Pioneer Florida Museum: A Tribute to Florida’s Early Years
It’s a blustery, but warm, January day when I pack my camera gear in my car and start driving north to the Pioneer Florida Museum in Dade City. The museum and village is open and hosting it’s annual Farm Festival and Quilt Show. Plus, horses will be there. Draft horses to be specific, for a draft horse pull competition. Once upon a time I rode competitively, but a pull is new for me.
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Places like the Pioneer Florida Museum and Village keep Florida’s past alive, mostly through displays, historic buildings, and interactive exhibits. Heritage Village in Largo is one of my favorite places to get my fix of historic buildings so this museum had been on my radar for quite some time. Though Florida is known for her beaches and theme parks, the state has a deep and rich history that is preserved in state parks, national parks, and small museums like the Pioneer Florida Museum.
History of Pioneer Florida Museum in Dade City
It all started with a donation. These types of museums often start that way. For the Pioneer Florida Museum, the donation came from Rudolph Rhode and his sister, Annie Rhode, and included 37 farm tools.
The children of a prominent farmer in nearby San Antonio, the Rhodes gave these implements to the Pasco County Fair Association in 1960. The museum, chartered in 1961, collected more donations and housed them at the Pasco County Fairgrounds until 1973. In that year, Emily Larkin donated 6.5 acres to the museum in memory of her late husband, William Larkin.
The growing collection of early West Central history moved to the site donated by Mrs. Larkin and later added an additional 14.5 acres. The museum now exhibits items which foster an interest in Florida history from pioneer times to 1945. The picturesque grounds include historic buildings, vehicles, clothing, farm equipment, newspapers, and much more.
Historic Buildings at Pioneer Florida Museum
The Pioneer Florida Museum currently houses eight historic buildings. More modern buildings display a number of interesting exhibits, such as dolls, toys, textiles, medical equipment, Indian artifacts, bottles, jars, and much more. On the day I visited, crowds gathered on the grounds for the festival and tractor pull. I didn’t photograph some of the buildings to avoid photographing tons of people.
Old Lacoochee Schoolhouse
The Old Lacoochee Schoolhouse was built in the 1930s and used as a first grade classroom; however, it’s architecture resembles that of older one-room schoolhouses in this part of Florida. The museum acquired the schoolhouse in 1976 and restored it to look like it would have during an earlier period. It has been furnished in the style of a one-room schoolhouse.
John Overstreet House
Circa 1860s, the John Overstreet House was constructed of native heart pine. It is a typical two-story home found in the area at the time, complete with dogtrot connecting the home to kitchen. The house has been restored and appropriately furnished.
Many of the furnishings display a typical pioneer woman’s experiences, such as butter churning, cooking on a wood-burning stove, spinning, and weaving. The simple wood furnishings and linen drapes and sheets would have been typical for the mid-1800s.
John Calhoun Overstreet, born in North Carolina, served in the military during the Civil War. After the war, he lived in Georgia where he met and married his first wife, Ursula. The marriage was short-lived as Ursula died shortly thereafter.
He married his second wife Mary, they had a son, and moved to the Dade City area in the early 1870s. Some accounts state he built the Overstreet house at that time which would make the house about a decade younger than stated by the museum. John left the area after Mary’s death and visited intermittently until his own death in 1922.
Trilby Depot
The Trilby Depot located at Pioneer Florida Village was built in 1896 and was the depot in nearby Trilby, once the third largest railyard in Florida. Today the depot houses an impressive model railroad setup and a lantern collection. It is furnished in a style reminiscent to how it would have looked during Trilby’s heyday.
Outside of the depot, a 1913 Porter steam engine sits on display in front of a railcar loaded with local logs. Cummer Cypress Company used the steam engine for 50 years to haul logs to their sawmill in Lacoochee. The logs on display with the engine are estimated to be 400 to 500 years old.
Other Historic Buildings at Pioneer Florida Museum
The other historically-significant buildings at the Pioneer Florida Museum include Enterprise Church, J.L. Bromley Shoe Repair, CC Smith General Store, the Cane Syrup Mill, and the Blanton Packing House.
Enterprise Church was built in 1878 and moved to the Village in 1977. Weddings are still held at the church.
The J.L. Bromley Shoe Repair building was where Jack Bromley operated his shoe repair business from 1913 to the 1930s.
The Cane Syrup Mill, though newer, uses equipment such as grinders and a cooking kettle which date back to the Civil War. The techniques used to make cane syrup date back hundreds of years.
The Blanton Packing House opened in 1910 and was a working citrus plant until 1989. The museum has formed a Citrus Committee and is reconstructing the packing house to working order.
Exhibits at Pioneer Florida Museum
Most of the buildings – historic and not – at the museum house exhibits. Most of the exhibits preserve the history of immediate area – Dade City, San Antonio, Zephyrhills, and Pasco and Hernando Counties. The museum is also home to The History Center where archived records are kept, such as court records, old photos, marriage licenses, maps, wills, and brands.
Historic Wagons and Vehicles
Historic wagons and vehicles include old fire trucks, munitions wagons, Pasco County’s first school bus, and many more. Walking through the building in which the wagons are housed was fascinating.
Moore-Mickens School
The Moore-Mickens School, now the Moore-Mickens Education and Vocation Center, occupies an entire room in one of the exhibit buildings. As Pasco’s first colored school and only segregation era school building to outlive desegregation, the school holds a wealth of history.
The exhibit includes school uniforms, trophies, newspaper clippings, and photographs. Baseball player, Jim “Mudcat” Grant, graduated from Moore-Mickens in 1953 or 1954. He was the first black pitcher to win 20 games in a season in the American League and was also the first black pitcher to win a World Series for the American League. He was a two-time All-Star.
Other Exhibits at Pioneer Florida Museum
Other exhibits include logging equipment, farm implements, looms, and woodworking tools.
Special Events & Exhibits
The Pioneer Florida Museum & Village holds special events and exhibits throughout the year. Many are events or exhibits which give a nod to the pioneer lifestyle, such as the draft horse pull and quilt show on the day I visited. Other events are fun family events for the community, such as the annual Jelly Bean Fling. Their event calendar lists all of their upcoming events.
Draft Horse Pull
A draft horse pull is a competition in which teams of draft horses – usually one or two horses to a team – are hitched to a heavy object and must pull it a certain distance. The competition is divided into weight categories as draft horses come in different sizes and weights. In the draft horse pull at Pioneer Florida, the teams were pulling an old truck to which weight was added in each subsequent pull.
At noon, the announcement came that the pull competition was about to begin. Teams of horses had trickled in throughout the morning, gathering along the fenceline beside the competition area and under nearby trees.
Likewise, groups of spectators gathered on colored blankets or in folding chairs on the small embankment beside the competition area. The horses rested, legs cocked as they napped, until their handlers jumped into gear.
As their time to pull approached, each pair became increasingly excited, anticipating the moment they would be unleashed to do what they were bred to do – farm work.
Draft horses originated from the farm horses of the middle ages. Those horses were bred large and heavy to be able to pull heavy items such as farm carts, heavy tills, and military wagons.
In the 19th century, the sport of horse pulling evolved as a way for farmers to test their teams of working farm horses against each other. Today, of course, machinery takes on the role of heavy farm work. Yet, the comradery and competition of horse pulling remains.
Quilt Show
The Annual Quilt Show is a competition and exhibit of quilts. Ribbons are awarded for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and Best Quilt. Quilts, of course, were originally hand-made and served to keep families warm on cold winter nights. They traditionally used whichever scraps of cloth were available. Today, quilts can be simple or extremely intricate. Many quilters use their craft as a way to honor special moments in life, such as childhood, or a favorite hobby or interest.
Final Thoughts: Pioneer Florida Museum
The Pioneer Florida Museum’s mission to keep west central Florida’s history alive speaks loud and clear at the Village. From historic buildings to memorabilia and public records, this museum in Dade City helps presere the area’s history while providing a place for the community to come together for special events. Next time you’re in the Tampa Bay area, take the hour-long drive north and visit the Pioneer Florida Museum and Village.
Love historic buildings and Florida history? You’ll love Heritage Village in Largo, a thirty acre property an hour south which houses some of Pinellas County’s most historic buildings.
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This looks like a unique place to visit… I have never seen something like that! And haven’t heard about it either. Thank you for sharing, good job ❤️
Glad you enjoyed, Lasma! Thanks for reading.