Discovering Pinellas’ past at the changing Heritage Village
By LESTER R. DAILEY
Article published on Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2006  |
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![[Image]](/content_images/022206_discovering_pinellas-02-a.jpg) |
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| Photo by TERRE PORTER |
| The Greenwood House, built in 1888, is the headquarters for the Pinellas County Historical Society. |
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![[Image]](/content_images/022206_discovering_pinellas-02-b.jpg) |
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| Photo by TERRE PORTER |
| The 1850s log cabin is believed to be the county’s oldest surviving structure. |
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![[Image]](/content_images/022206_discovering_pinellas-02-c.jpg) |
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| Photo by TERRE PORTER |
| The House of Seven Gables with its classic Queen Anne-style features was built in 1907 on the bluff in downtown Clearwater and moved by barge down the Intracoastal Waterway to become a showpiece at Heritage Village in 1976. |
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The land boom that gripped much of Florida in the 1920s largely bypassed the sleepy backwaters of Pinellas County. Instead, most Pinellas residents scraped a living from whatever bounty the land and the sea provided.
Visitors can step back to that simpler time at Heritage Village, the county’s open-air historical museum. Heritage Village is a town that never existed. It was created, starting as a bicentennial project in 1976, to give visitors the feel of a typical 1920s Florida small town.
Most of its 28 structures were relocated from other Pinellas locations and to 21 acres of county-owned pine and palmetto scrub in Largo. Others, such as the Harris School and Williams Park Bandstand, are modern reproductions of structures that actually stood in St. Petersburg. Only the railroad depot, from Sulphur Springs in Hillsborough County, came from outside Pinellas.
The homes illustrate the variety of lifestyles among the peninsula’s early residents. The circa 1852 McMullen-Coachman log cabin is typical of pioneer homes and is believed to be the county’s oldest surviving structure.
The 14-foot by 14-foot one-room honeymoon cottage that Tarpon Springs fisherman Joshua Boyer built for his bride, Mary Ormond, in 1878 is the ultimate starter home. The Moore House is a typical farmhouse. The House of Seven Gables, which was barged down from Clearwater, typifies the latest in 1907 elegance.
The Union Academy, a World War I surplus portable classroom, educated black students in segregated Tarpon Springs. There’s a doctor’s office, a church and a firehouse. But the village’s most popular building is Heritage Mercantile, a combination general store, barber shop, post office and telephone exchange. Its back room is a Ford service garage.
Henry Ford was so meticulous that he specified the size of the wooden crates in which his subcontractors were to ship their parts to his factory. He then had the crates knocked apart to create ready-made floorboards for his Model T “tin Lizzies.” It’s no wonder that a man like that created a set of floor plans showing country store proprietors how to transform their back rooms into Ford service garages.
In addition to everyday self-guided and docent-guided tours, the village is known for its special events, such as the Pinellas Folk Festival, the African American Heritage Celebration, a World War II Salute and Civil War Days. The annual Pin-Mar antique car show is a real crowd-pleaser. The Country Jubilee craft show gives people a head-start on their holiday shopping, and Seasonal Sensations gets them in the holiday mood. There are also living history programs for school-age children.
Located at 11909 125th Street North, in the Pinewood Cultural Park, Heritage Village is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday. Visitors are welcome to stroll the grounds on Mondays, but the buildings are closed. It’s a good idea, especially in the summer, to call 582-2123 and make sure there are enough volunteers to open all the buildings on that particular day.
Admission to Heritage Village is currently free, but that may change. Plans are also under way to convert Heritage Village from a frozen-in-time 1920s village to a timeline of Pinellas history from the 1500s to the 1950s. The changeover is expected to be completed in time for the county’s centennial in 2012.
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Article published on Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2006
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