Florida State Hospital Receives Historic Preservation Award

Florida State Hospital was awarded a 2014 Florida Preservation Award for Meritorious work in the preservation of Florida’s Heritage. This award recognized the adaptive use and transformation of the old Powder Magazine that was part of the Mount Vernon Arsenal (in later years the Apalachicola Arsenal) to a functioning conference center and future museum on the hospital campus. The award was presented by the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation at their 35th Annual Preservation Awards Ceremony held at the landmark Tampa Theater on May 16, 2014. Accepting the award for the hospital and the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) were Jim McKnight, Assistant Hospital Administrator, and Avi Wygodski, AIA, Assistant Staff Director for DCF’s Office of Design and Construction.  Assistant Administrator McKnight said, "It was truly my honor to accept this award on behalf of the hospital and the countless number of community members, current and former administrators and the staff who have worked on this project over the last 18 years. This was team work at its best, with members contributing by: obtaining the grant funding, performing skilled work (hospital maintenance and Aramark in later years) and the manual labor provided by the Department of Corrections."