Cape May Considers School Renovation Plan

CAPE MAY – At a May 1 Town Hall meeting in Cape May, city and county officials presented results of the feasibility study concerning the potential use of Franklin Street School as a public library and community center.
The verdict was that the school and its attached gymnasium could be rehabilitated to support the new use. 
A $6-million plan for restoration of the property received support from many who argued that the proposal would not only provide a branch library and community center but would also preserve an important part of the African-American heritage in Cape May.
Freeholder Director Gerald Thornton expressed support for the project. Expressions of support came from the Center for Community Arts (CCA), an organization with a history of efforts to rehabilitate the site.
The support must be turned into cooperation on detailed negotiations and planning for the myriad of issues that require attention, not least of which is funding. 
The Background
In mid-2018, the city and the Cape May County Library Commission retained architect Michael Calafati and a team of consultants to test the feasibility of using the historic school building and the gymnasium as a site for the county library branch that serves the area of Cape May, West Cape May and Cape May Point. A branch library is located on Ocean Street.
Although the school and gym appear from the outside as one building, the site consists of two unconnected parts. Facing Franklin Street is the segregated school building for African-American children who were not allowed to attend the white elementary school on Lafayette Street. Behind the school is the gymnasium which belonged to the integrated high school which occupied what is now City Hall. There is no entryway that would allow passage from one building to the next.
The school is approximately 8,500 square feet and the gym 4,300 square feet for a total of 12,750 square feet. Both the school and the gymnasium wing are protected by being included as contributing buildings with the Cape May Historic District. The proposed design is sensitive to the historic character of the building with preservation being an important element of the overall concept. 
The Plan
The plan calls for the library to be placed in the gymnasium wing where the floor can handle the weight of the books. A mezzanine area would be created to provide for additional shelf space. The school building would then be converted to the community center.
The plan also calls for a modest addition to the north side of the gymnasium providing some additional floor space for the library and roof space for heating and air conditioning equipment.
Calafati pointed to several challenges in the design. He noted that the design is obviously constrained by the dimensions of the existing building. “This is not a new design, but one adapted to the building,” he said. 
Calafati pointed to the relatively high cost per square foot, the need to accommodate parking off the library site itself and the many issues of shared management and occupancy that must be worked out if the county library and the city community center are to efficiently and effectively share space.
None of these issues appeared to dampen the enthusiasm for the project, especially when the discussions moved back to the symbolic importance of the structure.
Cape May is a city that values history and has committed itself to preservation. This project allows the city to save some of what Mayor Clarence Lear says is “the history so little talked about.” 
African-American Heritage
The school stands near what was once the heart of a striving African-American community in the city. One historian of the area, Susan Tischler, estimates that 30% of the city’s population was black in the 1920’s. African-American labor was an essential ingredient in the success of the early resort.
Much of the history has been lost to demolition, but key elements survive. Across the street from the Franklin Street School is the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church recently damaged in a fire. At the corner is the Macedonia Baptist Church with a historic building next door that is being converted into a Harriet Tubman museum, displaying, among other things, Cape May’s role in the Underground Railroad.
Robert Mullock, who has been instrumental in the plans for the Tubman Museum, expressed his support for the project while his son Zack, a member of City Council, looked on from the stage.
The state constitution may have ended school segregation in 1948, but that does not diminish the symbolic importance of the opening of the wall that still separates the Franklin Street School from the gymnasium wing. 
Financing
The estimated budget for the project is $6 million. CCA preserved almost $600,000 from earlier grants made in support of the building’s renovation. Thornton made clear the county’s and the Library Commission’s support for the project and pledged financial support. Lear spoke of the city’s efforts to seek state grant funds.
No one can know yet the amount the city itself will have to contribute to the project, but some city bond funding will likely be necessary.
After the meeting, Lear said that nailing down the financing is one of the critical next steps.
“If we don’t save and repurpose the building this time, I am not sure what happens to it in the future. It’s in pretty bad shape,” he said.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.