Sanford Historical Society, Inc., Sanford, Florida

The earliest settlements in the Sanford area consisted of primitive construction materials - many homes were built with little more than palmetto fans and pine saplings. After the fire of 1887, many of the city's buildings were rebuilt with brick, to prevent the city from being any more susceptible to fire than it already was.

Photo from RICHES of Central Florida.

Tonight at 6:30 PM is MEAT BINGO! Tonight’s Bingo card sales benefit the Historical Society, and your support could earn you MEAT. Giving Tuesday could also be Getting Tuesday! We hope to see you there.

Come play Meat Bingo tonight at Hollerbach's with Mr. Amiet! All bingo card sales will go to the Sanford Historical Society, Inc., Sanford, Florida. The Überkeller upstairs opens at 6 and Bingo begins at 630. Preview the Überkeller special Bingo menu at https://www.hollerbachs.com/

Tuesday night is MEAT BINGO NIGHT once again! Join us at Hollerbach's German Restaurant on the second floor to play bingo, socialize and have fun, and maybe even win meat, all while supporting the Sanford Historical Society!

🍖 November 28 at 6:30pm!
🍖 Hollerbach’s restaurant
🍖 MEAT us there!

Big thanks to everyone who came out to play Meat Bingo and support the Sanford Historical Society yesterday evening! We haven’t heard the final fundraising amount yet, but it was a great turn out. Thank you, Hollerbachs Has Heart!

We are accepting donations today (Thursday) until 3 PM! At the Bettye Smith Cultural Arts Center, 119 W 5th Street.

Tag Sale is Friday and Saturday 9 AM to 3 PM.

All proceeds benefit the Sanford Museum.

We’re excited to be just a few days away from our second annual Great Sanford Tag Sale! Last year we raised more than $3,500 for the Sanford Museum, which was used to upgrade technology and equipment. We have high hopes from this year’s event too, and would love for you to swing by one of the two days. We'll have thousands of items for sale, from antiques and oddities to holiday decor and games. You’ll find something unique, we’re sure, and you’ll also be supporting a cause we all believe in. Just like last year, all proceeds will go to the Sanford Museum.

When: November 10 & 11 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Where: Bettye D. Smith Cultural Arts Center, 119 W 5th Street, Sanford

Seen here is an ad for the much-celebrated "Embalming Casket" from the Sanford Journal newspaper, 1881. Perfect for preserving the "life-like features" of loved ones, neighbors or those pesky bodies that show up on Halloween...

Society board member Janette Cara remembers a time in Sanford the 1940s when she watched a parachute float down and land in the yard of her childhood home, which was near the current intersection of 17-92 and the 417 overpass. No person was with it, just the parachute slowly coming down. Her family collected it, and Jan's mother made slips from the material, as it was very soft and white.

Such an unusual story, and we'd love to know if anyone has any information about it, or experienced something similar. Jan still wonders about this strange occurrence, many decades later. What would you do, if a parachute landed in your yard?

Tourists photographed while waiting for their steamboat to arrive, after visiting Sanford, circa 1890.

In a few short weeks will be our 2nd annual Tag Sale! We'll have thousands of items for sale with something for everyone, from antiques and oddities to holiday decor, jewelry and games. Plus we'll have one-of-a-kind items and a silent auction!

All proceeds will benefit the Sanford Museum. In 2022, we raised more than $3,500 from our first Tag Sale, which was spent on technology upgrades for the museum.

Have things to donate? You can drop off your donations at the same building on Thursday, Nov. 8, between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

1st Street through the decades! Downtown Sanford has been a charming sight for more than 150 years. It's fun to see how the vehicles have evolved.

"We Sanfordians should stick together and build upward" -- 1933 Sanford Herald ad, listing businesses that occupied the large brick building at 101 E 1st Street at that time. Many dentists, attorneys, a few citrus-related businesses, and more.

Are you familiar with any of these? Tell us in the comments!

Southern Florida School for Boys near Sanford (specific location not mentioned) opened on October 1, 1900. Board & tuition is equivalent to about $2,500 today.

Last night, more than one hundred people turned out at the Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB) to welcome home 60 veterans from their to Washington, D.C. Two WWII veterans were on board, in addition to veterans who served in Korea and Vietnam.

TONIGHT! Rally up a crowd and help honor our veterans by welcoming them home at the Sanford Airport at 9 p.m. as they return from a day trip to Washington D.C. to visit the war memorials. Head to the main terminal escalator to join this amazing effort.

The Sanford Bicycle and Tennis Club, taken between 1895-1900. Although the listed members in row 2 don't line up exactly with the description, we get a good idea of the importance of lawn tennis and bicycling in the late 19th century. We also get a good list of faces and names of those that enjoyed recreation in our fine city.

Caption:
Front row, sitting on the ground: Englishman, Englishman, Miss Nona Wyley, Mrs. C. W. Goodrich.
Second row, seated: Mrs. Roberta Dunn McEwen, Mrs. Olive Fitts Neal, Mr. Beardall Sr., Miss Grace Way, Miss Sara Keely who later married Dr. Ralph Smith of Jacksonville.
Back row - standing: Miss Hallie Brown, Mrs. Beardall, Mr. Harry M. Papworth, Mrs. Doctor Bruce, Mrs. Juna Robinson Papworth, Mr. C. W. Goodrich, ? Miss Emmie Joe Tucker married Arthur W. Eager whose daughter was Phoebe Foster.

100 years ago, a monkey started it all! Thank you to the Sanford Museum and the Central Florida Zoo & Botanical Gardens for a great story yesterday on how we ended up with such an amazing zoo here in Sanford. Thanks to all who attended!

It started with a single monkey! From its humble beginnings, the Central Florida Zoo & Botanical Gardens has been a staple to our local community, its citizens, and tourists visiting Central Florida. Beginning as a menagerie of animals given to the fire department and Elk’s Club in the 1920s, it became a full-fledged zoo managed by the City of Sanford by the 1940s, at its first location on Park Avenue, as seen here.

Join us TOMORROW at the Central Florida Zoo at 5:30pm to celebrate a century of our zoo’s growth in this joint presentation from Brigitte Stephenson, Sanford Museum Curator, and Richard Glover, CEO of the Central Florida Zoo.
Event link: https://www.facebook.com/events/686382563384969
Open to the public. Free to attend.

We're celebrating 100 years of having a zoo!
From its humble beginnings, the Central Florida Zoo & Botanical Gardens has been a staple to our local community, its citizens, and tourists visiting Central Florida. Starting as a menagerie of animals given to the fire department and Elk’s Club in the 1920s, it became a full-fledged zoo managed by the City of Sanford by the 1940s, at its first location on Park Avenue.

Join us at the Central Florida Zoo on September 21 to celebrate a century of our zoo’s growth in this joint presentation from Brigitte Stephenson, Sanford Museum Curator, and Richard Glover, CEO of the Central Florida Zoo.
Event link: https://www.facebook.com/events/686382563384969
Open to the public. Free to attend.

Today is the 22nd anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. We'd like to again honor the memory of Mannie Leroy Clark, a Sanford resident and 1967 Crooms Academy graduate, who perished on that day. Age 54, Clark worked as the head supervisor of security in the North Tower of the World Trade Center at the time of the attack.

If anyone has stories or photos of Mr. Clark that they'd like to share, please post here or send us a message.

Woodland Park was Sanford's first theme park of sorts, offering a 72-degree artesian spring-fed pool for visitors to enjoy starting in 1891 through about 1920, located near the Central Florida Zoo. Today the site is swampy and overgrown, but the curious adventurer can still find the pool’s tabby wall amongst the vines and debris.

We're looking for photos, documents, advertisements and memories of Woodland Park for an upcoming program, and ask that you please share what you know about this gem of Sanford's past. You can share here or email [email protected]