Residents Make A Case For Saving City Island Rec Center

Daytona Beach, FL – At a recent Daytona Beach City Commission meeting, the city decided to at least temporarily stay the execution of an 80-year-old building with ties to local history. To understand why the city spared the City Island Rec Center, for now, is to take a look at the building’s past and learn about where it exactly came from.  Joseph Vetter, a history teacher at David C. Hinson Middle School and a member of the Historic Preservation Board, says the beginning of the rec center can be traced back to 1942, when Daytona Beach was just a bustling town on the Atlantic coast. At the time, World War II was raging and the federal government was seeking whatever help it could get supporting the war. That led to one crucial phone call between two very important women; including a local legend. “Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune saw an opportunity and contacted one of her best friends, the First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, to get the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps to bring their program to Daytona Beach,” said Vetter. “Eventually we had 15,000 to 20,000 women coming into Daytona, turning this sleepy town into a bustling metropolis full of female army personnel.” With an influx of people in town, it’s obvious that there would eventually be a need to entertain them. “What they realized was they needed a recreational center for this multitude of dedicated women supporting the United States’ effort in World War II. They got to build this center in 1943,” said Vetter. And on January 1, 1943, the rec center opened its doors for the first time. Establishing a WAAC training facility proved to be beneficial to the city, during a time when Daytona’s tourist-based economy was starting to slump. With the extra people in town, the city was raking in around $5 million a month. But 80 years later it’s a different time, and the building is worse for wear. Broken windows, mold, water damage, and general disrepair befell the building in the time it remained vacant. Its once beautiful pine wood dance floor, covered in white mold spores. The roof even sprouted a hole, which didn’t do the already decaying building any favors. “Unbelievable that they let it fall into disrepair,” said Vetter. “Now we’re sitting here with a building that needs some repairs and overwhelming support from the community to get this building refinished, repurposed, and redesigned.” Since then, the city has tried a few separate times to move forward with the demolition of the building, but not without any pushback. Representatives Ruth Trager and Ken Strickland have both voiced their dissent in tearing the building down. But some of the city’s other leaders, like Mayor Derrick Henry, feel like there is no other choice for the building if repairs are costly or there’s no set goal in mind for the structure, i.e. what’s the building’s next purpose? Vetter says that’s the point of a new community effort called the “1943 Project,” which seeks to revitalize and repurpose the building. One thought that seems to be on everyone’s mind is turning it into a museum. If anything, Vetter says the building can become a partial museum while serving as a location for the city to meet. And it’s not like it’s in a bad location for it. Already on Orange Avenue is Veterans Memorial Park, which is complemented by the Veterans Memorial Bridge, also a part of Orange Avenue. The Fight To Save The Rec Center On March 15, the Historic Preservation Board voted 5-1 to request that the city not demolish the building. At an April 6 meeting of the city commission, Vetter, along with a handful of other impassioned residents, spoke to city leaders and made a case about saving the building. Many argued that taking out the building would take out a rather important chunk of Daytona Beach’s history. “This is definitely part of our history,” said Trager at the meeting. The idea on the table now is to designate the building as a historic place, which will allow the city to seek grants in order to fund the renovation costs—which are estimated to be in the $1 million to $2 million neighborhood. But if that’s the route the city will take, they’ll have to start soon as the process will take some time.  First, the city has to submit an application to the Historic Preservation Board. Then it will then need to go through the Downtown Redevelopment Board and the Planning Board before the matter is returned to the city commission for a final vote. But if the designation is granted, that opens the door to Volusia’s ECHO grant program, and a number of other state and federal funding sources. Additionally, the city wants to establish a citizen committee by May that will help generate ideas on what to do with the building.