Groups seek $300K from Sanford for building in historic Black community of Goldsboro

A pair of groups that have run Goldsboro’s museum and an educational enrichment program for years out of cramped trailers in the heart of the historic Black community are asking the city of Sanford for $300,000 to help build a permanent facility.

But city leaders this week said they need more details before handing over funds — including whether the West Side Community Historical Association and Goldsboro Front Porch would own the new building, proposed for a city lot, or pay rent.

Pasha Baker, the historical association’s director and CEO, said the museum has long needed a new and larger building for future generations to learn about Goldsboro’s history — along with more space for the old photos, documents and other memorabilia of the former town dating back more than a century.

The trailer housing the museum has mold and mildew, Baker said, and lacks enough space to display all the historical artifacts that depict Goldsboro’s history and how the thriving town was suddenly taken over by Sanford in 1911.

“It was not fair what happened to Goldsboro,” Baker said referring to the annexation . “And it’s important for people to know their local history. Florida history is connected to Black history.”

Preliminary plans show the 4,000-square-foot building — designed to look like the old Goldsboro Post Office — would sit on the same city lot at 1211 Historic Goldsboro Blvd. where the trailers are located.

Goldsboro Front Porch offers various programs, including tutoring for after-school children and classes for adults out of two trailers adjacent to the museum. The organization was established in 2001 after Gov. Jeb Bush’s Front Porch initiative, a program designed to help distressed and low-income communities throughout the state.

“We definitely need an established facility,” said Dr. Velma Williams, who helped launch Goldsboro Front Porch and now serves as a consultant. “Those trailers are very old, and this would be a great, great investment for the community.”

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Building construction would cost about $800,000, according to a city estimate. One annex would house the museum along with a separate portion for Goldsboro Front Porch, according to plans.

Group officials don’t have a timeline for the project, but said if funding is approved construction could start in the coming months and finish within a year.

In 2022, the West Side Community Historical Association received a $500,000 African-American cultural and historical grant from the state as part of funds from the $1.9 trillion federal American Rescue Plan of 2021. The $300,000 the historical association and Front Porch seek from the city would make up the shortfall for the building’s construction.

But at a recent meeting, city staff and commissioners questioned if Sanford can legally provide the funds to help construct the building. They question whether providing city funds would violate any parameters or requirements of the state grant awarded to the historical association for a new museum.

“The question is, is the request from the Goldsboro museum for the land, for the building or simply for having the building being built on city land,” City Manager Norton Bonaparte said. “Will the state allow the city to build it with their money?”

State officials did not return calls for comment in time.

Francis Coleman Oliver, a civil rights activist and founder of the Goldsboro Historic Museum Center, told city commissioners the groups could eventually pay back the $300,000.

“It would not be a gift. It would be a loan,” Oliver said.

Still, city leaders say they are optimistic the grant will allow for an arrangement where the city builds the museum and leases the space to the groups.

“I have no doubt that this can be worked out and that the state can approve it,” Mayor Art Woodruff said.

Goldsboro was a prosperous Black town founded by laborers in 1891 and filled with stores, barbershops, eateries and proud residents in the years that followed.

But in 1911, the city of Sanford — looking to expand its borders westward for the tax revenue — stripped Goldsboro of its charter and took over the town. The streets, named after the town’s pioneer residents, were renamed by Sanford. And the city closed the town’s post office and police department.

Goldsboro residents quietly handed down to following generations their former town’s records, photos, student report cards and memories.

Then in 2010, a group of residents led by Oliver opened the Goldsboro museum inside a double-wide trailer that previously housed a substation for the Sanford Police Department.

“That 40-year-old trailer is filled with mold and mildew,” Baker said. “That’s not a good representation for the city … But hopefully we can work with the city. We want something that will last beyond us.”

Commissioner Patty Mahany agreed.

“I’m excited about this project,” Mahany said about the proposed building. “It’s going to happen. And then it all will be that much sweeter.”