A photo from the early 1900s shows the Falkenburg home that was built in 1888 by John Falkenburg on 100 acres near present-day Falkenburg Road. Photo courtesy of Ricky Falkenburg
A large part of the area’s history is at risk, and the community needs to step up before priceless photos and documents are lost forever, say backers of a new exhibit chronicling the area’s past.
The exhibit showcases more than 50 photos and documents of an era when places like Riverview and Brandon were budding communities, small homes huddled together around farms, and places like Summerfield were a glint in a developer’s eye.
Organizers of the event hope the display at Center Place Fine Arts & Civic Association through June 30 will be a catalyst for a movement to preserve a record of the area. They would like to see a repository of information with digitization of old newspaper clippings, photographs and documents.
Earl Lennard, the man for whom Ruskin’s Lennard High School is named, believes it would be a tragedy to lose old photos and documents.
“It’s part of our history,” Lennard said. “It helps open a conversation about the history of the area. In those days, like now, the areas ran into one another; Boyette, Riverview, Gibsonton, Palm River and Brandon, and those old photos help tell you some of the history of the area.”
The collection, some items dating from 1905, features photos and documents of a time when there were few boundaries designating towns outside Tampa. “These photos really help document the history of the whole area, not just Brandon; it’s really about all of central and South County,” said Lennard, a former superintendent of Hillsborough County schools.
The Brandon Train Depot in 1918 at Victoria Street and Moon Avenue.
Photo Courtesy of Robert Cook
Lennard would like to see the area follow the example of Plant City, where the Plant City Photo Archives has been a popular attraction for locals and tourists. The Archives regularly hosts photo exhibitions showcasing local people and places.
“It would be good if we could also find a place like that; a repository where we could not only store photos and documents but people could come and look at them and even use it for research,” Lennard said.
Civic leader and area icon Dick Stowers, 85, echoed Lennard, saying civic groups and individuals need to get behind the effort.
“There’s very little history captured about the area, especially with photos” said Stowers, who graduated in 1947 from the Brandon School, then the main school serving Riverview and Brandon. He opened Stowers Funeral Home in 1960. “There’s been some effort made,” he said, “but it really hasn’t clicked. I would like to see at least a room somewhere where people could see the photos and use that space.”
Exhibit organizers want to see a communitywide push to collect old photos, all too often stored in dusty boxes in attics.
The exhibit “is a sampling of the types of materials, photos, documents, papers that people probably have tucked away in their garages or attics somewhere,” said Linda Chion Kenney, a driving force behind the Our Town Histories Greater Brandon Photo Archives Initiative exhibit. She has been collecting old photos and papers for more than a decade.
The point of this project was to be another attempt, following many other attempts, to try to formalize a collection of history.
“The main point is that there is no digitization of photographs anywhere,” she said. “If you go to the Brandon Regional Library and ask for information about the history, you get two tiny magazine boxes filled with maybe 17 documents.”
“You can’t go to the library to find it. You can’t go to the college to find it. Newspapers have more of the contemporary stuff on file, but not the older history. Basically, the stuff is in your garages, in your homes, wherever you may find it.”
“It’s worth preserving because it connects the younger generation to the older one,” said Mike Wigh, who worked on the project. “It’s fascinating to make those connections through time. It makes you appreciate where we have been and where we are going,”
On hand for the exhibition’s opening night at Center Place were, from left, Mike Wigh, Gloria Bell Osgood, Jeanette and Donald Falkenburg and Robert Cook.
“Every community needs to preserve their history,” said Lisa Rodriguez, marketing director of Center Place who also helped out with the exhibit. “You go to other towns and cities across the U.S. and they have a place for that.”
Rodriguez said the conversation about preserving the area’s history has already begun, thanks in part to the exhibit. “Everyone who turned out [opening night, June 12, drew around 50 visitors] had a ball and talked about the photos. Some people even brought their own scrapbooks.”
It’s now up to the community, Chion Kenney said.
“The question is where people want to try to start a repository of information, an archive, for the greater Brandon/Riverview area. There is no place that I know of that has it.”
For information or to get involved in the project, call Linda Chion Kenney at 813-389-1809 or Mike Wigh at 813-361-1139, email lckourtown@aol.com or visit the Greater-Brandon-Photo-Archives-Initiative on Facebook.
Center Place Fine Arts & Civic Association, 619 Vonderburg Drive, Suite B, Brandon, is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Call 813-685-8888.