Cultural Heritage

Change is inevitable.   Change is constant.   Conserving Nassau County’s unique and diverse heritage is about evolving with that change without ever losing sight of who we are and how we came to be. 

Initiatives

Pavers at Atlantic Av

What You Can Do

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Heritage Conservation

Conserve Nassau members strive to identify and mitigate or eliminate threats to Nassau Heritage. We define Nassau heritage as architectural and cultural features present in Nassau County for multiple generations and valued by residents today. This precious heritage includes historic churches and other historic buildings both public and private throughout the county such as the Bosque Bello and Franklintown Cemeteries; older neighborhoods and communities such as Old Town and American Beach; and traditional rights and practices associated with a diverse economy, such as public access to beaches and shores.

  Our Nassau County heritage includes all the qualities, traditions, and features of our lives that have been passed on from one generation to the next.  It includes our properties, buildings, and cemeteries but surely also our festivals, industries, and neighborhood histories.  It includes the tangible and the intangible, as well as the moveable and immovable assets shared with us today by those who came before us.  For us, it is like caring for the patchwork quilts so lovingly crafted and passed on to our children and grandchildren over the years.  Each square documents moments, milestones, growth, and unique history in scraps of fabric and trims.   Conserve Nassau seeks to encourage, empower, and support all citizens of Nassau County to embrace our individual and collective heritage so we can carry forward the attributes that make us, well – us! 

What is true across for Nassau from Amelia Island and west all around our storied county is what journalist Sydney J. Harris observed to be true: “we hate change and love it at the same time; what we really want is for things to remain the same but better”, especially for Nassau’s generations to come.  

We monitor the meetings of the Nassau County Board of Commissioners and the Fernandina Beach City Commission, as well as meetings of related advisory boards and committees to see when these bodies will vote on matters that could cause harm to or erosion of Nassau Heritage as we and others may define it.  We then attend meetings, speak at meetings, write letters to decisionmakers, and write or post opinion pieces to raise public awareness.

“There was no ‘there’ there.”

-Gertrude Stein writing about a town lacking familiar landmarks and culture

Tree and Historic Paver removal on Atlantic Ave in Downtown Fernandina Beach

The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) has removed the live oak at Atlantic Av and 10th St citing its health and has removed the historic pavers which they plan to replace with concrete sidewalk. Their actions are very likely to be in violation of their own mandated procedures, NHPA and state regulations on sites listed in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) such as this one. The FDOT Cultural Resources Management Handbook provides clear requirements for how new or repair projects in and around NRHP properties should be executed. An excerpt from standard mitigation measures includes

  • Repair, rehabilitation, or restoration of the affected historic property in a manner sensitive to the qualities which make it historically significant, and sympathetic to the historic fabric of the property, in accordance with the Secretary of the Interior’s standards.

And excerpts from rehabilitation scenarios include

  • Rehabilitate or restore a NRHP-listed or eligible landscape bordering the proposed roadway improvement, or at least replant the area so that one day it will look similar. This can include canopy trees flanking an existing roadway, significant wildflowers in medians and beside the roadway, and planned hedges of significant plant types.

  • Rehabilitate or restore a NRHP-listed or eligible streetscape’s features such as street paving and curbing, sidewalks, lights, benches, fences, walls, etc.

Solutions in the handbook would limit the amount of physical impact or encroachment upon the NRHP-listed or eligible property. Some solutions would even limit other potential adverse effects such as visual, audible, and/or access effects to the NRHP-listed or eligible property.

Some Recent Heritage Battles

Conserve Nassau takes the time to be reflective rather than reflexive.

 

We were with the community to help stop:

FB Waterfront Park

We honor our working waterfront while designing with nature to preserve our future.

Relocation of Central Park ball fields to the airport

We protect non-automotive access to recreation for local children.

 

We continue working to oppose and redirect actions on:

Nassau County Beach “Harmonization”

We value the character of the County's shoreline and resist being harmonized. We urge County leaders to put the needs of residents before the whims of tourists.   

Tringali rezoning

We believe that history and downtown homes don't stop with a line down a street. Honoring our heritage means finally dealing with "historic lots," and rezoning to protect the character of neighborhoods adjacent to the historic district.

Cultural Heritage Resources

Forensic Deconstruction: Rediscovering the Soul of a 1880s House in the Fernandina Beach Historic District — Tammi Kosack