klutho Building on Main Street — the old Firestone building to the north and an art deco-looking building once used as an education center for the Main Street Baptist Church to the south. Both have sat dilapidated for years and are only now undergoing restoration. That is only some of the evidence, Reagan believes, that the Klutho building is triggering greater interest in the Main Street area.
“In-kind donations have been flowing in to help with this as well,” said Suzanne Downing, director of communications for FreshMinistries, the faith-based nonprofit organization that promotes housing and economic development initiatives and still controls the building. The building has already received new air conditioning units, sprinkler systems, stained glass windows, carpets and floors and $88,000 worth of interior work, all donated from local businesses.
And according to Downing, the City and the State’s Bureau of Historic Preservation continue to be supportive of a plan they believe will spark a crescendo of renovations in Springfield.
The newly named SPARC, the result of a merger with another community organization, the Historic Springfield Community Council, owned the Klutho Building for six years until 1998, when they turned it over to FreshMinistries to be converted into the Center for Urban Initiatives, something they hope will serve as a kind of community center where groups can meet to discuss ideas for positive change in the neighborhood.
“We’re finally seeing some real interest from merchants in the area to clean the whole place up,” said Rick Uhrie, who works at Allied Plastics on Walnut Street and is the president of the Springfield Business Association, a small business group that is holding monthly meetings with the mayoral candidates to discuss ideas for improving Springfield.
“Until recently, everyone was pretty apathetic,” he said. “But now there’s a feeling that this could actually go somewhere.”
Uhrie said that because Springfield is both an Enterprise Zone and an Empowerment Zone — federal and state distinctions which supply tax breaks for businesses — much of his time is spent just educating local merchants about the money that’s available to them.
“Like the facade grant,” he said, “all you have to do is apply and the City will give you money to make your storefront look good. It’s a no-brainer.”
While progress in Springfield has been slow, Uhrie is optimistic.
“It’s not just the Super Bowl,” he said. “We are mobilized for the first time, businesses are moving in and now more than ever, businesses and homeowners are working together for the same goal.”
The crime statistics in Springfield point to a neighborhood that’s changing. According to Assistant Chief Ed Johnson, who oversees Zone 1, including Subsector B, the Jacksonville Sheriff Office’s name for the area north of State Street to 20th Street and west to Palmetto Street, otherwise known as Springfield, violent crime is down 30 percent.
But Johnson’s numbers, based on statistics gathered between January and July, indicate there was an increase in property crimes and also a slight increase in burglary, about 25 more cases than in the first half of last year.
“The property crime statistics are being driven by vehicle thefts,” said Johnson. “But it’s important to remember that the decrease in violent crime means that people are a lot safer there.”
Johnson said that because Springfield is so diverse and many homes are in flux, it’s only natural for there to be some crime.
“We’ve got a lot of new people moving in and restoring homes,” he said. “But we still have a fair amount of transients, too. Except for ultra-exclusive gated communities, crime is everywhere.”
Reagan envisions an area where art is everywhere. Citing all the new cultural institutions slated for the area around Confederate Park, such as the Waterworks Museum, the State Health Museum, the Barnett Mansion and the Scottish Rites building, Reagan said she wants that part of Springfield to be similar to the mall that extends beyond the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C.
“That’s actually what people used to call it in the old days,” said Reagan. “They would say there were going outside to sit at the mall.”
Reagan said when all the plans come to fruition, Springfield will have more cultural institutions per capita than any other part of Jacksonville.
According to Reagan, 60,000 people drive down Main Street every day. That’s one of the reasons why she thinks it’s so important for the City to get behind the revitalization — which it is.
The Main Street Rehabilitation Project, a multi-million dollar effort to clean up the entrance to Springfield, is finally supposed to break ground in November. In addition, Ed Burr, president of Landmark Group, LLC, a residential home builder, is spearheading Building for Life, an effort to renovate 100 homes in East Springfield. And FreshMinistries’ Operation New Hope, an ongoing endeavor to restore homes all over the neighborhood, is seeing increased support from local businesses and property owners.
“It’s not gentrificiation,” said Downing. “We’re pretty picky about that. It’s restoration. We love the mix here and we don’t want to change that.”
As for the Klutho Building, which is meant to be the beacon for the rest of the homes to follow, more money is needed before the job will be complete. That’s something, Downing said optimistically, could happen by the end of
the year.