Specialized collection at St. Petersburg Museum of History offers residents insight into cities past
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The ability to see the past gives an advantage to planning for the future.
The City of St. Petersburg has the benefit of more than 100 years of city and community history in the official archives at the Museum of History.
Director Rui Farias described it this way, "We hold the official archives of the city, we have everything from the city directories to photographs to personal belongings, we have letters, we have birth certificates, death certificates, marriage certificates. And this is how we truly do research and find out what really happened in St. Petersburg."
Those archives are a specialized collection there at the museum. Unlike some other exhibits, they can offer residents of St. Petersburg an important insight into what once was in their community, specific neighborhood, and even their home address.
"So when people come by to research their properties, they want to take a look at this to see what a footprint of their house or their building looked like 100 years ago," shared Jessy Breckenridge.
Breckenridge is the master of all things in the archives as the Archives and Collections Manager at the St. Pete Museum of History.
Going through the St. Pete archive book of properties and land, the casual viewer might see it as a dog-eared binder of musty pages, but in Breckenridge's hands, it is a directory of information.
"So this is a Sanborn Insurance Map. This was created in 1923, but it was updated by hand until 1938," she explained, "What that means is that the insurance companies were interested in seeing what about a building would make it an insurance liability, so they would document that a building was made of, where certain resources were available in buildings."
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The difference that makes for a St. Petersburg resident is that there is somewhere to go to see what happened before with their home or business.
"It's really important that we remember what came before, and we try to preserve what we still have," said Breckenridge, "We're in a really unique situation of being able to still preserve those things. We don't have to say hindsight is 20/20. We can look at it right now as it stands."
The official archives of St. Peterburg are a part of the permanent collection at the Museum of History.
Some documents require an appointment for viewing, but others are available year-round.
You can plan your visit or find more information about the Museum of History by clicking here.