Book Launch for “Saving Fernandina 1972-1978”
Local attorney, lobbyist, and Main Street Board Member Arthur “Buddy” Jacobs and his wife Lorelei held a special event in their home on Saturday, December 7, 2019 to benefit historic preservation in Fernandina Beach. Over cocktails and hors d’oevres, they had a book reading/signing by Suanne Zuzel Thamm, author of the new book Saving Fernandina 1972-1978, which captures photographs and recounts, often in their own words, and strategies that city residents of that era used to successfully reverse the historic downtown’s physical deterioration and economic decline. Sal Cumella, the Preservation Planner for the City of Fernandina Beach, also spoke. Brett’s Waterway Café provided catering and pianist John Springer provided music. Proceeds of the event and first publication book sales benefit Fernandina Beach Main Street. Proceeds of future book sales will benefit Fernandina Beach Main Street, the Amelia Island Fernandina Restoration Foundation and the Amelia Island Museum of History. We are very grateful to the Jacobs for holding this event and the proceeds raised.
This event raised nearly $20,000! We are so grateful to the “Publication Partners” in this photo who contributed a total of $14,000 toward the event and publication of the book.
“The Centre Street revitalization project which will be dedicated this week, happened because there were a few who refused to watch a city die. Many large cities and small towns throughout the country have seen a decay of their downtown districts. For a while, it looked as though Fernandina would have taken its place among them, but then the community could not sit back. Few places the size of Fernandina Beach could have mustered enough force to get federal money to begin such a project, let alone complete a massive undertaking. But it happened here. And with the efforts came not only a revitalization of Centre Street but a modern library to boot. … The revitalization will be as important to Fernandina’s history as the trolley cars that used to roll down Centre Street or the pirates who once savored the merriment found in the town. A hundred years from now, people will only be able to ponder what it must have been like during the second half of the 20th century. “Who were those people a century ago that sought a rebirth of their town?” they may ask themselves. The answer may be speculative to them, but for those who played a role in the actual accomplishment it’s not speculative at all… It’s a fact that Fernandina Beach was reborn by the people who lived here in 1978.”