CAPE MAY – At its Jan. 18 meeting, Cape May City Council heard a report on the status of the project to repurpose the historic Franklin Street School as a branch of the Cape May County Library System.
The presentation started with Cape May County Library System Director Andrea Orsini and architect Michael Calafati presenting the design plans for the project.
Calafati spoke of the dual nature of the effort, which seeks to create a modern library, while maintaining a strong sense of the building’s history and its origins as a segregated school for the city’s Black children.
Calafati explained that there are six funding sources for the project, including state and federal grant sources. The city and the county are each contributing $2 million to the effort. Those interested in hearing the presentation can access the YouTube recording of the Jan. 18 council meeting on the city’s website.
The technology in use by the city does not allow the slides to be accessible to a remote computer, as would be the case in some other county municipalities.
The incorporation of the old gymnasium, which was for White students only, and the Franklin Street School building for Blacks into the same library project creates a five-level structure that will be fully accessible via a five-stop elevator that is part of the planned renovation.
The opening of the wall that separated the segregated school from the White-only gym is one of the major points at which the design will highlight the structure’s past.
The schedule anticipates hearing from the National Park Service, a grantor in the project, by early February. Those comments will be the last outstanding ones from those agencies that are providing financial support for the project.
The schedule then calls for going out to bid by the end of February, having bid responses by the end of March and a contract award sometime in April.
Calafati estimates a 14-month construction period, with completion in June 2023.
