A Reconstruction–What Can Digital History Tell Us?

I will be presenting on my final project tonight, so I wanted to provide some information on what I will show you all.

For my digital project, I have created an architectural reconstruction of the Sanford Grammar School in Sanford, Florida. For a little bit of background information, this school is now used as the Public History Center, which is a museum for fourth grade field trips to study Florida history and geography. The school building was built in 1902, and it housed 1st through 12th grades. Wings were added to the building in 1917. A popular architect in the area, W. G. Talley, created the school in the Romanesque architectural style.

Previously, this building was placed on the most endangered places list by the Florida Trust in 2009. The building, despite its new partnership with University of Central Florida, is still deteriorating and is in need of very expensive repairs. However, it is still standing in its original form, for the most part.

My idea was to use a Sanborn map to rebuild the original structure before the wings were added. Here is a detail of the school on the map.

Here is a photograph of the reconstruction placed on the map.

Here is the front of the building.

I will show more photographs in class, as I believe it would take up way too much space here to present them. However, I have several angles, including front, side, back, and the outhouse!

I’m currently working on my argument aspect, as well as my paper that will go along with this. I feel that it is very useful to create reconstructions for buildings, both standing and no longer standing, to get further understanding of the building. It’s not a perfect representation, and I did my best on it.

I’ve also created a website that would present this information. Here is a basic version of that.