Sour notes from Ron DeSantis for Jax music history museum

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Hopes that the state of Florida would provide $500,000 for the renovation of the Jacksonville Casket Factory into a music history museum are dead for this year.

Gov. Ron DeSantis slashed the appropriation in the budget veto list.

Cash from Tallahassee was expected to help turn a dormant Jacksonville casket factory into something more full of life. Now other options will need to be pursued.

House and Senate budget committees agreed to allot $500,000 for the renovation of a onetime coffin plant, to be repurposed as the Jacksonville Music History Museum.

The 13,500 square foot, three-story facility, built in 1882, is expected to be a showcase for Jacksonville’s musical history and include a performance venue. The state funds were intended to match $550,000 in local spending and nearly $670,000 from the private sector.

The requester, Alan Bliss of the Jacksonville Historical Society, suggested fundraising would continue to try to backfill the funds.

Senate sponsor Clay Yarborough took the long view.

“In reviewing the half-billion dollar veto list, it appears projects across the entire state were included. While regrettable to see some of those close to home impacted, it is apparent that Gov. DeSantis continues to make good on his commitment to keep Florida on firm financial footing as we move forward.”

The project is one that could build community and historical appreciation, per the funding request.

“The renovation and adaptive re-use of the ‘Casket Factory’ is faithful to the mission of the Jacksonville Historical Society: to strengthen citizenship by engaging and educating Jacksonville’s people about their history, through preserving and sharing the evidence of the city’s past and by advocating the value of historic preservation which strengthens economic growth,” reads the funding request.

The building will house the archives and exhibits of the Jacksonville Area Music Museum, but will also hold more invaluable history.

“The building will also house the ever-growing principal archival repository for Duval County. The Jacksonville Historical Society’s archives are particularly valuable because no other organization or institution serves all of Duval County’s public history needs and no municipal public archives exist,” the request added.

“The Jacksonville Historical Society’s archival collections, which include the Florida Times-Union’s photograph library, will enable researchers to locate, identify, interpret, preserve, and share Jacksonville’s rich history and to share aspects of Jacksonville’s history with the programming of educational events.”