GREEN COVE SPRINGS – What happens when a school closes, but its stories are too important to lose?

That question will be at the heart of the Green Cove Springs Preservation Society’s September Speaker Series, “Repurposing Historic Buildings: The Story of Dunbar High,” Tuesday, Sept., from 6-8 p.m. at the Village Improvement Association (VIA) clubhouse, 17 Palmetto Ave.

Dunbar is more than an old school building. It represents education, community, relationships and memories shared by generations of Green Cove Springs residents. Its story also illustrates a challenge facing communities everywhere: how do we save places that have outlived their original purpose without losing the history held within their walls?

The September program will bring that story to life through people who know it. Dunbar served as the county’s only high school for Black students until its closure in 1967.

Betty Demmons of the Dunbar Alumni Association, former Green Cove Springs Mayor Felecia Hampshire and Henrietta Francis of the Augusta Savage Mentoring Center will share Dunbar’s history, the people connected to it and the continuing importance of preserving this chapter of Green Cove Springs’ Black heritage.

The preservation society created its Speaker Series around a simple idea: some of our most important history is right here at home. The series brings historians, authors, preservationists and local residents together to explore the buildings, people and events that shaped Green Cove Springs and Clay County.

Earlier this year, author and historian Jonathan Rich presented “Spires in the Sun,” exploring Florida’s historic churches, their architecture and the stories they preserve.

September moves the conversation from historic churches to a historic school and to an increasingly important part of preservation: finding new purposes for old places.

Preserving a historic building does not mean freezing it in time. Sometimes the best way to save a building is to give it a new purpose while respecting the people and stories that made it important in the first place.

That lesson has special meaning for the Preservation Society as it works toward the restoration and future community use of the historic Rivers House at 219 Spring St. in Spring Park.

Dunbar and the Rivers House are different buildings with different histories, but they pose a similar question:

How can we honor where we have been while creating something meaningful for the generations who come next?

That is why the Dunbar story matters. The Augusta Savage center was built on the site of Dunbar,

The public is invited to hear the history by people connected to it, share memories and discover how preservation can transform an important building from a reminder of the past into an active part of a community’s future.

Tickets are $10. They can be purchased at the door or online in advance at zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/repurposing-historic-buildings-the-story-of-dunbar-high-school.