Director

1919 La France fire engine, Belleair, Florida, undated. This engine is now at Heritage Village in Largo, Florida. 

1919 La France fire engine at the Belleair Fire Department, Belleair, Florida, undated. This engine is now at Heritage Village in Largo, Florida. 

Belleview-Biltmore Hotel, Belleair, Florida, circa 1920. 

Firefighter in horse drawn fire engine, St. Petersburg, Florida, circa 1890s. 

Fire Chief Anderson and firemen in horse and mule drawn fire engines, St. Petersburg, Florida, circa 1900. 

Firefighters and fire engine fighting a fire at the Hart Rug Co. on S. Ft. Harrison St. in Clearwater, Florida, April 28, 1926. 

Firefighters with La France fire engine, Clearwater, Florida, circa 1915. 

Went into service in 1917 at the Belleview Biltmore Hotel. 

Belleview Biltmore Firetruck and Firehouse 

Institution

The Pinellas County Historical Museum at Heritage Village is a twenty-one acre public park owned and operated by Pinellas County government. Serving Pinellas residents, the Tampa Bay region, and the state since 1976, the museum is located within the 182-acre Pinewood Cultural Park complex. Together, these organizations provide visitors with a dynamic experience that includes history, art, and nature. The mission of Heritage Village is to inspire exploration of Pinellas County’s story by designing unique programs and exhibits, facilitating research, and collecting and preserving local history.                In 1964, the Pinellas County Historical Museum opened in the basement of the Pinellas County Courthouse, located in downtown Clearwater. The museum’s first collections established a strong foundation to build upon as Pinellas’ first family’s donated items with local provenance to the fledgling organization. The nation’s bicentennial fueled grassroots efforts to honor the county’s collective history. The threat of demolition to the Plant-Sumner House, and the availability of the House of Seven Gables propelled many concerned citizens, organizations, and government officials into action. In turn, the Bicentennial Committee of the Board of County Commissioners, the Pinellas County Historical Commission, and the Junior League of Clearwater led efforts to locate funding and resources. In 1976 the Junior League of Clearwater partnered with the County government to utilize public land and provided funds to move the first building.                The county acquired a parcel of land from Frank and Ursula Shirvis nearly three decades earlier but did not have specific long-term plans for it. With developers planning to build new structures on land then occupied by Plant-Sumner and Seven Gables, local architect Don Williams designed a site plan for the original ten acres of the site that included those two structures. In 1976, the county allocated approximately $60,000 to construct a Florida “Cracker” dwelling that served as the first museum building. 	 Four large moving vans transported archival and museum collections from the basement of the courthouse to the secure, climate-controlled structures at the park.			Originally known as “Heritage Park,” the expanded museum and village opened to the public in 1977 and sat on a ten-acre tract that includes the southern half of the present-day property, bordered by 125th street North and Walsingham roads. Through widespread community support individuals worked to relocate additional structures to the park. As the site continued to grow, the focus of the park shifted from operating solely as a local history museum to creating a village of restored buildings that work in concert to tell the county’s story. Over the decades, the site expanded to its present size of twenty-one acres. During the summer of 1995, officials changed the name of “Heritage Park,” to “Heritage Village” to emphasize the difference between a traditional park with picnic benches and playgrounds to a village that preserves important historical structures.			Today, Heritage Village staff care for over twenty-eight historic structures from across Pinellas County, as well as two gallery spaces. As the county’s local history museum, staff are entrusted with the preservation, maintenance, and care of these historic structures and the museum’s collections. As visitors stroll along brick paths, they encounter historic homes and structures that span both the temporal and geographical history of the county. These structures range from the 1924 Gandy Tower that signaled the entrance to the Gandy Bridge, the first bridge across the Bay to connect the cities of St. Petersburg and Tampa; to a 1850s log cabin from Clearwater’s founding families and the oldest extant structure in the county; to a 1930's sponge warehouse from Tarpon Springs.

Heritage Village is an open air museum that is dedicated to preserving and interpreting Pinellas County history. The park covers twenty-one acres of Florida's iconic palmetto and pine landscape. The Village is home to over 30 historic structures that have been relocated to the museum from various parts of Pinellas County. The buildings range from an 1850's pioneer log cabin to a 1930's Sponge Warehouse. 

The House of Seven Gables was built in 1907 on the bluff near the present day Pinellas County Courthouse as a retirement home for David N.Starr. James Stevens originally obtained the land around present-day downtown Clearwater through the Armed Occupation Act. This law passed by Congress in 1842 brought settlers to peninsular Florida. The act allowed provided land to settlers, who in exchange for land would  live on their land, cultivate at least five acres, build a dwelling, and bear arms in event of another Seminole war. After the property exchanged hands three times, David N. Starr—a retiree from Rockford, Illinois—purchased the parcel in 1896.  Eleven years later, the Staff family began to spend their winters at Seven Gables. Originally perched on a bluff overlooking Clearwater Bay west, this impressive house offered a magnificent view and occupied a prominent location in the growing city. The elegant residence contains thirteen rooms and seven gables, allowing for a spacious living area that suited Victorian tastes. The interior paneling is made of heart of pine and beaded tongue and groove that provided durability. Excellent materials and sound construction have allowed the house to survive the October 1921 hurricane, as well as other storms. The Starr family sold the home in 1917. Two years later, Annie Kelley, a compassionate woman, acquired the house. By the early 1920s, she allowed an Episcopal minister to occupy the house with his family until the architects could complete a new rectory at Clearwater’s Episcopal Church of the Ascension. Chester and Lucy Masslich purchased the home in 1925 for speculative purposes and rental income. Over the next two decades, a variety of proprietors operated an inn or rooming house at Seven Gables. During the mid-1920s, a group of realtors utilized the house as a social club for dinners, informal meetings, and card games attended by “binder boys,” young real estate operatives who placed a small down payment, or binder, on real estate during the Florida land boom with a promise to acquire the balance within a short period of time. As the land boom came to an end, numerous residents rented the upstairs furnished rooms between the late 1920s and the early 1940s. For example, the Guzman family managed the property in 1931 and turned Seven Gables into a tearoom and rooming house with service that included “dinner on the veranda.”   Charles and Clara Dietrich fell in love with Seven Gables in 1944 and planned to retire there. They moved from Orlando to Clearwater and made some improvements to the structure. However, after seven years in the home, the house and stairs become too much for the elderly couple. They returned to Orlando after selling the house to John V. Neill in 1951. Two years later, Neill decided to sell to a young dentist named Frederick Hemerick. Members of that family kept the house until April 1975, when they accepted a purchase offer from Don Williams and Dixie Walker of the Williams and Walker architectural firm in Clearwater. Williams, a member of the Pinellas County Historical Commission and early developer of site plans for Heritage Village, donated Seven Gables and a portion of the costs associated with its move to Heritage Village in 1976. The enormous size of the house and its location in downtown Clearwater required movers to transport it by barge along the intracoastal waterway, an event that attracted a great deal of media attention. Since arriving at Heritage Village, many individuals and organizations have contributed to the restoration of this grand and elegant house to its original Victorian appearance.

The House of Seven Gables, built in 1907, moved to Heritage Village in 1977. David N. Starr, of Rockford, Illinois, originally built the home as a retirement home for his family. Over the course of its life, this house served a variety of purposes from a second home to a boarding house, and now a historic home that aides in interpreting Pinellas County history. 

This Queen Anne style home includes thirteen rooms all clad in heart of pine. The interior reflect the height of modern, Edwardian tastes, and the seven gables of the roof lend the home its name. 

House of Seven Gables

The Plant-Sumner House was originally located near Henry B. Plant’s Belleview Hotel, now the Belleview Biltmore. This vernacular Victorian home was built around 1896, the included modern amenities that such as water, plumbing, and electricity. In the 1930s, the modern kitchen and side porches were added to the structure. 

Plant-Sumner House

The community of Safety Harbor, once known as Green Springs, represented an early settlement site along the Pinellas Peninsula, near the Odet Philippe homestead and the Bay View community. 	Early church services in the area were held at Sylvan Abbey Methodist Episcopal Church by 1886, but gatherings ended at the Abbey after 1900. The 1888 pulpit was brought from the Abbey to this structure. The wood for the church came from E. H. Coachman’s sawmill, once located on a site within present-day Philippe Park.


Safety Harbor Church

This reproduction bandstand is a replica of the former Williams Park Bandstand built in 1890 in St. Petersburg, Fl. 

Williams Park Bandstand 

Following the Civil War, African American families moved to Tarpon Springs to work in lumber mills, citrus groves, and the fledgling sponge industry. Black spongers contributed heavily to this new economy. In the 1890s, families from Key West, the Bahamas, and other Caribbean islands migrated to Tarpon Springs to work in the sponge trade.  Among the first to harvest sponges in the region, Black spongers used a technique known as “hooking.” On clear, calm days, men worked in small dinghies and scanned the ocean floor using a glass bottom bucket. Fishermen then used a long pole with a hook to tear the sponge free from the ocean floor. They primarily fished sponge beds in the Gulf of Mexico at the mouth of the Anclote River.  In 1896, John Chenyey hired John Cocoris to improve productivity at the Rock Island Sponge Company. Cocoris, a Greek immigrant and sponge buyer, advocated adopting sponging methods already common in Greece. In 1905, Cocoris recruited 500 Greek spongers and their families to immigrate to the area and imported the first motorized sponge boats into Tarpon Springs.  Wearing metal helmets fed by a compressed air line, Greek divers harvested sponges growing in deeper waters. With the influx of Greek divers, many African American spongers worked on Greek-owned boats, as crew and sometimes as divers. Additionally, many Black spongers learned the Greek language.  The introduction of helmet diving forever changed Tarpon Springs, both economically and culturally. The industry thrived until the 1940s, when disease decimated sponge beds, which took several decades to recover. Today, the legacy of the sponge industry remains vital to the identity of Tarpon Springs and is an integral component of its tourist economy.

This authentic sponge warehouse was originally located at 122 Roosevelt Blvd. in Tarpon Springs and was built around by Drosos Alahuzos. This building was part of  his family's wholesale sponge business, that was primarily based out of Philadelphia.

Gulf of Mexico Sponge Warehouse

	The pavilion recognizes Anson P. K. Safford (1830-1891) for his contributions to the Tarpon Springs area.  A native of Vermont, Safford moved to the West and served in the California State Assembly and later as Governor of the Arizona Territory.  He panned for gold while in California and also worked as a surveyor in Nevada. He died in Tarpon Springs in December 1891. He came to Florida and became involved in the speculation that took place in the 1880s after Hamilton Disston’s land purchase. 
	Anson and wife Soledad Bonillas (a native of Mexico) started the first Catholic chapel and school in the area.  She became involved in the creation of Tarpon Springs’ Woman’s Town Improvement Society in the early 1890s.
	Anson’s sister, Mary J. Safford, came to the region in 1883.  The Saffords originally stayed with Mary Ormond Boyer, her father (A.W. Ormond), and her husband (Joshua C. Boyer).  The Ormonds, Boyers, and Saffords formed a close friendship during the early years of Tarpon Springs’ history.
	Anson’s Tarpon Springs home has been restored and now serves as a museum.


Safford Pavilion 

Joshua C. Boyer, a Bahamian native, sailed along the Anclote River to Spring Bayou in early 1877. On this trip, Boyer met Alexander M. Ormond and his daughter, Mary Ormond. The Ormonds, had recently moved from North Carolina to homestead a parcel near present-day Pinellas Avenue in Tarpon Springs. Joshua Boyer and Mary Ormond wed in April 1877. They built a small cottage near the intersection of Boyer Street and Pinellas Avenue, and soon thereafter constructed stables for livestock. The Boyers lived in this cottage for approximately twenty-one years, from 1877 until 1898. In the United States the 1870s through the early 1900s was a period of rapid growth and expansion. The construction of railroad networks across the country connected communities and the rapid expansion of industrialization resulted in increasing wages for workers. From their home along the norther Pinellas peninsula, the Boyers witnessed many of these national changes. Philadelphia magnate Hamilton Disston acquired substantial tracts of land throughout Florida in 1881. Disston dispatched representatives to examine his purchases. Soon the Boyers served as hosts for Anson Safford, a former gold miner and territorial governor of Arizona, as well as many other agents of Disston. By the 1880s, their quiet settlement along the Bayou grew into the largest city in Western Hillsborough County. Many meetings to cement business deals during the early 1880s occurred either at the Boyer Cottage or a small hotel he operated.Joshua and Mary Boyer witnessed substantial changes in Tarpon Springs during their time at this cottage. By 1898, they moved to Eau Gallie, a small settlement along the Indian River in Brevard County. They continued to visit family and friends in Tarpon during the early 1900s, and their small cottage—with subsequent additions—remained on Pinellas Avenue until about 1920. From there, the Boyer Cottage moved to Orange Avenue, a block north of the main business district, until 1978. During this time, the cottage became one of the few residences in the City of Tarpon Springs that lacked electricity. In early 1979, members of the Protos family that had owned the building decided to donate it to Heritage Village.

Joshua and Mary Boyer built this honeymoon cottage near Spring Bayou in Tarpon Springs. The newly wed couple erected this simple 14' x 14' square as a temporary structure until they could build a more permanent dwelling. The Boyers lived in this cottage for approximately twenty-one years, from 1877 until 1898. Many sources credit Mary Boyer for giving Tarpon Springs its name in 1879 or 1880.

The cottage is representative of wood-frame Gulf Coast vernacular architecture. The small structure is characterized by board and batten siding and a high-peaked cedar shake roof. The cottage moved to Heritage Village in 1978.

Boyer Cottage

History of Site before House was Built
	Original location near Clear Water Harbor was close to early core of the small community that evolved into present-day Clearwater.

Construction Information
	Built in the 1880s on Turner Street, near Clearwater’s harbor.
	Originally designed as a three-room house, with bedroom and living room in the front, and a dining room/kitchen area in the rear. Additions to the structure (present-day kitchen, bathroom, and storage areas) appeared after the house moved from Turner Street to 503 South Greenwood Avenue. Maps indicate that some additions had occurred by October 1929.

History of Occupants
	Earliest recorded owners located to date: D. F. and Emma Crawford (through February 1926).  Leland and Nannie Waldrop acquired the house from the Crawfords. Genealogical records link these families together. Other occupants (possibly renters) before 1940 included Stephen and Carrie Griffith, Bartow and Mattie Blanton, and William Maddox. 
	Leland and Nannie Waldrop resided in the structure until 1943, when Louis and Bernice Fulopp purchased the home.
	The Fulopp family owned the structure until sold to Rehabilitative Associates and Clearwater Limb and Brace in 1982. Then located near a convenience store, the property was better suited to commercial activities rather than use as a personal residence. The new owners donated the house and moving costs so that the Greenwood House could move to Heritage Village.
	For many years since its arrival at Heritage Village, the Greenwood House served as the offices of the Pinellas County Historical Society. The kitchen area of the building has served as a staging area for occasional events, such as Holiday celebrations sponsored by the Historical Society.


Greenwood House

Reproduction boat shop based on Clark Mill's boatshop in Dunedin. Showcases boats and sailing history. 

McKay Creek Boat Shop

	George Washington Moore was born in 1845, the year Florida became the twenty-seventh state, in Bedford, Virginia (now part of West Virginia).  He met wife Francis A. Meador while living in Virginia and had two children while living there. He arrived in the Pinellas peninsula in 1875 and established his residence in the Clearwater-Dunedin area.  His three younger children are natives of Dunedin. His father also came to the area in 1875. Both George Washington Moore and his father died in the same year, 1887. 
	In 1879, he built the Moore House near the present location of Highland Avenue and Sunset Point Road. Though census records of the 1880s note his occupations as Blacksmith and machinist, he also started an orange grove and cultivated crops.
	During this period, landowners operated under the “open range” system that allowed their cows, hogs, and other animals to roam freely.
	While on a business trip to Tampa in 1887, Moore caught yellow fever and died there shortly thereafter.  Although the epidemic left Tampa under quarantine, only two Pinellas peninsula residents (including Moore) died from the outbreak. 
	Son Moffet W. Moore played an important role in the Dunedin business community for many years. His jobs included making cement blocks, operating a feed store, delivering ice, making ice cream for commercial sales, manufacturing cigar boxes, operating the Dunedin cemetery, and engaging in real estate. He helped to organize the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce on 18 February 1926.
	It is believed that a member of Arthur Lewis Duncan’s family brought grapefruit from the Odet Philippe plantation to cultivate in the Dunedin area by the 1890s.
	Daughter Effie married Arthur Horace Duncan (not known to be a relative of A. L. Duncan), an entrepreneur who developed Clearwater Nursuries (with his twin brother, Albert N.) and served as postmaster at the Keene post office. Arthur was born in Keene, New Hampshire. Their children (G. W. Moore’s granddaughters)—Gladys and Elsie Duncan—visited the Moore House on many occasions after the family sold it in the early 1900s. During their childhood, the Moore Home sat far away from the small communities that existed along the Gulf.  Duncan employed workers on the grove for about fifty cents a day. Many slept on hay in the lofts of a big barn.
	An 1882 Sunland Tribune lists participants at the second annual Fair of Western Hillsborough, held in Clear Water. Members of the Duncan family took many awards for farm products. G. W. Moore won an award for the best vehicle, a one-horse wagon. Files indicate that members of the Coachman family also owned parts of the original parcel that served as a grove into the mid-1900s.            


Moore House

History of Education in Tarpon Springs before Structure Arrived at U.A. Campus
	The 1885 constitution of Florida mandated segregated education.
	A simple wooden structure for white schoolchildren began operating in Tarpon Springs by the 1880s. A small “Negro school” served African American children in Tarpon Springs before Union Academy opened in 1919.
	Original Union Academy campus opened at a time of great racial hostility in Florida; within a few years, brutal attacks and lynchings took place in Ocoee, Perry, and Rosewood. Violence by the Ku Klux Klan increased during the 1920s.
	Despite the “separate but equal” provisions of case law and court decisions (including the 1896 judgment in Plessy v Ferguson by the U.S. Supreme Court), a wide racial disparity existed in school facilities, teacher salaries, general funding, and length of school terms for African American schools.
	Many white educators and public officials believed that any educational opportunities for Black children should fall within the areas of training for agricultural and domestic service.  They often cited Booker T. Washington’s emphasis on practical and manual skills as a proper path for Black students. 
	Schools for African American children stressed industrial education and welcomed philanthropy to compensate for inadequate funding.
	Despite laws requiring segregation, principals at Union Academy regularly invited “the white friends of the school” to events.  White patrons often enjoyed reserved seating for events at Union Academy, an act that was not reciprocated by white schools for African American residents.


Union Academy

	The home, a board and batten structure, largely the work of Wesley Lowe, contained pine and cypress. The two-story building certainly stood out along “The Narrows” and in the Anona area after its construction in 1888.

Lowe House 

The barn, constructed in 1912, replaced a smaller barn that once sat on the Lowe property. Some of the wood may have come from an earlier structure.

Lowe Barn

	Exact date of construction remains unknown, though it was built no later than 1852.  Most family sources place 1852 as the year of construction, though other sources mention earlier years.  It was possibly the second (or later) structure occupied by the McMullens, who had certainly established some sort of shelter shortly after the time of their arrival on the peninsula.
	Captain Jim’s family—along with some slaves from the area—cleared the land and constructed the house.
	This double-pen log house has pine logs originally joined by pegs rather than nails. 
	Large open porches, a broad stairway, and excellent ventilation (including openings between some of the pine logs) made it easy for James P. McMullen to overcome bouts with consumption (tuberculosis). He wanted cracks “large enough to throw a cat through” to get sufficient fresh air.
	The upper story had its own breezeway. Much of the original furniture was made from nearby materials (including the Spanish moss mattresses).


McMullen Coachman Log Cabin

History of Site before Actual Structure was Built
	Original school built in eastern Lealman community at 4600 Haines Road.
	In the early 1900s, the Lealman area had few settlers and remained decidedly rural in character.
	Earlier schools in Lealman area (but not on the same site) included the “Hammock” School (opened 1880), Lealman School Number One (built 1898), and Lealman School Number Two (replaced the1898 structure in 1908).


Harris School

	Located along southern boundary of original (August 1888) town plat of St. Petersburg.
	Land once owned by “General” John Constantine Williams, Sr.
	Part of “Williams Grove” on original town plat.
	Land was subdivided and sold in parcels after Williams’s death in 1892.
	Former Williams House (built in 1891) later became Manhattan Hotel, a nearby source of customers for the business. The Williams House presently resides on the campus of the University of South Florida St. Petersburg.
	Improvements to nearby Bayboro Harbor and Salt Creek brought more settlers, as did the creation of Charles Roser’s subdivision, Roser Park.


H.C. Smith Store 

 
McMullen House: A Brief Introduction

Construction Information
	This is the second oldest structure in Heritage Village, built in 1868.
	Original home site was along Rosery Road. The family moved into the house in August 1868. They lived close to Lake Largo, a beautiful lake at the time. The town of Largo was named after the lake, a body of water drained during the early 1900s and used by many farmers (including McMullens and Jesse Ancil Walsingham) as a site to cultivate crops.
	This structure, presently at about 1450 square feet, includes additions made over the years. The original home, built of native pine, had two formal rooms and two “shed” rooms connected by a breezeway.


McMullen House 

	Land held by McMullen family as early as 1868 when William McMullen secured a large tract along present-day Ridge Road. Also held by Charles W. Johnson and family.  Like members of the Lowe family and Joshua Boyer, “Captain” Johnson had frequently sailed between Cedar Keys and Key West. 
	The O’Quinn family, along with McMullens, held title and occupied land between the late 1870s and 1913.
	Marriages between McMullen, O’Quinn, Lowe, and Walsingham families connect these families and their land holdings in the Largo area.  Mary Adona O’Quinn, William McMullen’s granddaughter, married Jesse Walsingham.  Jesse’s brother married a member of the Lowe family.

Construction Information
	Jesse Walsingham purchased this land in 1913, and the two-story home was built in 1915.
	This was a notable structure along the frontier where most people were farmers and laborers in citrus fields. 


Walsingham House

Only structure at Heritage Village to come from a location outside Pinellas County. 

Heritage Village

Belleview Biltmore Firetruck and Firehouse

Introduction

Images