ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — The St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners has officially signed a lease for the future site of the Florida Museum of Black History in West Augustine.

County Commissioner Sarah Arnold made the trip to Miami, where the foundation behind the museum is now based, to sign the lease on Friday.

Action News Jax reported back in February about renewed competition over the museum’s proposed site, and accusations of biased scoring towards the governor’s appointed Florida Black History Museum task force.

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“It was always West Augustine. It was always St. John’s County, and it was always going to Florida Memorial University as our partner,” Arnold said Friday. “To be down here today at their homecoming alumni luncheon, be able to sign this lease, and get the ball rolling, we feel so honored and privileged.”

The new museum will look to transform the space of the former Florida Memorial College off West Kings Street and North Holmes Boulevard into a unique center for Black history in one of Northeast Florida’s most historic neighborhoods.

“We envisioned a campus-style museum with separate buildings for a performing arts center, an art gallery, perhaps, you know, a restaurant in it, the museum itself,” Arnold explained Friday. “We envision gardens, sculptures. That’s, that’s really kind of what we have in mind.”

County officials celebrated in September a one-million-dollar appropriation to fund the planning and design phase of the museum. That’s all set to begin as soon as Commissioner Arnold makes her way back from her visit to Miami.

However, Arnold told Action News Jax there’s still a way to go in securing both state and private funding needed to complete the project.

“We expect to have more state support,” Arnold said. “We also have established a foundation to raise money in the private sector and from the community and from the entire state of Florida to just make sure that this all happens. So, it’s definitely going to be a combination of state legislature dollars as well as private funding.”

Arnold says they’ll be seeking that funding in the next state legislative session, come January.

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