- April 28, 2024
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It's a startling scene, but the removal of the sand pine trees in front of the Florida Agricultural Museum are just the beginning of a new vision. Photo by Jacque Estse
Andy Morrow looks toward Old Kings Road where trees have been cleared. The area will soon be used for a 200 car parking lot and pasture. Photo by Jacque Estes
Andy Morrow walks up the stairs of the Traxler Commissary. The building will be soon moved to the Main Street area of the facility. Photo by Jacque Estes
The area behind the buildings by the Bell Barn will soon include the Trexler Commissary and the Espanola post office. Photo by Jacque Estes
Executive Director of the Florida Agricultural Museum Andy Morrow standds in front of the Bell Barn. The bell was used to communicate iwth the workers in the field. Today it is used to announce tours. Photo by Jacque Estes
The Black Cowboy Exhibit is in the Espanola post office. The post office will soon be moved as part of the Main Street walking tour. Photo by Jacque Estes
Where have all the trees gone? This is sure to be the question from anyone driving past the Florida Agriculture Museum on Old Kings Road and U.S. 1. The areas at both sections of the museum, once thick with trees are now bare.
The trees were cleared over the Christmas holiday, but the process began in 2014. The trees were sand pine and planted for the purpose of harvest. The revenue from the sale of the timber benefits the museum.
“It's been a long process,” Andy Morrow executive director of the museum said. “The paperwork was signed off in November 2014, then we had a site survey in the Spring of 2015, engineering and a gopher tortoise mitigation, all in between events.”
Morrow said a request was submitted to the State in 2014 to provide funding through the Florida Department of Agricultural and Consumer Services.
“We want to start improving how the museum presents agriculture and make it into a more usable experience for our visitors,” Morrow said. “The original concept was to illustrate Florida agriculture through the centuries. We are also talking about the role that the commodities have on the agricultural industry and economy today.”
The cleared trees are just the first step in the renovation that is expected to take several years. In about a month's time visitors will have a new parking lot for 200 cars and a dry retention area by the entrance. The retention area will take and drain water, but will also be a pasture, possibly for the cracker cows.
The next project will be to create a “Main Street” in the area by the Bell Barn.
“The next big thing is moving the Traxler Commissary and the Espanola post office up and create a Main Street,” Morrow said. “We are not moving the (Whidden-Clark) homestead. It will stay in the environment it would have been in.”
Looking forward, Morrow said the goal is to acquire facilities to illustrate how the industry impacts people's lives. The downtown walking tour would include the current buildings and hopefully other historic structures that fit with the agricultural heritage would be added.
“We have over 100 commodities in Florida. Some of the Midwest states have three or four,” Kara Hoblich, community liaison, said. “Agriculture is the number two industry, close behind tourism, and people don't know that.”
The plan is to incorporate the commodities with exhibits demonstrated by various industries.
“The main six we would like to see become permanent exhibits area cattle, dairy, citrus, fruits and vegetables, forestry, and landscape. “We would like to provide the historical context, but also the science behind it.”
Morrow said he likes Clay County's fairgrounds which include some of the aspects he hopes to add to the Florida Agricultural Museum.
“For the Clay County Fairground Frontier Village they did a really good job with a Main Street complex with a sawmill, sugar grinder and a beautiful church, school house and store,” Morrow said. “They also have an open air pavilion where they can do demonstrations of weaving and of traditional crafts.”
Morrow sees the increased interest in knowing where the food on the table is coming from as a draw to bring people into the museum. He also hopes to implement community gardens for residents to have personal garden plots, and possibly a farmer's market in the future.
“We want to provide a hands-on opportunity for people to explore and then make buying decisions on their experience here, and think about buying products grown in Florida,” he said.
