Planning for the Future of Florida City’s Pioneer Museum

Florida City’s Florida Pioneer Museum was started in 1962. They have displayed their collection in a 1904 vintage Florida East Coast Railway

Homestead Station Agent’s house since the 2-story building was donated to the museum and moved to its present location on Krome Avenue in 1964.

The museum has endured closure by damage from Hurricane Andrew and an over 2-year shut down during Covid, reopening in December of 2022.

The museum is a not-for-profit organization run by volunteers in partnership with Florida City.

To aid the Museum as it looks to its future, Florida City’s Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) is sponsoring a series of facilitated discussions. The first of these was held on June 10th at the Youth Activities Center.

The discussions will be led by Annette B. Fromm, a Miami-based consultant with extensive small museum experience.

In attendance were members of the Museum and its Board of Directors and a number of interested community members including Florida City Commissioner Eugene D. Berry.

Topics to be covered include Ownership, Location, Governance, Management, Community Involvement, and Public Programs such as Exhibits and Education.

CRA Executive Director Jon Ward told the News Leader, “Museums, by their very nature, unavoidably tend to be backward looking because they immerse themselves in telling the stories of the past. The purpose of the series of facilitated discussions that began on Saturday is to focus on the future of the Florida Pioneer Museum, using a very broad lens.”

Ward continued, “At the end of the four-hour session, it was agreed that this was merely intended to be a focused conversation starter, to examine everything important to the museum and to reconvene to develop plans and strategies to move forward into the future, involving a more diverse community and to develop a broader support base, including younger volunteers.”