Ethos Preservation is helping the Coastal Georgia Area Community Action Authority (CGACAA) transform the historic Risley School campus into a community resource hub. Established in 1870 as Glynn County’s first public school for African Americans, the campus survives through four buildings constructed in 1923, 1936, 1944, and circa 1950. The Rise Risley community resource hub will continue this legacy of community service by providing space for education, workforce training, youth enrichment, and nonprofit services that advance CGACAA’s mission of moving families out of poverty and into self-sufficiency.

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Ethos was first engaged in 2023 and is providing preservation planning, historic tax incentive assistance, grant writing, and ongoing grant management as part of the project’s capital campaign. Ethos has secured two $750,000 National Park Service grants, totaling $1.5 million, along with awards from Norfolk Southern, the Fox Theatre Institute, and the Daughters of the American Revolution. Ethos also prepared the Part 1 and Part 2 historic tax credit applications and is coordinating preservation requirements with the rehabilitation plans and funding strategy.

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The project’s financing requires coordination of historic tax credit syndication, LLC ownership structuring, outside investment, and multiple grant requirements. Ethos is playing a significant management role, helping CGACAA align preservation standards, grant compliance, and tax credit requirements as rehabilitation progresses. This work connects technical preservation guidance with the funding and administrative support needed to carry a complex nonprofit project toward completion.

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The ongoing first phase includes the rehabilitation of the 1923 Colored Memorial Building, where historic classrooms and the original auditorium will become the hub’s first active spaces. Rehabilitation includes structural repairs, masonry and roof work, historic window and door restoration, accessibility improvements, building systems upgrades, and preservation of the auditorium’s original finishes and seating. Ethos is working alongside Architectural Collaborative, the project architect, and Garbutt Construction, the Construction Manager at Risk, to support rehabilitation consistent with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards. The project is ongoing.