Restoration work at museum already underway; copper dome damage at courthouse never seen before
LIVE OAK — The history of Suwannee County got an unwelcome introduction to the present Friday.
Hurricane Helene’s devastating winds — as high as 120 mph in Live Oak according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — peeled part of the roof off the Suwannee County Historical Museum, which is housed in the historic 1903 Atlantic Coast Line Freight Station building in downtown Live Oak.
Eric Musgrove, a county historian and the chairman of the Suwannee County Historical Commission, said the damaged roof let a number of the museum’s displays and artifacts exposed to the elements during the storm.
With the roof peeled off, the southern half of the museum’s interior was inundated with rain as the storm, which made landfall as a Category 4, passed through the area.
“Everything on down got rained on and we’re drying it out, doing the best we can,” Musgrove said Saturday as he continued to survey the damage in the museum and attempting to dry out the wet items like quilts and books. “All of this stuff was soaking wet yesterday morning. We tried to set them up.
“The south side (of the roof) just got peeled over.”
The only display on the southern side of the museum that wasn’t drenched was a musical area that included old organs and pianos.
Musgrove added a professional team was expected to arrive at the museum later Saturday to dry and preserve those items.
“This stuff is beyond what I know,” Musgrove said. “We’re going to let the experts work on it.”
Crews from Poe Roofing were already on site late Saturday morning working on putting a temporary fix to the museum’s roof. Musgrove said tarping the roof Friday did not fully work, plus it would not protect the artifacts inside from moisture and elements.
The Action Restoration workers were providing a better solution until the building could get a new roof. Musgrove said he expected the new roof would be at least $200,000.
That work on the temporary roof fix was expected to be completed Saturday.
Musgrove added that it’s not the first time a freight depot in Live Oak sustained that type of damage. Fifty years ago, the Seaboard Air Line freight depot that sat across U.S. Highway 129 (Ohio Avenue) where the Huffman and Gilmore property is located, a wind storm blew through and peeled part of its roof off then.
That depot was torn down following that damage.
“I was thinking about that picture in my head as I was up here last night,” he said. “It’s crazy.”
The damage at the museum wasn’t the only gut punch Helene delivered to Musgrove, who also is a deputy clerk of court for the Suwannee County Clerk of Circuit Court.
Prior to arriving at the museum on Friday, Musgrove had already been at the Suwannee County Courthouse, surveying the damage it sustained in the storm as well.
He got a call from his brother-in-law, informing him that the museum was damaged as well.
“He said the museum roof was shredded,” Musgrove said. “I got here and I didn’t cry, but I really felt like it when I walked in here.”
Several windows on the front side of the courthouse were knocked out and Musgrove said several computers got wet during the storm.
“It’s not as bad as Debby overall,” Musgrove said of the damage at the courthouse. “Our IT folks were looking at them today to see if they could salvage them.”
Additionally, two of the four clock faces on the courthouse tower were knocked out, as well as some of the copper peeled off of the dome of the historic courthouse. The clock tower underwent a full restoration and renovation around 2001, Musgrove said.
Musgrove said the damage to the clock faces was nothing new. It has occurred before. The damage to copper dome, though, was different.
“We’ve never seen that happen, in any of our memories,” he said. “Barry (Baker, the clerk of court) said he never had seen that happen. I’ve never seen it happen. I talked to some old folks who never have seen that happen.”