The Eastside Neighborhood Association wants to keep the life and legacy of one of its greatest sons alive.

The association members, along with a newly created museum board, envision transforming Gen. Daniel “Chappie” James Jr.’s boyhood home into a museum.

The house on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive is now a memorial plaza.

If the eastside residents have their way, the home of the nation’s first black general will become a monument in memory of James’ contribution to his community and country.

 “His legacy is so important to this city,” said Jeannie Rhoden, association president. “We needs things and people like this to inspire our children to do great things.”

Pensacola City Council recently approved an architectural design and cost feasibility study up to $25,000 to look at developing the museum and linking it with the Gen. Daniel “Chappie” James Jr. Summer Flight Academy.

The flight academy is a program designed to expose young people to science and aviation in a summer program that includes academics and flight training.

While the Chappie James Museum Board is in its infancy stages, it plans to establish a foundation with six of the eight members having museum board background.

As the two groups iron out specifics, they both agree on restoring the white five-room, “shotgun” style wooden house on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive into a repository of James’ memorabilia and historical artifacts of his life in Pensacola and the military. The groups also envision including an office, classrooms and gift shop.

James was a fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force who in 1975 became the first African American to reach the rank of four-star general.

Born in Pensacola, James attended Tuskegee Institute and was one of the famed “Tuskegee Airmen.”

The memorial plaza currently includes his birthplace house, a granite memorial laser-etched with his likeness, a history trail embossed on a black plaque, and the enshrined “Chappie’s First Steps,” the weather-stained concrete stoop that is all that remains of Pensacola’s first African-American school run by his mother, Lillie James.

The property is owned by the City of Pensacola and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

“It is something special that the nation’s first black general grew up on the eastside of Pensacola,” Rhoden said. “The eastside is almost a forgotten community, and we are trying to bring it back economically, socially and culturally.”

Helen Gibson, chief of neighborhoods for the City of Pensacola, says as part of that area being a redevelopment district, there is a TIF (tax increment financing district).

The TIF dollars would be used to improve infrastructure of the house to support the museum. The museum board would be a partnering entity and would fund the operation of the museum, including getting the artifacts, equipment, etc.

The architectural study will “pay an architect to say these are the things you have to do to the structure to make it support the museum, and some operating costs for the museum so that we have some good numbers to work from to know what we need,” she says.

Eddie Todd is architect of record on the project. He prepared the nomination that got the site listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

She credits the Neighborhood Association with the progress made thus far.

“It is due to their efforts over last 15-16 years that we are here (with the TIF and the museum plan).”

Shannon Nickinson contributed to this report.

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