Touring Tallahassee - History Museum/Old Capitol

The Florida History Museum, The Old Capital

Our next stop after leaving the new capital is the Florida History Museum. We walk there as a group and are immediately ushered into a back room. A museum worker explains to the children what the museum is all about. She asks questions to see how much the children are aware of Florida as a territory and is quite pleased when they know the answers. This makes CJ, our Humanities teacher, look good and he too is quite pleased.

From here the children are given maps of the museum and a book on treasures that can be found throughout the museum. The children divide into the groups they arrived with and they are off and running. They explore the exhibits of the Seminoles of Florida, Florida in the Civil War, and some of the history of Florida. The adults make a half-hearted attempt at following them, but soon realize that the benches along the wall are more inviting. Our 4:30 AM arrival time is starting to catch up with us and more than a few of us close our eyes as the treasure hunt continues.

It is nice to see that the children are interested in what they are viewing. Some of them carry on discussions with each other regarding certain items. The boys like the skeleton of the mastodon and the girls are interested in things they can touch. My daughter is most interested in spending money in the gift shop.

We end our time at the museum with a bagged lunch from the cafe, sitting outside in the Florida sunshine. From there we head to the Old Capitol.

The Old Capitol is directly behind the new Capitol. It is now a landmark building saved from destruction by Floridians. It holds exhibits on the government and political history of Florida. Our tour guide sits the children down and begins educating them on its history.

When Florida became a territory in 1821 the two major cities, St. Augustine and Pensacola, were separated by vast miles of wilderness. It was decided that a new capital would be established halfway between the two old Spanish capitals. Thus Tallahassee was born (given to them by the Indians) and a permanent structure was built in 1839 to house Florida's government. The building served as both a civil and military headquarters during the Civil War.

We watch a short film on the history of Florida and proceed upstairs to the old House of Representatives Chambers. Here we all take seats and take part in voting on legislation that actually happened in Florida. We listen to the speaker, hear pros and cons on the amendment and cast our votes.

The rest of the tour is on our own and we walk through some of the other rooms looking at photographs and exhibits. Again we end at the gift shop. Recession be damned.