St. Petersburg Museum of History exhibit shows city’s growth over past century
Behold the wonders of the St. Petersburg History Museum
The state of Florida's oldest museum is back open after closing at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and there are many new sights to see after a major renovation.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The St. Petersburg Museum of History reopened July 8 to visitors after having to close due to COVID-19. It's Pinellas County's oldest museum but also Florida's oldest museum.
Many have visited over the years, but during the shutdown, museum staff took on a major renovation, so there are many new sights to see.
Its newest exhibit is called “Building the Sunshine City,” which shows how the city has grown from the 1800s until now.
“We always read and hear about how everybody is so amazed the city is growing so rapidly. We looked back and said well, this isn’t the first time this has happened. This has happened two other times in our history. So we decided to create this exhibit that shows the growth of St. Petersburg from the 1800s until now,” explained Rui Farias, the executive director of the St. Petersburg Museum of History.
The museum has an entire room dedicated to strange and fun historical items and strange artifacts like Half and Half, a two-headed calf, a mummy, and pajamas owned by President Taft.
“I don’t want to say it’s like Ripley’s, because it’s not,” Farias explained. “There’s good history stories behind it.”
The museum is open Monday-Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sunday noon-5 p.m.
Fore more information about the museum, visit www.stpetemuseumofhistory.org.
