The Heritage Collection
Photographs and Oral Histories of West Winter Park
A Source for Building Community Pride
No one really knew how many stories were being lost until they were gathered into one place. From the beginning, the residents loved The Heritage Collection, and their contributions over the last five years have expanded the exhibition to over 100 archival, museum-quality pieces.
In a climate of intense development throughout their home community, The Heritage Collection touched a chord and brought together the African- American residents in an unprecedented way. Residents and the city of Winter Park started paying attention. What was once a whisper became a full chorus tuned to preservation and celebration. The neighborhood continues to be developed—but with an eye on the history and heritage of this special place.
Heritage Center Tour
The cornerstone of the Hannibal Square Heritage Center is The Heritage Collection: Photographs and Oral Histories of West Winter Park–a unique approach to telling history modeled after similar efforts conducted by the Los Angeles County Library. It represents the first collection of its kind implemented in a Central Florida community, and depicts the hardships and the triumphs of Winter Park’s African-American community from 1900 to the present.
These personal accounts of community life make history come alive and engage visitors young and old. This permanent exhibition is the result of six Community Heritage Days, begun in 2002, wherein a Crealdé team of historians, cultural anthropologists, and documentary photographers collaborated with intergenerational members of the historic Hannibal Square neighborhood who shared their family photographs and related personal stories during an interview session.
New archival prints were made from the original (often deteriorating) photographs. A contemporary portrait was taken of the resident sharing the story, and text was created from the recorded oral history. These three elements were matted and framed together, making a strong visual presentation and an archival work of art that shares a piece of history as part of The Heritage Collection.
The Winter Park Timeline
Located in the gallery adjoining The Heritage Collection is The Hannibal Square Timeline, a wall-sized timeline exhibit that juxtaposes significant events within west Winter Park with national events pertaining to African-Americans, from Reconstruction to the Civil Rights Movement, giving a broader context for understanding.
The timeline was inspired by a similar timeline in Evanston, Illinois. Shorefront, an organization committed to preserving the African-American heritage of Evanston, was founded by Dino Robinson. Mr. Robinson designed the timeline from historical information provided by members of The Heritage Collection team, including Peter Schreyer, Executive Director and Founder of the Heritage Center; Fairolyn Livingston, Community Historian; and Dr. Ron Habin, Anthropologist.
The Sage Project: Hannibal Square Elders Tell Their Stories
This important photographic and oral history documentary preserves and shares local history from the perspective of the oldest residents in Winter Park’s historic African American community, ages 82 to 106.
The Hannibal Square Heritage Center’s Chief Historian Fairolyn Livingston and Historian and Docent Mary Daniels teamed up with Documentary Photographer Peter Schreyer to create the pieces, which include oral histories and environmental portraits of each identified “Sage.”
Since the first two phases of the project in 2012 and 2017, many of the participating elders in the first phase have passed on, but their contributions are now recorded as part of the permanent public art collection at the Hannibal Square Heritage Center, reaching visitors of all ages and backgrounds.
Following the first two phases, the third addition will bring the total to 40 pieces, capturing portraits of a new group of elders and their memories about Winter Park’s historic and now gentrified African American residential neighborhood.
Audio Kiosk
For the visually impaired, the center features an audio kiosk with Braille buttons, telling the story of Hannibal Square and a sampling of the stories presented in The Heritage Collection: Photographs and Oral Histories of West Winter Park.