Manatee Village Historical Park is an

open-air museum An open-air museum is a museum that exhibits collections of buildings and artifacts outdoors. It is also frequently known as a museum of buildings or a folk museum. Definition Open air is "the unconfined atmosphere ... outside buildings" ...

located in

Bradenton, Florida Bradenton ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Manatee County, Florida, Manatee County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city's population is 55,698, up from 49,546 at the 2010 census. It is a pri ...

, United States, at 1404 Manatee Avenue East.

Overview

Manatee Village Historical Park preserves the

pioneer Pioneer commonly refers to a person who is among the first at something that is new to a community. A pioneer as a settler is among the first settling at a place that is new to the settler community. A historic example are American pioneers, perso ...

heritage of

Manatee County Manatee County is a county in the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 399,710. Manatee County is part of the North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its county seat and largest ci ...

's founding period of 1840-1918. The historical park contains 14 preserved and replica structures representative of the founding period, including the 1903 Wiggins General Store, the Fogarty Boatworks, the 1912 Stephens House, a

smokehouse A smokehouse (North American) or smokery (British) is a building where meat or fish is curing (food preservation), cured with Smoking (cooking), smoke. The finished product might be stored in the building, sometimes for a year or more.sugar cane mill A sugar cane mill is a factory that processes sugar cane to produce raw sugar or plantation white sugar. Some sugar mills are situated next to a back-end refinery, that turns raw sugar into (refined) white sugar. The term is also used to refer ...

, a

barn A barn is an agricultural building usually on farms and used for various purposes. In North America, a barn refers to structures that house livestock, including cattle and horses, as well as equipment and fodder, and often grain.Allen G ...

, the 1887 Methodist

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

, the 1908

school A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the Educational architecture, building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most co ...

house, the 1860

courthouse A courthouse or court house is a structure which houses judicial functions for a governmental entity such as a state, region, province, county, prefecture, regency, or similar governmental unit. A courthouse is home to one or more courtrooms, ...

, a Cow Hunter's

bunkhouse A bunkhouse is a barracks-like building that historically was used to house working cowboys on ranches, or loggers in a logging camp in North America. As most cowboys were young single men, the standard bunkhouse was a large open room with narr ...

, and a

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs Work (physics), mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a Cylinder (locomotive), cyl ...

. Museum visitors can also tour the nearby 1850 Manatee burying grounds. Admission is free.

History

In 1974, a group of women formed the Heritage of Manatee’s Environment Committee after hearing of plans to tear down two historic buildings, the 1887 Methodist church and 1860

. The Committee worked with county officials to reestablish the Manatee County Historical Commission. The Commission had both historic buildings moved to the current

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

location in December 1975 and restoration efforts began. Manatee Village Historical Park was officially opened on July 4, 1976. The museum has since grown to include 14 structures.

Structures

The Manatee Village Historical Park contains 14 preserved and replica structures representing the cultural heritage of Manatee County's founding period of 1840-1918: # Old Cabbage Head: Named for its bulbous smoke stack, this 1913 train engine arrived in Manatee County in 1948 and was used to welcome visitors to Bradenton. The train engine was moved to the park in 2002.Manatee Village Historical Park. "Guidebook to a National Historic Site." # Wiggins Store: A

general store A general merchant store (also known as general merchandise store, general dealer, village shop, or country store) is a rural or small-town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, someti ...

built in 1903 by entrepreneur King Wiggins. The store was one of the first brick buildings in the area. The building was condemned in 1983, but later restored and reopened in 1990. The store contains the museum's exhibits, gift shop, and staff offices. # Fogarty Boat Works: A

boat yard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Compared to shipyards, which are sometimes more involved ...

built by John Fogarty and his brothers, William and Bartholomew, in 1866. The brothers started the boat-building industry in Manatee County. The boat yard was closed in 1944. The family willed the boat yard to the public in 1993. # Blacksmith Shop: A replica

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

shop of the kind used by pioneers in the area. # Turpentine Still:

Turpentine Turpentine (which is also called spirit of turpentine, oil of turpentine, terebenthine, terebenthene, terebinthine and, colloquially, turps) is a fluid obtainable by the distillation of resin harvested from living trees, mainly pines. Principall ...

production in Florida was vital for the boat industry. This

still A still is an apparatus used to distillation, distill liquid mixtures by heating to selectively Boiling, boil and then cooling to Condensation, condense the vapor. A still uses the same concepts as a basic Distillation#Laboratory_procedures, ...

is representative of those used in the area. # Smokehouse: The

smokehouse A smokehouse (North American) or smokery (British) is a building where meat or fish is curing (food preservation), cured with Smoking (cooking), smoke. The finished product might be stored in the building, sometimes for a year or more.settler A settler or a colonist is a person who establishes or joins a permanent presence that is separate to existing communities. The entity that a settler establishes is a Human settlement, settlement. A settler is called a pioneer if they are among ...

house built in the " Cracker Gothic" style by Will Stephens in 1912. The home was donated to the Manatee County Historical Commission. It was moved to the park in 1982 and restored. # Outhouse: An

outhouse An outhouse — known variously across the English-speaking world otherwise as bog, dunny, long-drop, or privy — is a small structure, separate from a main building, which covers a toilet. This is typically either a pit latrine or a bucket ...

representative of the founding period. # Potter Barn: A replica potter barn, used to store supplies, typical of those built by Florida farmers around the turn of the century. # Old Meeting House:

Church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

built in 1887. The church was donated to the museum by the Manatee United Methodist Church and moved to its current location in 1975. The church was restored as a U.S. Bicentennial preservation project. # Gazebo: A traditional

gazebo A gazebo is a pavilion structure, sometimes octagonal or Gun turret, turret-shaped, often built in a park, garden, or spacious public area. Some are used on occasions as bandstands. In British English, the word is also used for a tent-like can ...

, which were popular around the turn of the century. #

Old Manatee County Courthouse The Old Manatee County Courthouse, built in 1859–1860, is an historic building located at 1404 Manatee Avenue East, in Bradenton, Florida. It was Manatee County's first courthouse and is the oldest surviving Florida county courthouse (that wa ...

: Manatee County's first

, built in 1860, is the oldest remaining wooden courthouse in Florida. The Manatee United Methodist Church donated the building to the museum in 1975. The courthouse was moved and restored in 1977. # Bunker Hill School: A

one-room school One-room schoolhouses, or One-room schools, have been commonplace throughout rural portions of various countries, including Prussia, Norway, Sweden, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Portugal, and Spa ...

house built in Manatee County in 1908. # Cow Hunter's Bunkhouse: A typical Florida-style

that housed cattlemen or "cow hunters".

Education

The park offers educational programs to the public, including school field trips, group tours (fee), the Life of a Civil War Soldier traveling trunk, guest speakers, and events. The park is also involved in Manatee History Day, an affiliate of

National History Day National History Day (NHD) is a Nonprofit organization, non-profit which aims to "improve the teaching and learning of history." Its flagship event is an annual competition in which students in grades 6-12 develop presentations about topics in ...

Gallery

File:Bradenton FL MVHP Stephens House02.jpg, Stephens House File:Bradenton FL MVHP Wiggins Store02.jpg, Wiggins Store File:Bradenton FL MVHP train01.jpg, Old Cabbage Head File:Methodist-Episcopal Church South.jpg, Methodist-Episcopal Church South File:1860 Courthouse.png, 1860 Courthouse File:Blacksmith shop.png, Blacksmith shop File:Bradenton FL MVHP school02.jpg, 1908 Schoolhouse

References

External links

Official websiteManatee Village Historical Park
Manatee Clerk's office {{Bradenton, Florida Buildings and structures in Bradenton, Florida Museums in Manatee County, Florida Open-air museums in Florida Museums established in 1976 1976 establishments in Florida