The Grounds

The Museum Buildings and Grounds

The Pioneer Florida Museum Association was chartered by the State of Florida on April 30, 1961. The gift of early Pioneer farm equipment to the Pasco County Fair Association was the incentive for forming the museum association with 87 charter members.

Gifts of time, talent, land, objects for the collections and money from countless individuals and organizations have enabled the museum to grow and flourish. It is located on a 20-acre wooded hillside and has ten main buildings.

Eight buildings are historically significant and were moved from surrounding Pasco County communities to the museum grounds. They are:

 This was the first historically significant building to be moved to the Museum Grounds, the Old Lacoochee School, was acquired in 1976, only a few weeks before it was scheduled to be torn down. Although built in the 1930's as a part of a complex of frame school buildings and used as a first grade building, the structure is architecturally typical of the one room school houses of an earlier period. The school has been restored and furnished in the style of the one room schools prevalent in Pioneer Florida. The addition of electric lights, salvaged from another 20th century school building, has made the Old Lacoochee School available for use as a classroom for courses and meetings offered by the Pioneer Florida Museum & Village.

 

 

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The John Overstreet House (circa mid 1860's), a two-story farm dwelling constructed of native heart pine. A typical pioneer era facility complete with dog-trot connecting it to the kitchen and with appropriate furnishings.

 

 

 

 

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The Trilby Depot built in 1896 and a 1913 Porter Steam Engine were previously located in the nearby town of Trilby, once the third largest railroad yard in Florida. The steam engine was used for 50 years by the Cummer Cypress Co. to haul logs to its sawmill in Lacoochee. The logs on the truck are estimated to be between four and five hundred years old.

 

 

 

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Enterprise Church: This was built in 1878. The original structure was built by local residents and replaced in 1903 at the cost of $500.00. In 1977 the church was moved to the Museum to preserve. Weddings are still performed at the Church.This is a beautiful setting any time of the year..

 

 

 

bromleyshoeshop thmbJ.L. Bromley Shoe Repair was donated to the Pioneer Florida Museum by Mrs.Pearl Bromley. It was originally located at the corner of Pasco and 8th Streets in Downtown Dade City.

John Lewis (Jack) Bromley came to Dade City from Kansas in 1913. He was a gifted shoemaker. After getting his wife
Minnie and son Fred settled in their home on Fort King Road, he opened his shoe repair business which he operated until poor health closed its doors in 1930. At that time the shop was moved to the Fred Bromley property on Pasadena Road. It remained there until acquired by the Museum in the summer of 1990. Many area residents will remember the late Fred Bromley, who operated a watch repair business in Zephyrhills for 42 years.

 

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The two newer buildings are the Main Museum Building (1975). The main building houses a variety of collections; medical, Indian artifacts, dolls and toys, textiles (clothing, quilts, linens, etc.), laundry equipment, bottles and jars, pottery, shoe lasts, hats and umbrellas. These and numerous other items all combine to give a feeling of nostalgia and a sense an of pride in Florida's pioneer heritage.

 

 

 

 

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Mabel Jordan Barn

The bright red Mabel Jordan Barn, (built in 1987), houses collections of early farm equipment, vintage buggies, and carriages.The barn now house 1946 Chevy Firetruck donated to us by Dade City along with the 1921 LaFrance Firetruck

 

 

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C.C. Smith General Store:The C.C. Smith General Store was donated to the Museum by C.C. Smith's niece and was moved to the Museum grounds in May 2000. Built in the 1920's, it served Lacoochee area residents for over 50 years, and carried many of the daily items needed by most families. When you are inside you can go back in history and find meat scales, butcher block, yard goods by the bolt, a Postmasters Station, cooking pans, kettles, bottles irons and many items that have been preserved.

 

BlantonPackingHouseMVC 013F1thmbThe Blanton Packing House was a working citrus plant until the 1989 killer freeze and was like a museum within its walls. The Pioneer Museum and Village is in the process of preserving the history and now we are in the phase of re-constructing this Blanton Packing House back to a working structure. The Museum has formed a Citrus Committee of agricultural citrus growers, packers, processors, business and professional members. They will help with historical information, research, financial fundraising. This structure was built in 1909 and opened in 1910, employing many area people and shipping citrus by rail and truck.

 

 



Cane Syrup Mill



Annually the museum sponsors a number of events and activities. They include:

Farm Festival and Quilt Show, Horse Pull held in February

Other activities held include Country Christmas, Cane Grinding, and various related activities during the year.

The museum is host to hundreds of school children each year as they study Florida heritage and pioneer life. Many individuals and organizations use the buildings and grounds for various activities including class reunions, picnics, and services and weddings in the Enterprise Church.  For information on building rentals call 352-567-0262.

The Pioneer Florida Museum & Village trustees and members strongly believe that the preservation and recognition of our past, our ancestors, and the life they lived help to build the foundation for a better future.


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Cane Syrup Grinding and Tasting

 Raising Cane

Cane Syrup  and Cane Grinding

Pioneer Florida Museum & Village

The Museum  has hosted a traditional cane syrup making demonstrations, making syrup the old fashioned way. Using a technique that has been practiced for several hundred years, volunteers grind sugar cane into juice using a mule or tractor powered mill and then boil the juice into cane syrup. The process takes approximately six hours to complete with four of those hours reserved for the cooking process. Once completed, the syrup is then for sale in the Museum’s gift shop as a fundraiser. Cane syrup was a staple of the pioneer’s diet and remains a favorite among life long residents of the South.

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Charlie Kirksey, the head of the Museum’s syrup operation, says that “eighty gallons of juice will make eight to ten gallons of syrup”. Kirksey is also quick to point out that the Museum’s syrup mill is home to several examples of early grinders and a cooking kettle that dates back to the Civil War. He also says that he and other volunteers are “dedicated to preserving this old time method”. Head on out to the Museum and experience this unique process.

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There has been a syrup tasting contest with more than two dozen syrup-makers from around the state bringing in their samples to be judged on taste, color, pour, and clarity.

Special events feature garden tractor pull in the early afternoon, hand-made crafts, and traditional musicians. The concession stand will be open with syrup-sopping biscuits as well as pulled pork sandwiches.

The Pioneer Florida Museum is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving Florida’s pioneer heritage. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday 10 am to 5 pm. The museum is located one mile north of downtown Dade City, off of US 301 at15602 Pioneer Museum Road.

 More about our Cane Mill....

 

 

 

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Virtual Guided Tour

A Guided Tour - HOW IT ALL BEGAN 

In 1961, a prominent citizen of San Antonio, Florida, offered a variety of old farm equipment to the Pasco County Fair Association. The Association accepted 37 vehicles and tools of yesteryear. This gift provided the incentive for forming the Pioneer Florida Museum Association with 87 Charter Members. The main Museum is housed in a 50' by 100' steel building, which features a wide rustic front porch, an addition of a medical room. Also on the grounds stands the restored Overstreet Housea one-room school house from Lacoocheea church from Enterprise, the Trilby depot, and a train engine. Moving and restoration was completely paid for by private contributors. The 16 beautiful wooded acres were a gift from a Museum Association Charter Member. The Association has established a Museum that recalls the basic, simple values of our forebears, asserts the dignity of labor, and emphasizes the value of craftsmanship.

On display are tools of the Florida Pioneer Man, showing how he built his house,made his furniture, plowed his fields, harvested his crops, and did his leather-work and blacksmithing. Also the Trilby Depot, the Lacoochee one room schoolhouse, is a 100 year old building. Methodist Church from Enterprise and the two story 1864 restored Overstreet House.

On display in the Overstreet House and kitchen addition, are furnishings which reflect the Florida Pioneer Woman's everyday experiences - churning butter, cooking on a wood-burning stove, spinning, weaving, battling and boiling the family wash and doing her household tasks with simple primitive equipment.

The Pioneer Florida Museum hopes to show that the men and women who were here before us, struggled, "Made Do", and sometimes won and sometimes lost their battles with nature. In essence, they were people much like us.

....... or just meandor through the village on your own

Cane Syrup Mill - Detail



Click  photo to view slides of  cane grinding and cane syrup making


The Pioneer Florida Museum has a Cane Syrup Mill complete with hard working mule. Demonstratons of cane grinding and syrup making are presented during the year at special events.

Sugarcane was a Pioneer Florida cash crop and was harvested mostly by hand and sometimes mechanically. The museum has a mill grinder which could produce income for a pioneer family. Hand harvesting still accounts for more than half of the world's production.  Harvesters use cane knives or machetes,  cut the standing cane just above the ground.

Early development of cane grinding in Florida was done with a mule or horse. Later, mechanical harvesting, a sugarcane combine (or chopper harvester), a harvesting machine originally developed in Australia, was used. The Austoft 7000 series was the original design for the modern harvester and has now been copied by other companies including Cameco and John Deere. The machine cuts the cane at the base of the stalk, separates the cane from its leaves, and deposits the cane into a haulout transporter while blowing the thrash back onto the field. A modern machines can harvest 100 tons of cane each hour, but cane harvested using earlier machines had to be transported to the processing plant rapidly. Once cut, sugarcane begins to lose its sugar content, and damage inflicted on the cane during mechanical harvesting accelerates this decay.

Be sure to check our calendar and visit when we do our
cane grinding and syrup making!!

 

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Cane Syrup Mill and Mule

Cane Syrup Mill


 


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Read more: Cane Syrup Mill and Mule

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