Temporaily closed since March 14 due to Coronavirus precautions, the St. Petersburg Museum of History has safely reopened with refurbished interiors, a fresh coat of exterior paint and a stunning new exhibit in the Hough Family Gallery – Building the Sunshine City.
St. Petersburg has recently been recognized nationally and internationally for its economic and cultural growth, but that’s nothing new for this city. For 150 years, dreamers and schemers have made their way to St. Petersburg to create fortunes and own a piece of the Florida Dream.
Museum curator Nevin Sitler and Collections & Archives Manager Jessy Breckenridge searched through thousands of items in the Museum’s vast collection to help create Building the Sunshine City – the City’s journey from a fishing village to a vibrant business and arts and cultural destination.
With the generosity of corporate support from Hennessy Construction, and grants from the City of St. Petersburg and the Mildred M. and Robert S. Baynard Charitable Trust, the exhibit showcases images, blueprints, plat maps, video and artifacts highlighting the City’s growth.
As visitors enter the exhibit they are greeted by an exhibit case which contains documents that lay out the birth of St. Petersburg. An article in the 1886 Sea Breeze – the penninsula’s first newspaper – about Detroit businessman John C. Williams purchasing a tract of land north of Big Bayou, and a document from John and Sarah Williams turning over parts of that land to Peter Demens and the Orange Belt Railway.
The exhibit features large panels and images dating back to the late 1800s when African American labor cleared land, paved streets with Augusta bricks and built our first luxury hotels, to dozens of framed plat maps of St. Pete neighborhoods – including some that were never built. And plenty of artifacts never before seen, such as a piece of the electric trolley rail that was escavated during the construction of the St. Pete Pier.
Also new on exhibit in the Museum is the Odditorium – a gallery filled with unique and unusual artifacts that make St. Pete, well, St. Pete.
The Egyptian mummy and two-headed calf are joined by rarely seen collections items such as President William Howard Taft’s pajamas, Lt. Col. George Custer’s reading glasses, iconic historical figure Geronimo’s autograph as well as a baby’s “Don’t Kiss Me!” necklace worn during the early 1900s turberculosis pandemic.
St. Petersburg Museum of History
The St. Petersburg Museum of History celebrates 98 years of sharing stories of the Sunshine City!
Location: 335 2nd Avenue NE on the St. Pete Pier
Hours: 10am-5pm Monday-Saturday and Noon-5pm on Sunday
For more information, please call 727.894.1052 or visit www.historystpete.org.