We had a great turnout our Sept. 29 event, which was held in Peace Hall, and lots of great comments on the program by Jeff Miller on Pasco County history. Our remaining events in 2018 will be held at the museum and they are:
Oct. 12-14: Don’t miss a rare exhibit of classic motorcycles on our front lawn. Compliments of Dale Webb.
Nov. 3: Rita King, former mermaid from Weeki Wachee, will have a presentation on water conservation and the history of our Florida springs.
Dec. 8: Santa is coming!
Visitors to the museum during our board meeting on Sept. 12, 2018, were Kathy Oko and Judy Weaver, who are the historian and regent of the Pithlochaskotee chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Also in the picture is Bob Langford, president of the WPHS. The DAR donated to the museum a plate which commemorates the tenth anniversary in 1987 of the local DAR chapter, which spells its name based on an early spelling of the Indian name for the river.
Ken Weightman, the greeter at the museum on Aug. 25, 2018, and Paul Nessler, a museum visitor. Ken and Paul were roommates at USF around 1981-82. Both are Gulf High School graduates. Paul is a son of Sandra Werner, whose mother was Frances Clark Mallett. That makes grandson Paul Jacob Nessler, who is also in the picture, and 11th generation Floridian.
Steve Mattix was a visitor to the museum on Aug. 24, 2018. He is the historian of the Hudson Volunteer Fire Department and he loaned us some old pictures and documents to scan. Here he is holding the first trophy won by the Hudson VFD, in 1964.
Dana Russ and Bette Conde were the greeters at the museum on Aug. 24, 2018.
Terry Kline showed Kathryn Starkey around the museum today (8/10). Mrs. Starkey is one of the Pasco County commissioners.
Our next presentation which will be in the beautiful Peace Hall, next to the museum in Sims Park. Jeff Miller will show high-resolution old maps of Pasco County and nearby areas and discuss the origins of the names of the various towns. We hope you can attend. There is no charge for admission.
The July 2018 quarterly newsletter, a printed copy of which was mailed to members on July 18, is available here.
Jim Daniels and Jeriah Sykes of Microimaging Source were at the museum on June 20, boxing up old issues of the New Port Richey Press for digitization. Earlier this year, the historical society arranged to have the company digitize our oldest newspapers, the ones on microfilm, from 1918 to 1947. The New Port Richey Public Library has decided to fund the digitization of the remaining newspapers, which are at the museum (1948-1955) and the city library (1956-1979). The New Port Richey Public Library will make available on the Internet the entire run of the newspaper from 1918 to 1979.
Here’s a rather obscure item, but perhaps some will be interested. It is the New Port Richey Volunteer Fire Department log of fire calls from 1927 to 1949. Thanks to Adam Darling and Scott Burford for making this book available to us. A few pages seem to be missing. Each entry goes across the left and right pages, which are photographed separately, in order. You can download a page by clicking on the down arrow in the lower right corner and you can download all of the pictures into a ZIP file by clicking on the down arrow at the top of the opening page. The link is here.