Palm Harbor Museum facts for kids
Front of the museum in 2015
|
|
| Established | 1998 |
|---|---|
| Location | 2043 Curlew Rd, Palm Harbor, Florida |
| Type | Local history, historic house |
| Collections | Greater Palm Harbor history, North Pinellas citrus and ladder-making industry |
The Palm Harbor Museum is a fun place to learn about local history. It's located in the old Hartley House in Palm Harbor, Florida. This museum helps everyone discover the interesting past of the Palm Harbor area.
Contents
Discovering the Museum's Past
The Hartley House Story
The Hartley House is a special building. It was a "kit house" bought from Sears, Roebuck and Co.. Thomas W. Hartley built it between 1914 and 1919. His father, James Hartley, bought the land around 1880.
The house was built with strong concrete blocks. These blocks were made right there using sand from a nearby area. They looked like stone! Each block weighed 84 pounds. The walls inside were also concrete, making the house very sturdy.
The family never finished the upstairs rooms. This was because they ran out of money. Neighbors even joked that the house was always "under construction." The house didn't even get electricity until 1947!
How the Museum Began
The idea for a museum started in 1983. Jane C. Shelnutt and the Palm Harbor Historical Society wanted to show old items. They first displayed them in a shopping center. This first museum was called the Palm Harbor Historical Museum. It showed donated items and things borrowed from the Pinellas County Historical Museum. But this spot was not meant to be forever.
The museum moved to Florida Avenue in 1987. It was in the Florida Bank of Commerce building. In 1991, the bank needed more space. So, the museum's collection had to go into storage. It stayed there for several years.
In 1993, Winona and Charley Jones helped find a new home. They were from Palm Harbor and loved history. They also helped create the Palm Harbor Historic District in 1994.
The Hartley House was bought in 1996 by Pinellas County. It was going to be torn down at first. But in March 1996, the county decided to save it! They put the building under the care of Heritage Village and the Palm Harbor Historical Society. The historical society leased it for just $1 a year.
Between 1996 and 1998, the county spent $185,000 to fix up the house. The historical society also helped raise some money. The Palm Harbor Historical Museum, as we know it today, opened in November 1998.
A few years later, in 2002, the museum's name changed. It became the North Pinellas Historical Museum. This new name showed that the museum covered more communities. In 2003, a nearby grove house was given to the historical society. This house was built during the Great Depression for citrus workers. It was moved to the museum property.
Winona Jones, who was the museum's director, wrote a book in 2005. It was called Around Palm Harbor. She had been taking care of the museum since 1998. She stepped down as director in 2006.
The museum changed its name again in 2014. It became the Palm Harbor Museum. From 2015 to 2018, the museum hosted a fun bluegrass festival. It later moved to Honeymoon Island State Park.
In 2016, the museum got a big grant. It was $387,753 from the State of Florida. This money helped fix up the museum building and the grove house. The grove house had only been used for storage. Both buildings had their grand reopening in February 2017.
The museum received another grant in 2022. This one was to create an outdoor garden with plants native to Florida. It also allowed for signs that explain about Florida's native plants, early Americans, and first settlers. Pinellas County Commissioners Charlie Justice and Dave Eggers helped celebrate this new addition. A special "wind phone" was built on the property in 2023.
Visiting the Museum Today
It's free to visit the Palm Harbor Museum! It's run completely by amazing volunteers. The museum's goal is to "collect, preserve and share the heritage of the Palm Harbor area." This includes many nearby communities like Crystal Beach, Ozona, and East Lake.
What You Can See: Collections and Exhibitions
The museum has several permanent exhibits downstairs:
- The Hartley Family: This room shows items and information about Thomas W. Hartley and his wife, Ida. The Hartley family came from Illinois. They had a ladder factory that made special cypress ladders for the local citrus industry. Thomas Hartley was also a mail carrier and a local minister.
- Citrus Industry: This exhibit is in the grove house. It has old photos and items from Palm Harbor's citrus past. You can learn about growing, packing, and shipping citrus from the 1880s to the 1990s. This exhibit opened with the grove house in 2017.
- Faith Mission Children's Home: This exhibit is in what used to be a boys' bedroom. It tells the story of an orphanage in Crystal Beach during the 1930s and 1940s.
- Environmental Alterations: A Land Worth More Than Remembering: This room shares information about the Tocobaga people who lived here long ago. It also covers Spanish exploration, the Seminole Wars, and the lives of early settlers in Palm Harbor and nearby areas. The room also has beautiful window panels painted by artist Christopher M. Still.
- Ida's Kitchen: This room is the house's original kitchen. It shows different cooking tools from the early 1900s. It's named after Ida Hartley, who used to make delicious guava jelly.
The museum also has changing exhibits. The current one is "Marriage and Mayhem in the Sunshine State." It talks about a historical event involving the Duke of Sutherland and Mary Caroline Blair in the 1880s. This exhibit opened in February 2024.
Some past exhibits include:
- The Way We Worked: This was a special traveling exhibit from the Smithsonian Institution. It showed different jobs people in Palm Harbor used to have. It was at the museum in late 2014.
- Our Women, Our Places: This exhibit celebrated important women from North Pinellas and the places they were connected to. One featured woman was Myrtle Scharrer Betz, who was known for Caladesi Island.
- Revealing African American Contributions in North Pinellas: This exhibit highlighted the important contributions of Black citizens in the area. It is currently on loan at Heritage Village's Union Academy building.
Sharing Stories: Oral History Program
The museum has a special program to record stories from people who live in Palm Harbor. These are called "oral histories." Most of these interviews were done by Sallie Parks, who was a former Pinellas County commissioner.
A Look into the Future: Time Capsule
After the Space Shuttle Challenger accident in 1986, a group of Palm Harbor citizens buried a time capsule in 1987. It's at H.S. "Pop" Stansell Memorial Park. The capsule is filled with space items, including letters signed by President Ronald Reagan, Vice President George H.W. Bush, and Senator John Glenn.
The citizens asked the Palm Harbor Historical Society to open the time capsule in 50 years (which would be 2037). Then, they want it reburied and opened again 50 years after that!
