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Letter to the editor

Museum 'desperate' for help

The historical museum's director says it could use some money, volunteers and, well, a new director.

By NICOLE HUTCHESON
Published July 6, 2007

PALM HARBOR - Today, as it does every year, the North Pinellas Historical Museum will close for a month.

The annual break gives museum volunteers a chance to rest and spruce up the place.

But for the museum's leading volunteer, there has been little rest, even after a stab at retirement.

After planning to leave her position as the museum's director last Sept. 30, 79-year-old Winona Jones stayed on because no one else stepped forward.

For the past year, Jones has continued to volunteer at the museum on Thursdays as its de facto director.

The museum still has visitors on a regular basis, and Jones said it would be nice to have new leadership when it reopens on Aug. 2.

"We desperately need some volunteers to help, " said Jones, the author of Around Palm Harbor, a pictorial history of unincorporated North Pinellas.

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The museum, which opened in 1998, is in the former home of Judge Thomas William Hartley. Hartley, who built cypress ladders for the citrus industry, also was a lay minister and a justice of the peace.

The judge died in 1955, but he would not have approved of what happened at his old homestead on June 9.

It was just before noon that Saturday when a man came into the museum and asked for a tour, said Jones, who wasn't at the museum at that time.

Volunteers were hosting a luncheon and couldn't provide the tour, so the man left - briefly.

He reached the end of the walkway, then turned around and came back inside, snatched a jar of donations from the front counter and took off running down Curlew Road, Jones said.

"By the time they got their wits about them to realize what happened, it was too late, " Jones said.

They found the jar in the ferns outside the museum.

There was only about $30 in the jar, but for the museum, every cent counts.

"When you've been there and worked like we have to keep it going, something like that is going to hurt, " said Jones, a fourth-generation Palm Harbor native who has volunteered at the museum for the past eight years.

The museum has been strapped for cash for some time now.

When asked about its budget, Jones said, "We really don't have one at this point. When a bill comes in, we pay it and that's about it."

Most of the museum's operating money comes from special events and donations.

This year, Pinellas County paid for hurricane shutters to go up on the museum windows in the event of inclement weather.

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In the meantime, residents like John De Graaff, 84, are trying to raise the visibility of the museum so that someone might be interested in leading it.

He constructed a 7-foot-tall sign that will be placed at the corner of Curlew and Belcher roads.

He is confident that as more people learn about the museum, help will follow.

"I think it will pick up in time, " said De Graaff, a retired building contractor.

"It's part of the community."

Nicole Hutcheson can be reached at nhutcheson@sptimes.com or 727 445-4162.

Visit the museum

Starting Aug. 2, the North Pinellas Historical Museum, 2043 Curlew Road, Palm Harbor, will be open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursdays and Saturdays. To volunteer or donate, call (727) 724-3054.

[Last modified July 5, 2007, 20:24:37]