What Will Happen To The PHC?

    
     The Student Museum became the Public History Center in 2012, when UCF leased it for two years. So technically, all of those employed at the PHC are UCF employees. Some are even professors at the university in addition to working at the PHC, such as Dr. Beiler and Professor Sample. However, UCF's lease will be ending in May 2014, and the fate of the PHC is unclear right now. The Seminole County Public School Board does not want to keep it open, for money reasons. Even though UCF pays the employees of the PHC, the SCPS board furnishes the funds for grounds-keeping and general upkeep of the museum. They are looking to sell it. Fortunately, they cannot demolish it, since it is on the list for the National Registry of Historic Places, though I don't think they would.
     The public should get together to ensure that the PHC stays open! This should include not just the Sanford community, but the UCF community as well. There are so many benefits to having the PHC stay open. Just as I type this, there are children doing a scavenger hunt around the building looking for historical things. Throughout my semester interning here, I have seen the PHC be utilized in many different ways. Every week, students on field trips visit the PHC to see the different rooms and learn about history. One girl loved it so much, that she had her mother take her back, and she walked around the museum saying to her mother, "I went in this room when I was here, and this room, and this room..." She was so excited about what she learned in her visits, and that is priceless. I've also seen many people come to the collections room to look at yearbooks or do research. One lady came in with some friends/family, to look at her high school yearbook. She was so excited and emotional from reminiscing about her high school friends and good times. A man visited the collections room to do research about girls’ soccer for a project that he's working on. He said that our yearbook collection is great for his research and much better than other archives he has visited.  Recently, a representative from the weather channel came in to get some pictures from Lake Monroe for a documentary. And these are just a small portion of who utilizes the PHC, since I'm only here around 10 hours a week, I don't get to see it all.
      What the Public History Center does and what it holds is invaluable to the community and beyond. It has to stay open to keep its valuable archival resources safe from decay and open to public use. Students would no longer go on fieldtrips here to learn about history and their town. Citizens would not be able to come here to look at their grandparents’ yearbook or old photos of their neighborhood. Without temperature regulation, the archival materials will decay, and we would lose the irreplaceable information that they hold. I hope things turn out well come May, and I hope it stays a much-used part of the community. If you want to know more about the Public History Center, here is a link http://www.publichistorycenter.cah.ucf.edu/. Until next time,     Samantha