Organizers behind the 309 Punk Project are turning to GoFundMe to raise money to buy the long-standing "Punk House" at 309 Sixth Ave. and preserve it into a permanent punk archive of the Pensacola scene.

Late last week, organizers started a GoFundMe page, hoping to raise $11,550 as a down payment on the house that has been a gathering place, home and artistic nurturing environment for many members of Pensacola's long-running punk and underground music and art scene.

In the first five days of the GoFundMe campaign, the effort collected $3,271 of its goal.

"We need to buy the house,'' said Scott Satterwhite, a 309 Punk Project board member. "Or at least have something firm in place by the end of the year."

There were 65 donors in the first five days of the campaign, with donations ranging from $10 to a $1,000 donation.

"We've been amazed at the response,'' Satterwhite said. "We've raised a lot, but we still have a ways to go."

The total cost to buy the home and prepare it as an archive/artistic space will be about $250,000.

'No other place like it':Pensacola's famous 309 'punk house' to be preserved

Photo gallery:Pensacola’s punk scene in the 1990s

Satterwhite and other board members, long-entrenched in Pensacola's counter-culture scene, are trying to preserve the home — which is still occupied by Pensacola "punks'' — into a museum/archive, as well as a thriving artistic community. The group hopes to establish an artist-in-residence program at the house, which is more than 100 years old.

"It's about preserving history, but also establishing a place for current punk culture to thrive,'' said Valerie George, a 309 Punk Project board member, whose old band Coppertone performed at the house in the past. "We don't want it just to be a museum or warehouse for archives. We want it to be a creative space with a recording studio, a print-making studio. It's more about keeping a spirit alive than just preserving the old stuff."

The 309 Punk Project organizers have been busy since forming two years ago.

The group has traveled to Los Angeles to speak at UCLA's "Curating Resistance" conference, and curated the "Punksacola" exhibit at the T.T. Wentworth Jr. Florida State Museum. The exhibit features photos, flyers, zines and other memorabilia from Pensacola's punk subculture.

The exhibit runs through July 20, 2019.

What's in the exhibit?:Pensacola punk exhibit opens at T.T. Wentworth Jr. Florida State Museum

Now, the focus is on the home.

"I see people as really wanting this to happen,'' Satterwhite said. "We're just the conduits. We all know our past is important and significant, and this is where we can highlight and protect the past while projecting the DIY ethic that made it all happen."

If the group isn't able to purchase the home, donations will be used to move the project to another "brick-and-mortar" location, George said.

Troy Moon can be reached at tmoon@pnj.com and 850-435-8541.

Want to help?

The GoFundMe page is at gofundme.com/last-push-to-save-309-punk-house. For more information on the project, go to 309punkmuseum.org.