- April 26, 2024
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The Florida Agricultural Museum is planning to use its expected $4.5 million in state funding to build a new welcome center with a cafe and gift shop to help draw in visitors who might otherwise speed past the interactive museum and its 460-acres site on the east side of U.S. 1 north of Old Kings Road.
"'Museum' does not explain at all what we are, because people think of museums as static and boring and cold and not touchable. We're more of an experience."
— KARAK HOBLICK, executive director, Florida Agricultural Museum
The state allocation has been approved by the Florida Legislature and will make its way to the museum if the governor doesn’t veto it.
“The intent is to bring people into Flagler County and get them to stay and leave a little bit of their money in the county,” Ag Museum Executive Director Kara Hoblick said on Flagler Broadcasting’s “Free For All Friday” program on April 1. “And our objective is to teach the public about all Florida agriculture.”
The welcome center will have an admission area, cafe, gift shop, an introduction film, rotating exhibits, administration offices, and an area for private events like weddings, she said.
“This center will also teach about the future of agriculture,” she said. “We would like to have a rooftop garden to teach about current agriculture.”
The Agricultural Museum’s management is also considering adding some short-term RV sites.
“We're still in the very, very beginning planning stages,” Hoblick said. “… There's just so many RVs that are passing us every day that don't have a place to park by us.”
The Agricultural Museum offers horseback riding trails, hosts events, and holds school tours. Tours for the general public — $10 for adults, $8 for kids, and free for children under 3 — are offered on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, and wind through the property and its historic buildings for about an hour and a half per tour, said Hoblick.
The museum has 13 buildings, constructed between 1880 and the 1920s, that were transported to the museum property from other parts of the state.
The first building the museum acquired was a 1920s dairy barn from Tallahassee. There’s also complex of five buildings from a Volusia County citrus operation, an 1880 Cracker house and a general store from north of Gainesville, among others.
The general store was also built in 1880. “When you walk in, you feel like you’re in 1880,” Hoblick said. “It’s completely stocked with all the merchandise that was available during that time period.”
The museum also has Cracker livestock — including horses, cattle and sheep — that can be viewed during the museum's agricultural animals tour.
For more information about the Florida Agricultural Museum, go to https://www.floridaagmuseum.org.
