William H.

Grace
10890 Maitland Way
Fort Myers, Florida 33913
Telephone: 239 939-3579
October 3, 2016
Governor Rick Scott
The Capitol
400 S. Monroe Street
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-0001
Dear Governor Scott;
Koreshan State Historic Site is in crisis. The site is a National
Register District consisting of eleven contributing structures and
thousands of artifacts and archival materials. It is the surviving
remnant of a communal community established in Estero, Florida,
at the turn of the Twentieth Century. The site was donated to the
State of Florida and has been a State Park since the early 1960s.
The stated purpose for the gift of this property was to preserve
Koreshan heritage. It is a primary example of the earliest
settlement of the area. Over the years, the Citizen Support
Organization has overseen development of preservation plans for
all of the structures and five of them have been restored.
Restoration was funded largely from grants obtained by the
support organization with some funding from the Division of Parks
and Recreation.
The stated mission of the Florida Park Service is to provide
resource-based recreation while preserving, interpreting and
restoring natural and cultural resources. The crisis at Koreshan
is:

 Art Hall, circa 1904. The Art Hall which was the cultural
heart of the settlement and still serves as a site for
many cultural events and historic tours. A complete
restoration was undertaken by the citizen support group
with some financial support from the park service
several years ago. About three years ago the new roof
began to leak. In January 2016, the heavy rains that
month, virtually flooded the Art Hall. The structure
houses a number of unique Koreshan artifacts such as
the 1889 Steinway grand piano and many valuable
original paintings by Douglas Arthur Teed. The park
service response to the water intrusion in January was
to place a tarpaulin over the worst part of the roof. This
covering remains on the roof today. No other steps
have been taken to protect the building and its
contents.
Industrial Buildings, early 20th Century. In the 65-plus
years that the park service has been the steward of
these structures, almost nothing has been done to
maintain or restore them. These buildings house many
of the machines and tools the Koreshans utilized to
build and support their community. Today there is
water intrusion into the Large Machine Shop and the
Generator Building. A restoration plan has been
prepared by the Citizen Support Organization, but no
steps have been taken by the park service to protect or
preserve these important historic buildings.
Founders House, circa 1896. This structure was the
first building in the park to be restored. In the early
1990s the citizen support organization raised the
money and undertook the restoration. Since that time
the park service has largely ignored maintenance and
needed repairs. Today, when it rains, water pours
through roof onto the porch.

 New Store, circa 1921. This structure was central to the

Koreshan community and all of Estero for many
decades. It served as the general store, post office,
mens dorm, gas station, restaurant, and general
community meeting site. Since the park service took
over, it has been used for storage of many Koreshan
artifacts. A preservation plan, prepared more than ten
years ago, determined that the New Store was not
structurally sound enough for human occupation.
Thereafter, the park service took some steps toward
stabilization. Recently an architect was hired by the
park service to prepare plans for the restoration of the
structure, with the intent of developing this building as
a visitors center. It was recently revealed that the
restoration plans have been abandoned and that it is
likely the building will be demolished. Although the
park service has consistently ignored the historic
structures, and have allowed them to again fall into
disrepair, this is the first proposal for demolition.
The abysmal track record the park service has with regard to the
maintenance and repair of the historic Koreshan site has now
come to the point of crisis. Over 65 years of indifference and
neglect have taken their toll. If something does not change, we
will lose this important historic site.
I respectfully request that you direct your agencies to reject any
consideration of the demolition of our Koreshan historic resources
and recommit to their stated goal, to provide resource-based
recreation while preserving, interpreting and restoring natural and
cultural resources.
Sincerely yours,
William H. Grace
cc:

Ken Detzner, Florida Secretary of State

Donald V. Forgione, Director Florida Park Service

Timothy A. Parsons, Division Director & State Historic
Preservation Officer
Jon Eglehart, DEP South District Director
Valinda Subic, Dist. 4 Director
Senator Garrett Richter, District
Representative Ray Wesley Rodrigues, District 76
Nick Batos, Mayor Village of Estero
Franklin Mann, Chairman of Lee County Commission
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