An Inadvertent Historic Preservationist
From humble beginnings, Dr. William R. “Bill” Adams succeeded as a scholar, in the CIA, as a political appointee and then a historic preservationist. Adams served the Florida Trust from its inception in 1978 to 1985. “The Florida Trust organized to acquire membership to develop funding creating a stable organization to lobby for grant funding to Florida cities and counties,” says Founding Member and Trustee Emeritus Bill Adams, aged 90. The Florida Trust for Historic Preservation lobbied the legislature hard for the historic preservation grants program and succeeded. The program then provided money to conduct surveys, identify historic buildings, designate buildings, create historic districts and work on nominations to the National Register of Historic Places.
Adams’ involvement with the Florida Trust grew out his role with the Florida Bicentennial Commission, a blue-ribbon board charged with organizing and implementing Florida’s celebration. After several false starts with appointees in the director’s position, Lt. Gov. Jim Williams, in charge of the Commission, asked for a historian as the new director. Adams stepped forward and was appointed in September 1975 with scant time to get the job done by July 4, 1976. The commission was well-funded by the legislature to dispense grant funds to each of Florida’s 67 county commissions for projects observing the bicentennial.
Adams is most proud of his work with Bicentennial Commission during his career. “My first job was to replace the politicians on the county commissions with people wanting to carry out a program befitting the history of each county.” He felt he was appointed to, in turn, appoint historians and historic preservationists to do this work – preserving physical buildings or writing county histories or surveying historic assets in a county.
And that got people interested in history.
In Adam’s opinion, the Bicentennial was the genesis of the historic preservation movement in Florida. There was an active historic preservation program in St. Augustine beginning in mid-1960s. And historic preservation was taking place in the 1970s in Pensacola, in Tampa and in certain spots along Flagler’s railroad line. But the Bicentennial grant dollars served to inspire historic preservation around the state and the movement flowered.
Adams route to becoming a historic preservationist was a circuitous one. His early education in a one-room schoolhouse in Hamel, Minnesota was not substantial, but he read a lot of history in the good county library. After serving his country in the armed forces, Adams didn’t quite know what he wanted to do next. Attending the University of Minnesota, he took classes he was good at – history. Looking for direction Adams visited the CIA recruiter and talked about working for the Department of State or the CIA. The recruiter told him a degree in history was good. After graduating in 1961, he talked to the recruiter again who said you need a graduate degree. So, Adams pursued his master’s. With only his thesis left to write he was accepted into the CIA where he worked for seven years, spending time in Panama. Florida State University has a campus in Panama, and in talking with the chair of the FSU History Department, Adams was offered a scholarship to pursue a doctorate. He took a leave of absence in 1970 and earned his Ph.D. in history. Instead of returning to the CIA, Adams began teaching continuing education and history at FSU.
But the experience of driving past a Romanesque building that was being torn down as a 21-year-old university student in Minneapolis stands out as the moment Adams first considered historic preservation. Why would they tear down that beautiful building, he asked himself. He would spend a career saving buildings from that same fate.
After the Bicentennial Commission disbanded, Adams became the director of the Historic St. Augustine Preservation Board in 1977. When he took the position he knew no architectural history, had no historic preservation experience. The board wanted to do a survey. There wasn’t an index of historical buildings in the city – how old were the buildings, which building were to be considered historic? Adams was unsure how to proceed. He went to a University of Florida professor who said go to the Department of State – they are charged with surveying but they were hindered by too small a staff. Adams said give us the money and we’ll do the survey. The Board completed the survey and Adams dedicated the next eight years to preserving and restoring St. Augustine’s priceless historic stock.
After fourteen years conducting over 35 county surveys as a historic preservation consultant through his company Historic Property Associates (HPA) of St. Augustine , Adams resumed working for St. Augustine.
“Bill is the consummate historian, preservationist and networker, said Sidney Johnston, historic preservationist consultant. “He was already a legend in Florida historic preservation circles in the 1980s, when I met him as he guest lectured in graduate architectural preservation courses at the University of Florida. Bill hired me as a historic sites specialist. I deeply respect Bill as a historian and businessman.”
In 1999 the state abolished the Historic St. Augustine Preservation Board and the City of St. Augustine took over. Adams was named the director of the City of St. Augustine Department of Heritage Tourism, managing the visitor information services, supervising two museums and maintaining 33 restored or reconstructed properties and supervising the library and archival collection. Adams retired in 2009.
“Preserving historic buildings provides stability and pleasure, destruction to things familiar to us is damaging to people,” Adams stated. Dr. Bill Adams’ life’s work was dedicated to saving and preserving the histories that tell Florida’s great stories.
Thanks, Bill!