By MICHELLE MUNDY, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
PORT ST. LUCIE For two years, Stan Hicks has collected newspaper clippings and old photos, storing the items at his home for the Port St. Lucie Historical Society.
He's collected about 1,400 items, including a shovel used at a groundbreaking, old photos and maps. The hope was that the group and its archives would find a permanent home. That dream recently came true when the St. Lucie County Commission gave the go-ahead to let the historical society use a room in the St. Lucie County annex on Walton Road.
The public is invited to get a glimpse of the society's home during the monthly meeting at 4 p.m. on Tuesday in the second floor conference room at 1664 S.E. Walton Road. It's not much, the group's co-chairman Richard McAfoos said, just a simple 10-by-12-foot room in the county annex. But it opens a new world for the organization.
"It gives us a real mailing address, and now we're going to have a telephone," McAfoos said. "I know this sounds simplistic, but we're a charitable, nonprofit that's struggling to get by."
Whether they are struggling isn't the issue for McAfoos. He simply wants to teach people the importance of the society, and because it isn't as old as its neighbors, that goal can be a challenge. "People look at us askew and say, 'What do you mean history? This is a young city.' But we are history. History is happening every day," he said.
To make the historical society more visible, McAfoos, a retired business owner and lodging industry administrator, is working to get more involved in the community. The group has joined Mayor Patricia Christensen's effort to organize the city's 50th anniversary in 2011.
It's too early to discuss ideas being considered for the anniversary, but the society has grown to become an important resource to learn about the city's past, Christensen said. "The historical society is doing a phenomenal job at collecting historical documents and memos, so in the future, it will be easy for anyone who wants to research the history of Port St. Lucie," she said. Those archives include recorded oral histories and file cabinets filled with pictures and clippings. Hicks, the organization's treasurer, is spearheading the effort and has been scanning the items into a computer. The archives are online on the group's Web site at www.pslhistory.org.
Most of the requests come through e-mail from residents, doctoral candidates and possibly grade-school students. "We have to be geared for all levels of researchers and need to make it as easy as possible," Hicks said.
The effort of creating a higher visibility and accessibility has concerned some of the longtime members. It hasn't left a lot of time to do what members like to do the most. "We're creating a high profile, and it's tough because we have some of our treasured members who like to sit around and chat about history," McAfoos said. To fill that need, McAfoos said the members are creating Pioneer Gatherings, where people can meet at someone's house and remember Port St. Lucie in its early years. The gatherings are still in the planning stages and are expected to start this spring.
The hope is to remember the past while growing to educate the community about the city's history. And the nearly 50 members of the organization are a large part of that, McAfoos said.
"Our members are our treasures," he said. "They're the support. The lifeblood of our organization."