It\u2019s famous alumni<\/a> include James Weldon Johnson, the Lift Ev\u2019ry Voice and Sing lyricist and the Stanton High School\u2019s principal from 1894 to 1902.<\/p>\n In 2021, then-council member Reggie Gaffney Sr. drafted the first legislation to authorize the money, and a grant agreement executed in 2022 gave the nonprofit $156,290.<\/p>\n Johnson said the latest bill was necessary to reactivate the remaining half of the grant money for Historic Stanton Inc. The money had been returned to the city\u2019s reserves after delays in the project that were not resolved before the agreement with the city expired in October 2025.<\/p>\n The legislation passed Tuesday waives a section of the ordinance code to allow Historic Stanton to get 25% of the money up front. Typically, the city awards development project funding as a reimbursement after the work is completed. <\/p>\n It also authorizes the Mayor\u2019s Office to negotiate and execute a grant agreement between the city and the nonprofit that will be subject to oversight by the Grants and Contract Compliance Division of the city\u2019s Finance Department.<\/p>\n Council President Kevin Carrico and member Rory Diamond were the two no votes Tuesday night. Council member Terrance Freeman was absent for the vote.<\/p>\n Johnson says the nonprofit is on better footing.<\/p>\n Historic Stanton, governed by a 10-member board led by chair County Judge James A. Ruth, has plans<\/a> to eventually transform the school building into a cultural facility \u2014 a mixed-use entertainment venue, gallery and educational space.<\/p>\n According to its website<\/a>, Historic Stanton has retained architect Ray Evans with iDesign Architectural Services Inc. to create the venue with a museum and gallery, gift shop and office and STEM education spaces. <\/p>\n \u201cBut we won\u2019t be able to do any of those things if we don\u2019t have a working roof and the building is falling apart,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n The council member says he intends to seek more city dollars in the future to complete the work faster. He says he\u2019s had a preliminary talk with Downtown Investment Authority CEO Colin Tarbert about the agency\u2019s interest in helping restore the property.<\/p>\n The DIA has been negotiating multimillion-dollar incentive deals in LaVilla and the adjacent North Core for the last decade, including Pearl Square<\/a>, Gateway Jax Inc.\u2019s $750 million project; the University of Florida\u2019s proposed $345 million graduate campus<\/a> and Florida Semiconductor Institute; and several housing and infill<\/a> development projects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Jacksonville City Council has voted to restore access to city grant funding for the nonprofit working to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[43323,2318,88005,12585,116,4040,118,117,115,22899],"class_list":["post-269964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-distribute","tag-downtown","tag-government-politics","tag-historic-preservation","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-city-council","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-news","tag-nonprofits"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Historic-Stanton-School-2-1024x768.webp\")
The nonprofit Historic Stanton Inc. is working to stabilize the landmark first African American high school in Florida. | Mike Mendenhall, Jacksonville Today<\/p>\n