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Last updated 11:43 am CT September 02, 2010.
Carbondale Gets Grant for Renovating Attucks School
Thanks to a state grant, Cole says the old Attucks high school building is one step closer to being renovated and turned into a tourism center and African-American museum.
"We have been awarded a tourism attraction grant in the amount of $112,131 to begin phase 1 of the Attucks high school revitalization project" says Cole.
Back in 2005- the city bought the school with the intention of transforming it, but the building has sat vacant, with a damaged roof and broken windows.
Cole says the state funds will go toward exterior repairs, then work will begin on phase 2 of the project--
"A complete interior renovation that will preserve the best of the building's past but improve it for daily use by multiple organizations."
Those organizations will include a welcome center, a veteran's interpretive center, and the African-American museum.
"To get Attucks high school for that purpose I think is very appropriate for that building because it is on the city's northeast side and was traditionally and historically a black high school" says Evelyn Koine, Chair of the Carbondale Preservation Commission.
Koine did not attend the school, but says she does have a connection to it.
"Actually my father was in one of the first 4 or 5 classes in that school."
The news will no doubt be welcomed during the Sprit of Attucks reunion on the 4th of July weekend.
Leaders say they hope to begin renovations by the end of the year.
By: Jackie McPherson
jmcpherson@wsiltv.com
Now: 1283451623
