At first glance, Snyder Memorial resembles the church of yesteryear.
In the main hall, pews line the large room, although they’re now off kilter and collecting dust. The stage area still looms front and center. And the stained-glass windows still stream shafts of light through their colorful artwork.
One room over, though, there’s the hole.
Almost three feet deep along the wall, filled with dirt and showing exposed wood where the floor was once laid. It’s a temporary casualty to help the building survive.
Built soon after the Great Fire of 1901, it held Sunday services until the 1970s. It was deconsecrated in 2000 before the St. Johns River City Band purchased it. But after a few years, the organization fell on hard times and the city bought it back in 2004.
It’s been empty since.
The historic building is in the heart of Downtown, a stone’s throw away from Hemming Park and City Hall, along the Laura Street corridor — a stretch many advocates have pegged the key to the area’s revitalization.
For now, though, it’s a construction area.
The city in March issued a permit to JL Tripp Builders for $319,000 to repair the sagging southern wall. The one that began to lean into the narrow alleyway that separates Snyder Memorial from its neighbor, Visit Jacksonville. The work was delayed because of One Spark, but began shortly after.
The wall — and its two- to three-inch crack — is now mostly repaired, braced and has some additional brick around it. Wooden lintels in several windows were rotted and replaced with galvanized steel.
Still, the first thing one notices is the gaping hole in the floor.
“It looks a little different in here now,” project manager Robert Tripp said with a slight laugh.
The excavation is needed to install a new footer to support the wall that’s been fixed.
Tripp said in addition to the construction in the room just off the main hall, he and his crew have done work in the attic and in the basement. Downstairs, a steel beam is being installed to support the floor above it.
But, it didn’t stop there. Tripp said when his crew members started work in the basement, they found another concern — an area of the wooden floor above them was rotting. Plus, the floor had been built directly into the wall of its western neighbor, The Dalton Agency — a definite no-no in today’s building codes.
A new firewall will need to be installed and floor on top of that — neither of which was part of the initial scope of work.
An initial change order added $113,000 to the price tag and delayed the completion date. The latest finding will mean another change order and delay, but how much and how long aren’t yet known, said city spokeswoman Debbie Delgado.
Once the structural work is complete, interior renovations will take place.
Although it’s empty, life could come back to Snyder Memorial once renovations are done. Downtown Investment Authority CEO Aundra Wallace said a couple of nonprofit and for-profit entities have approached him about the building.
Getting it on the tax rolls and part of the Laura Street corridor revitalization is the goal, Wallace said. But it’ll take a viable business plan. And maybe something else even more, much like other interest in Downtown projects.
“Once again, it comes down to capital,” he said.
There aren’t any immediate plans, though.
For now, it’s a matter of making it safe and usable, restoring it to the level it once was.
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