Historic Seville School faces modern challenges

BEACON PHOTO/SARAHROSE MINISTERI
Community hub — Seville Public School, at 1591 U.S. Highway 17 in Seville, was closed by the School Board to save money.

PHOTO COURTESY WEST VOLUSIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Original school — This Seville School opened in 1914. It was replaced in 1924 by the building designed by architect William J. Carpenter that still stands today.

A community group wants to reopen the building as a meeting place, but required upgrades pose an obstacle

By Pat Hatfield
BEACON STAFF WRITER

posted Jul 5, 2009 - 7:28:02pm

In the small community of Seville in northwest Volusia County, there is no town hall or city hall.

The school has stood as the community’s hub, where parents greeted each other as they dropped off children, and where community meetings have been held since the school opened in 1914.

But now the School Board has closed Seville Public School, as a cost-saving measure.

The Seville Village Improvement Association bought the Historic Seville School House in January, hoping to preserve it as a community asset.

A $47,250 Volusia County ECHO grant matched funds raised by the association, to meet the $94,000 purchase price.

There was joy in March, when the County Council put its stamp of approval on the grant.

But that was just the first hurdle. As a school, the building was exempt from Volusia County building codes. Now, the historic wood-frame structure is subject to a reuse classification, since it will be used as a community center, rather than a school. It has to meet current codes.

“We have to have a fire-monitoring system,” said Laura Creel, chairwoman of the Village Improvement Association’s preservation and acquisition committee. “We did not anticipate having to completely replace the existing system.”

The new fire-monitoring system will cost $25,000, and a sprinkler system might have to be installed with it, costing many thousands more.

Creel said Historic Preservation Board Officer Julie Scofield is helping the Village Improvement Association through the building’s reclassification; Creel hopes a drastic measure like installing a sprinkler system can be avoided. The installation would require a complete building renovation.

The School Board’s fire-alarm system allowed more than 100 students to safely attend the school, Creel pointed out, so she’s hoping a fire-system upgrade, without a sprinkler system, will be enough to meet the county’s requirements.

The association is just about broke, after coming up with the purchase price.

“We had money to carry us through until we could bring in services, but this obstacle has stopped us in our tracks,” Creel said. “We were counting on user fees and community donations to meet our monthly expenses. Between this unexpected code issue and the economy’s effect on pledged and new donations, this project is taking a hard hit.”

There is no money for extensive renovation.

“It’s frustrating,” Creel said.

She and other members anticipated the first $11,000 installment on the building purchase would be covered by the ECHO money. Since the expense came before the grant was approved, it is not covered by the grant.

“We’re doing our best to keep moving forward,” Creel said.

The group is praying the money will materialize as needed.

Association members plan to meet within the next two weeks with Andy Kelly, their representative on the County Council, to enlist his help.

Kelly told The Beacon he will be glad to help. He described Seville Public School as being in a perfect location to serve Northwest Volusia as a community center, and the perfect size for Seville’s community hub.

“We’ve got to take this out of the box,” Kelly said, speaking of typical thinking and site planning.

While money is short, there is no shortage of plans for the building.

The school could serve as a River of Lakes Welcome Center, at the northwestern gateway into Volusia County. A satellite office for The House Next Door, a Boys and Girls Club location, a community library, exercise classes, child care, health-care services and a multipurpose room for rent are all in the talking stages.

Some of the providers would like to move in immediately, but they will have to wait, Creel said.

Village Improvement Association members want to keep alive the tradition of community meetings in the old school building. In June, members attended the first of several community visioning sessions initiated by the River of Lakes Heritage Corridor.

The meetings are designed to help the community create goals for Seville’s future, and to formulate a plan to mitigate the effects of the eventual widening of U.S. Highway 17 through the town.

River of Lakes works to promote tourism related to the historic, cultural and scenic aspects of West Volusia, and to protect those aspects.

The River of Lakes effort, Creel said, “is going to have a big positive effect on everything we’re doing at the school.”

The wooden building will retain its historic designation, Creel said.

“It’s structurally perfect,” she said.

She is confident the association will overcome the obstacles standing in the way of the community’s use of the building.

Architect William J. Carpenter designed Seville Public School, which opened in 1924, replacing a smaller school building that had been in place since 1914.

Carpenter also designed elementary schools in Enterprise, Port Orange and Holly Hill, along with Dempsey Brewster School in DeLand and Pierson Elementary School.

Anyone who would like to donate to the Village Improvement Association, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, can call Creel at (386) 749-0055, or visit the association online at www.sevillevia.org. Click on the “how you can help” button.

— pat@beacononlinenews.com

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