Foundation is striving to preserve Pasco's past

The opportunities to study history in Pasco County abound.

West Pasco has the Baker House in Holiday and the West Pasco Historical Society museum in New Port Richey's Sims Park. On the edge of Dade City sits the Pioneer Florida Museum. Downtown's centerpiece is the historic Pasco County Courthouse and nearby is a preserved railroad depot. Zephyrhills and San Antonio also saved historic depots and use them as offices, meeting places and museums.

And in central Pasco? Well, residents there can drive to Lutz in Hillsborough County to admire that community's replica depot or its historic schoolhouse. They have to commute south for employment or to hit a movie theater, so why would a museum be any different?

A few history buffs in Land O'Lakes would like that to change. They are trying to rekindle interest in the proposed Heritage Park, envisioned as a walking tour of perhaps as many as 10 historic buildings or replicas to celebrate central Pasco's ties to the citrus, sawmill and railroad industries. The park would be situated around a retention pond at the Land O'Lakes Community Center between U.S. 41 and School Road.

"People who are new to the area think Land O'Lakes were always here," said Tim Hayes who heads the Heritage Park Foundation. "People don't realize it was five crossroads communities that grew in together."

Quick quiz: Can you name the five communities? I couldn't, even though the names are preserved on area roads and schools.

Drexel, Ehren and Denham came relatively easy. Think of Drexel Road, Ehren Cutoff and Denham Oaks Elementary School. I also said Gowers Corner, which, apparently, isn't quite accurate, though it is closer to Land O'Lakes than one of the predecessors - Fivay Junction, which is near today's Bayonet Point. (The Hudson Library is on Fivay Road.) I completely whiffed on Myrtle even though the offspring attended Lake Myrtle Elementary.

Some might guess Lutz, even though it is a separate community within Hillsborough County. The morphing of Lutz-Land O'Lakes can be traced to the U.S. Postal Service, which decided two decades ago to assign Lutz mailing addresses to all Land O'Lakes homes and business south of State Road 54. Likewise, mail to Gowers Corner, the area around U.S. 41 and State Road 52, now must be addressed to Spring Hill, a 40-year-old subdivision in Hernando County.

Those homogenous identities are exactly why the Heritage Park Foundation exists. It wants to preserve the memories of the people and places that came before Land O'Lakes christened itself in 1949.

The foundation became active in the late 1990s, twice lobbying for state grants only to see the budget appropriations vetoed as legislative turkeys by Gov. Jeb Bush.

Foundation members responded by selling turkey legs as a fundraiser at the annual Flapjack Festival. To date, the group has raised about $18,000, which it hopes can be used to build a stage area at the community center grounds as the first step in the Heritage Park.

The upcoming county budget includes money to design improvements to the community center property, including two softball fields and a youth football field for the Police Athletic League games while attempting to leave suitable space for parking, the annual Central Pasco Chamber of Commerce Flapjack Festival, practice fields for youth soccer and the Heritage Park.

The foundation obtained a former log cabin, but extensive damage might make it cost-prohibitive to try to relocate it from Ehren Cutoff to the community center. Members also envisioned the stone gatehouse to Dupree Gardens as a possible exhibit, but it has been incorporated into the exterior design of the housing development built on the site of the former tourist attraction. Constructing replica buildings now might be a more cost-effective option, said Hayes.

The foundation is seeking to expand its membership and will host a social at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 27 at the community center building on U.S. 41 in Land O'Lakes. It will show a video of the area's heritage, including interviews with longtime residents that was assembled several years ago by Land O'Lakes High School students.

Preserving the past to share with the future is a noble idea.

"We're changing so rapidly with the growth," Hayes said, "it'll be lost forever if we don't come up with something."

[Last modified September 15, 2007, 21:04:36]