Group Wants School Board To Integrate Historic Buildings Into Office Plans

Photo: Building B, the former Canton Grammar School. The building was closed by the Cherokee County School District six years ago due to structural, safety and health concerns. Credit: Cherokee County Historical Society

The Cherokee County Historical Society is calling on the Cherokee County School Board to preserve one of two buildings in their plans to build a new central office complex in downtown Canton.

The society said on Wednesday in a post on its Facebook page that it would like for the board to integrate either Building A or B into their plans to build a new administrative complex on their current site.

Both facilities, which the historical society said is on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the city’s historic district, are the key to keeping the historic characteristics of the city in place.

“Over the years, Canton has lost dozens of its historic buildings to urban renewal and road projects,” the historical society said. “The loss of two important landmarks, one at a prominent entry point, would be detrimental to the efforts of those working to revitalize historic downtown.”

The request from the society comes on the heels of a recommendation made last week by Cherokee County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Frank Petruzielo for the board to demolish both Building A, the former Canton Cotton Mill offices, and Building B, the former Canton Grammar School.

According to the society, the school district could consider many layouts that would integrate one of the buildings into the new campus, such as a breezeway to connect the old with the new. It also recommended that architects choose a design that would be compatible with existing downtown structures.

“If the school board feels the renovation costs are beyond their means, then we would encourage them to sell the buildings to a private developer who could take advantage of the significant rehabilitation tax credits available,” the society said.

Building B was renovated more than 30 years ago for office use with no preservation of historic details and was closed six years ago due to structural, safety and health concerns, the school district said.

The basement level of the two-floor Building A was closed shortly after due to similar concerns. As a result of these closures, several departments and more than 100 district employees were relocated to schools and other facilities.

The school district’s project would replace the administration buildings with a single, three-story building on the same footprint. The construction of a new facility would accommodate all district staff, cost $9.9 million and could be completed by the fall of 2016.

School district staff said both buildings have already been evaluated by independent architects and engineers, who say renovating the structures ”would be significantly more expensive than construction of a new facility on the same footprint,” the district said on Wednesday, adding the renovation costs would exceed $14 million.

Even if the buildings were renovated, the district argues they would still not accommodate existing employees and those “displaced” by the closure of Building B and the basement of Building A. That would mean the district would either “continue to operate inefficiently with these displaced employees in off-campus buildings or build a fourth building on the downtown campus, further increasing the project cost,” the system said.

“The school district’s mission is not historic preservation: its leaders must remain focused on being good stewards of taxpayer dollars and focusing on the primary mission of teaching and learning, and it is not in the taxpayers’ best interest to renovate Buildings A or B,” the district said in its statement.

The district reiterated its stance that it has supported historic preservation in the past when it’s been prudent for taxpayers, such as its renovations of the Historic Canton High School/School Board Auditorium and the donations of the former Woodstock Elementary School to Chattahoochee Technical College and of the Rock Barn to the historical society.

Additionally, Petruzielo in meetings with historical society leaders over the past four years has expressed his commitment to “work with architects to incorporate reusable elements from the Building A façade into the replacement building façade and to donate other salvageable exterior and interior architectural elements from both buildings to the Historical Society for preservation and/or fundraising, among other partnership opportunities.”

Tell us: what should be the fate of Buildings A and B?