Seven days are left to visit the Floral City Heritage Hall Museum and Museum “Country” Store before they close for the summer months of July and August.

Floral City Museum to Close for Summer

The Museum, free of charge, is open every Fridays and Saturdays from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. and is located in the Town Center on Orange Avenue/C.R. 48.
Museum Curator, Tom Ritchie, has expanded the exhibits and added a variety of hands-on artifacts that can be operated by visitors. Some of these items he has shared at the Floral City Libraries monthly series:
Heritage Hour held on the fourth Thursday at 2:00 pm. Items made at the turn of the 20 th century were innovative and significantly decreased the physical labor at that time, but now are considered labor intensive compared to their modern day equivalents.

Clothing and pictures relative to the Seminole Tribe of Florida have been added to expand the exhibit of an original Seminole dugout canoe. The canoe is on long-term loan from the John and Betty Eden family and is a feature in the first gallery of the Museum. By 1765 there was the Seminole village of Cho-illy-hajo located just a block from the Museum.

The second gallery features an exhibit of the history and restoration of the Historic Duval-Metz House with select artifacts from this home known as the oldest remaining residency in Citrus County. Bob Metz
whose family owned the property for 75 years is usually at the Museum to give personal narratives on the exhibit and promote “Memories of Growing up in the Duval House.” Sales of this book he wrote and
illustrated contribute to the preservation of the historic house that sits across the side street from the Museum.

Visitors are often intrigued by the Museum Store which has been created reminiscent of an old fashioned country store. This allows the Museum to expand the selection of items offered beyond those compatible with the current exhibits to items typical of days-gone-by. Wooded handled corn brooms, feather dusters, glass bottles of soda and wooden and tin toys are a few examples.

For this year’s 140 Anniversary of the lay-out and survey of Floral City, a new tee shirt design was created by Citrus Sports & Apparel of Crystal River. It states “14 Decades of History” with an oval design of the
“Avenue of Oaks” and is available in four colors.

Tee shirt designs, colors and styles are not limited to this one, there are seven different designs and styles in multiple colors from sweatshirts to long, short and three-quarter sleeve tee shirts. Youth sizes to 3XL sizes are offered.

The Floral City Heritage Council, who operate the Museum, has been selling Floral City tee shirts since December of 1992.

They’ve learned a thing or two about tee shirts!!

Floral City’s 140th is commemorated, also, by an outstanding pewter “Avenue of Oaks” medallion or ornament that is featured in the Store. It was hand crafted by the Corden Design Studio in Colorado from a design by local artist Ann Covington, former owner of Florida Artists Gallery.

The popular oak tree design is also available in jewelry. Semi-precious aventurine stones are entwined in sliver wrap forming a Tree of Live pendant on a 20 inch silver chain and crafted by artist Ann Bremer, an
award winning multiple media artist and instructor who winters in Floral City.

Come in during June before the Museum closes for two months and have a look around. Visit the web site www.floralcityhc.org or like us on facebook, twitter and instagram. Heritage Council Chair Terri Hartman or Curator Tom Ritchie can be reached via 352 419-4257 leave a message.