And on top of what everyone else said about libraries still being important, this is a historic structure in downtown. It might not be the Cawthorne or Bienville hotels, or the original county courthouse, but it is historic no less and we should scrap to save any historic structure we can since we chose to let so many others go in the past. I hate to hear what Blessed will have to say to this article. If he doesnt want to spend 10 milllion to save the library, which still serves the community, I assume he will also think 25 million to save Barton, which has no purpose now, is a folly also. Oh well. I say preserve the library and Barton.
Preservationists open doors for peek at Barton
Friday, June 01, 2007By RENA HAVNERStaff Reporter
As part of an effort to save the ailing Barton Academy in downtown Mobile, preservationists opened the nearly 200-year-old building's doors Thursday for an open house.
All who paid $10 were given a chance to climb up a spiral stairway inside the tilting rooftop dome.
"I had a conversation with an older gentleman who said he kissed his wife in this dome," Marilyn Culpepper told a small crowd taking in the view of downtown Mobile from atop the historic building.
"He snuck her up to the dome and kissed her. They're married now and the rest is history," said Culpepper, executive director of the Historic Mobile Preservation Society.
Looking out, visitors could see the mixture of old and new that makes up downtown Mobile -- historic buildings, the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Government Plaza, McDonalds.
For $2,750, Willoughby Barton and several others bought a track of land bounded by Government, Lawrence, Conti and Cedar streets in downtown Mobile in the late 1920s to build a school. Funding from a state lottery helped raise the remaining money needed to open Barton Academy, which became a collection of private and church schools, according to the "Barton Academy Centennial," a book on display Thursday.
In 1852, Barton became Alabama's first public school building, with 400 students in primary through high school grades, the book states. The school quickly grew to 1,012 students. It closed for a few years after the Civil War, but reopened.
At the time of the school's centennial, in 1936, Barton offered just the seventh-grade.
"Succeeding generations have gone by on horseback, in carriages, street cars and automobiles, yet few changes have taken place in the outward appearance of the building," the "Barton Academy Centennial" states. "If the first pupils who entered its doors a century ago could re-visit Mobile today, amid the puzzling confusion of modern activities they would find comfort and reassurance in the familiar features of Old Barton."
Now, they would find chipped paint and mildew-covered walls on the outside; a dome tilting with columns missing; a slow-moving elevator that doesn't always take people to the right floor; and office space divided by cubicles.
The Mobile County Public School System -- which has housed its central offices in Barton since the 1970s -- is moving out of the facility and into a more modern, sprawling campus off Schillinger Road in northwest Mobile. About half of Barton's employees have already left, leaving Superintendent Harold Dodge with his curriculum, communication and security staffs there for just a few more months.
The school system has authorized Culpepper's organization to take the lead in raising about $25 million needed to restore Barton.
So far, the society has raised about $85,000 -- about half of which will be used to conduct an architectural study of the building to help officials determine Barton's future.
"If we can raise $1, we can raise $25 million," a barefoot Culpepper said as she continued to take visitors up to the dome. With Thursday's tours, the society raised another $610 as 61 visitors followed her up.
"I think it's a fantastic building. Everything should be done that can be done to save it," said Mobile resident Joan Hoffman, as she took a break on the tour before walking up to the dome. "You can never replace something like this."
Added Cathy Hayes of Mobile: "It's a wonderful building. Unfortunately, it has been tangled up so much in politics that it has deteriorated. It's good that now there are some loving hands to take care of it."
School officials for several years have said it was difficult to put aside money for the central office building when schools were more in need of repair.
Culpepper said she would like the building to become a school once again, as some school officials, including Dodge, have suggested.
Walking through Barton Thursday, Aileen de la Torre held up an old map of the floorplan as she visualized where classrooms once were. She said she would like Barton to become a school or a museum. "I always see the possibilities with these buildings," said de la Torre, who works for the Historic Development Commission of Mobile.