As stewards of the community’s iconic Preservation Hall and Stockton Cottage, San Marco Preservation Society is overseeing interior renovations to both historic structures this month.
SMPS Executive Director Sheri Webber said Jacksonville-based Armorshine Floors has been contracted to renovate the original flooring in both Preservation Hall and Stockton Cottage.
“[Armorshine] is going to be doing what we anticipate is the last time that we can sand and refinish these floors because there is no subfloor at the Hall or in the cottage…so this will be the last time that we can do this and keep those original floors, and that should give us, hopefully, another 10 years.”
At that point, Webber said SMPS will consider other remediation options, though it has not identified what that would be.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, but for now we’re really excited that we can give the hall and the cottage an updo, if you will – a little facelift and still keep it original,” Webber said.
While the project itself won’t take the entire month, Webber said SMPS will limit public access to both buildings throughout July to give the floors ample time to cure and set. While tours will be held in limited capacity in July, the buildings will be closed to private events for the month, though reservations can still be made through the SMPS website in July for August or later.
According to Webber, it has been at least a decade since Preservation Hall’s floors were repaired or refinished. SMPS’s history of Stockton Cottages states that it last underwent renovations in 2021.
“When it comes to a building as old as Preservation Hall, you really just have to be sensitive in the moment to what it is that those floors need,” Webber said.
Originally built in 1888, the Carpenter Gothic church was built at the corner of Atlantic Boulevard and Bartram Road as St. Paul’s Church. The building was moved several times in its 138 years, spending some time on the Southbank at the former Museum of Science and History (MOSH) grounds as a children’s theater before being relocated by barge and rolled down Atlantic Boulevard to its current home in Fletcher Park.
Stockton Cottage, meanwhile, was built in 1938 and initially served as a temporary sales office for Telfair Stockton & Co. as the San Marco neighborhood was being developed. Renowned architects Marsh & Saxelbye designed the building, while Colonial Homes of Jacksonville built the structure at 2101 San Marco Boulevard. It, too, went through several iterations over the years, serving as a playhouse and, later, a public lending library, and was relocated. SMPS partnered with the City of Jacksonville to relocate Stockton Cottage to Fletcher Park in the early 2000s.
