Historic Winterville School and Auditorium Restoration Project

"When you strip away the rhetoric, preservation is simply having the good sense to hold on to things that are well designed, that link us with our past in a meaningful way, and that have plenty of good use left in them." ~unknown

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Tuesday, March 2, 2010

URGENT! Restoration Project of the Historic Winterville School & Auditorium needs your help!

The City of Winterville is in the process of applying for a HUD Community Development Block Grant with which to fund a large part of the Winterville School Building restoration. Our building will then be used as a Senior Center for residents under the direction of the Athens Community Council on Aging (ACCA). ACCA has a great website where you may become more familiar with the scope of the organization. Visit www.athenscommunitycouncilonaging.org

The grant application deadline is APRIL 1, 2010. This funding request requires letters of support from members of the Winterville community – and the only way to get these letters written and collected is with your individual help. The letters will support the idea that a Senior Center will be welcomed in our community and that it will be used by our residents.

Please contact at least 10 Winterville citizens-friends, family, neighbors and ask them to write a very brief letter of support for this partnership between the City of Winterville and the Athens Community Council on Aging. Time is running out and must be done by March 10^th! Instructions for writing the letter can be found at www.cityofwinterville.com/historicschool/letters.pdf

Thanks for your support throughout this process.

3:38 pm est

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The Historic Winterville School

Winterville Historic Restoration Project

Walk through the double front doors of the Winterville High School and stand at the foot of the grand staircase. If you are very quiet, you just might hear the spring wind blow cords of sound through broken windows and empty rooms. Let your imagination drift and perhaps you will catch a top note of youthful laughter, an undertone of fluttering textbook pages, the growl of a hand-turned pencil sharpener, or the faint clatter of dishes from the cafeteria area, all comfortable sounds that may have lingered in this old building for almost a century.

These echoes from the past are gentle reminders of all the young people who began their life journey within the walls of the school buildings located on this plot of ground in the heart of Winterville. Recently, the City of Winterville acquired the deeds to two of the remaining four historic buildings: the Winterville High School and the Winterville Auditorium. The buildings sit side by side, the last vestige of several schools located on that site since 1880. History records that all the school buildings situated here served as both teaching spaces and as the center of community activity for the area.

We are a small town … with a small budget … and a big vision.

The Historic Winterville School Building is a two-story stucco structure built in 1918. A brick addition was constructed in 1939. The building housed classes from the date of construction until the last class graduated in 1956. The Athens Board of Education then used the space for various purposes including storage until it was abandoned a decade ago. A special historical note is that the first teacher-training program for Vocational Agriculture and Home Economics was hosted around 1920 by the school. This was a cooperative venture between the Winterville School and the University of Georgia.

The Winterville Senior Center

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Citizens of the town see restoration of the Winterville School Building as a limitless opportunity to initiate local programs such as senior citizen services, adult education, after school tutoring and arts and crafts courses. Renovation would also provide space for social, governmental and recreational gatherings.

Winterville Auditorium, a 450-seat hall next door to the Historic Winterville School, also will be restored. Once the site of recitals, pageants, concerts, and plays, the Winterville Auditorium was abandoned in 2002. Since such events must now be held at venues outside of Winterville, the expectation of hosting a vibrant performing arts calendar for both the city and surrounding area is an exciting prospect for the citizens.

It is anticipated that the auditorium will also be a much-used location for essential governmental meetings, public/private conferences, and assemblies for training/education.

As a community, we have met in public planning forums; created working committees focusing on various aspects of the restoration; retained an architectural firm for consultation with planning; and are actively pursuing various funding avenues. The Mayor and City Council of Winterville are enthusiastic participants in this restoration project.

We need financial support to make the restoration a reality. To curb further deterioration, the buildings must be immediately stabilized at an estimated cost of $566,560. Total restoration of the two buildings is projected to be around $1,969,000. Funding of this project has become a personal challenge for members of the community.

City of Winterville
P.O. Box 306
Winterville, GA 30683
706-742-8600

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