LARGO, Fla. — Heritage Village is celebrating 50 years of preserving history and introducing people to the way this area used to be.
When you visit, you can tour the homes of the first settlers of Pinellas County.
Heritage Village is a 21-acre living history museum with 30 different historic structures and nearly 20,000 pieces of archives.
You can walk inside a house built by Wesley Lowe, a farmer who did a lot of citrus growing and cattle raising.
Jesse Ansell Walsingham was another farmer who lived in Largo, today you can see his home.
Or learn about Jim McMullen who came to the area to cure his tuberculosis. He built a log cabin where his wife is said to have delivered 60 babies as a local mid-wife.
"We want to learn about why the people came down here, what did they do and and, how did they survive? You know, it must have been very difficult, you know, in the late 19th, early 20th century, before air conditioning, before a lot of modern, modern amenities to live down here in Florida," says Monica Drake, operations manager at Heritage Village.
Heritage Village is free to visit.
It is run entirely on donations and volunteers, which they could always use help taking care of these older homes.
You can celebrate 50 years of Heritage Village on Saturday, March 28th as they designate the Plant Sumner House and the House of Seven Gables as local historic landmarks. Those were the first two homes to be brought to the property.
The event is from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
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