JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The reopening of the Jacksonville Fire Museum has hit another setback, adding to years of delays that have already cost taxpayers millions of dollars.
Last month, Action News Jax’s Ben Becker exposed structural problems with the building.
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Now, an Action News Jax investigation has uncovered a failed historic preservation review, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance questions, and the reason the museum lost its historic designation in the first place.
Historic designation lost after building relocation
The Jacksonville Fire Museum is intended to anchor a museum district at the Shipyards with the USS Orleck and MOSH (Museum of Science and History).
Action News Jax has learned the building recently failed to regain a spot on the National Register of Historic Places, a designation that could have helped reopen the museum for the first time since 2015.
Wayne Wood, a Jacksonville historian and former Fire Museum board member, remains optimistic.
“We have chance to have a world class museum, we just have to overcome this hurdle,” he said.
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Nearly 1,000 pages of documents obtained by Action News Jax show, among other discoveries, the 124-year-old building was stripped of its historic designation in a 2023 letter.
The designation was removed because the City of Jacksonville relocated the building from Catherine Street to the Shipyards in 2022 “without prior approval from the National Park Service.”
The relocation, combined with maintenance, repairs, and other expenses over the past decade, has cost more than $5 million. Despite that investment, the city has nothing to show for it, and the building is still considered unsafe for the public to visit.
Wood said it is difficult to determine the full extent of the project’s problems.
“How much was this botched?” Becker asked.
“It’s hard to know,” Wood said.
City officials disagree over historic designation and ADA requirements
Emails obtained by Action News Jax reveal disagreement among city officials over whether regaining the historic designation and ADA compliance is necessary before reopening the museum.
In May, the museum’s curator wrote that the museum “did not pass” a previous review to regain its historic status.
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The curator also wrote that the historic designation is critical for an ADA exception and identified possible ADA issues, including “bathrooms” and “access to the second floor.”
However, the city’s Planning Services Manager disagreed, writing:
“ADA compliance work that needs to be done does not have any impact on the National Register application. As such, your team is free to reopen the museum at any time.”
Structural issues continue to delay reopening
The latest findings come after engineers discovered major structural problems and termites inside the building as Becker first reported in June.
While the museum remains closed, its collections continue to be stored in climate-controlled facilities.
Those storage costs for taxpayers have already exceeded $26,000 this year alone. Annual storage expenses ranged from roughly $60,000 to more than $71,000 between 2023 and 2025.
City says application is being revised
Action News Jax reached out to the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department multiple times, but JFRD said Chief Percy Golden was unavailable for an interview but provided a statement saying:
“The historic preservation application is being revised based on input from the state. It was not rejected...”
The statement added:
“...the city plans to submit the revised application this month based on the state’s feedback.”
Despite the setbacks, Wood believes the museum is salvageable.
“It’s too important to tear down and can’t leave it the way it is, so we have to do something,” Wood said.
What’s next
The Florida Historical Commission’s next meeting is scheduled for August. However, because applications must be submitted 60 days in advance, JFRD’s request will not be reviewed until November, a full year after the building was originally expected to reopen as a museum honoring Jacksonville firefighters.
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