HASTINGS, Fla. — A historic schoolhouse on the First Coast will become a school again.
The old Hastings High School stopped holding classes in 1985.
"I went to the school in the early 70s," Tony Coleman said.
By that time it held classes for all ages. Coleman is now a St. Johns County school board member. He and other school district officials took First Coast News on a tour of the historic Hastings school building on Main Street Thursday. It was built in 1925.
Nicole Cubbedge is the Executive Director for Planning and Government Relations for the St. Johns County School District. She said the first floor will be renovated first. It will be the first phase in transforming the building into a second campus for First Coast Technical College.
"It has served as many uses through the years, but most recently, much of it has been vacant," Cubbedge said.
Many of the rooms are clearly old classrooms. Some even have the original green chalkboards on the walls.
Expected to open in 2027, the new school will provide "childcare, both actually service for pre-K children as well as services for adults who want to lean to work with pre K children as a career," Cubbedge noted. "It will also provide additional career and technical workforce development education for the community."
The plan for the school is just one part of the bubbling rejuvenation in the sleepy and economically struggling small farm town of Hastings. The county is building a new public library and community center just a little farther down Main Street. There are also new business owners that are restoring and setting up shop on Main Street.
Dr. Brennan Asplen, the school district's Deputy Superintendent of Operations, said, "I think there’s an opportunity for expansion, especially once we get the school together and moving in the right direction, that economic expansion in the community will be there."
He said "We want to continue to serve the Hastings community as it kind of rejuvenates itself."
Coleman noted, "Having been raised here in Hastings and being a stakeholder, I know just how essential it is to have this building back up and running."
The first floor renovation will cost $10 million dollars. Approximately 75% of the costs comes from a grant, according to a school district spokesperson.
It's a project to restore a schoolhouse that could help revive a town.
"I believe it will energize people to bring that hope and vitality back into the community that has for some time, felt hopeless," Coleman added.