For years, it seemed that a historic building on Oconee Street would suffer a typical fate that too often afflicts old structures. The windows had been boarded up, graffiti covered the walls and unhoused people were living in it. If the roof hadn’t been intact, it’s likely the building would have fallen down.
Today, the former Oconee Street School houses offices for a law firm, a construction company and a personal fitness business. The fully restored facility in late April received an “Excellence in Rehabilitation Award” from the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation. The trust highlights preservation projects around the state that “have made significant contributions to historic preservation.” The Oconee Street School project met the criteria of “preserving features of the property that convey its historic value,” according to the trust’s website.
Built in 1909, the Oconee School welcomed elementary students from the surrounding neighborhoods until 1971. It was then used as a site for the Boys and Girls Club and as the headquarters for ACTION, Inc., which sold it in 2017 to a developer who planned to convert it into 16 apartments for student housing. When financing for that plan didn’t come together, Grahl Construction bought the building, intending to rehabilitate it.
Design work began in 2019, said Gabriel Comstock, a principal at Arcolab architectural firm. Once the additions and changes from the 1960s and 1970s—such as dropped ceilings—were removed, the school’s original features showed through. Construction began in 2020.
In addition to the original building, school officials had built a cafetorium in the back sometime in the 1960s, which is now a fitness center, with the stage intact.
Workers reconditioned and repaired existing windows and, when possible, saved the original classroom doors. They learned the building had two sets of flooring, a heart pine original floor that had been covered by oak. Grahl Vice President Chris Gareau said they left the oak floors intact, adding “having two sets of floors makes it really durable.”
“It was a little scary in the beginning, because there were lots of people squatting in the building, and there was no daylight and no electricity,” Comstock said.
What made buying and rehabbing the building feasible for Grahl Construction were the federal tax credits, given to a historic property that’s restored to the standards of the Department of the Interior. That meant documenting almost every step of the rehab process.
“We were careful about how to space things,” said Comstock. “We wanted to maintain the volumetric form of the classrooms, so classrooms became conference rooms, and you can still read what it once was. We made sure the original historic context is still legible. The new stuff is compatible and distinguishes itself as new.”
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