The Historical Society of Orange Park

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1 The Historical Society of Orange Park May 2015 Newsletter Monthly Meeting Our May meeting was held on Saturday May 9 TH was held at The Springs neighborhood on Doctors Lake Drive. More to follow in the June newsletter.. Current Membership Our sincere thanks to the following people that have renewed their membership for this year. We are grateful for your support and look forward to a productive Patrick Arnwine Larry Beaton Sarah Bedsole Lee Bentley Billy Brantley Donald Brammer Sheila Brammer Fred Brockhausen Jeanie Brockhausen Cindy Cheatwood Barney Clark Carolyn Clark Carolyn Day Mike Day Janice Delp Joe DeMarco Mary Ellen DeMarco Wanda Dillaberry Darleen Ehrenberg Jacqulin Golay Marilyn Haddock Evelyn Hall Barbara Hammond Juanita Hargrove Randy Harris Virginia Hash Neal Hawkinso Norma Hawkinson Carol Hogan Suzanne Hogan Van Hogan Diane Howard Steve Howard Marge Hutton Allyson Jarczyk Marie Marfia Carol McConnell Mary Jo McTammany Gary Meeks Patricia Meeks Pat Mueller John Nelson Dot Patterson Patricia Renau James Renninger Melanie Tharpe If you have not yet renewed your membership for 2015 please do so at your earliest opportunity. You may download a membership renewal form from our website at. Membership We are currently still recruiting new members so if you know of anyone seriously considering joining us, please invite them to our next meeting.

Page 2 We Need You. TO Be HSOP President Our Historic Society is in need of a president. Cindy Cheatwood has graciously served as our president and needs to pass the torch to someone new.

" The quilt (77" X 84" double/queen) will be raffled off and all donations will support the many community programs of the Society. Tickets are $1 each or 6 for $5.

2 Page 2 We Need You. TO Be HSOP President Our Historic Society is in need of a president. Cindy Cheatwood has graciously served as our president and needs to pass the torch to someone new. We are asking all members to consider filling this position. Dot Patterson Quilt Raffle Our sincere thanks to member Dot Patterson for her kind donation of a handmade quilt "Tulips in the field." The quilt (77" X 84" double/queen) will be raffled off and all donations will support the many community programs of the Society. Tickets are $1 each or 6 for $5. Tickets will be available at our general meetings. Recent Events April Meeting The speaker for our April meeting was Mr. Hank Racer. Mr. Racer was instrumental in the founding of Clarke Park and the construction of the playground at the park. Mr. Racer s story began in 1989 while vacationing on Sanibel Island. He saw a community playground there. His seven year-old daughter asked why they didn't have something like that in Orange Park. That started him on his mission to build a playground in Orange Park. Mr. Racer looked around Orange Park but could find no community playgrounds like the one he had seen down south. He then approached the Town s Parks and Recreation Committee with the idea to procure land and construct a community playground. Due to his enthusiasm for the project, he was put in charge of an ad hoc committee to explore the idea. He then set about trying to find a suitable piece of property for the playground. At about that same time, the State of Florida issued a new law mandating that each community provide a minimum amount of park land based on its population. The state would help fund

Racer then set about work to build a playground.

3 Page 3 the purchase of the park land through sales tax revenues. About that time the Clarke property on Kingsley Avenue was put up for sale. The property was large enough to meet state requirements for park land based on Orange Park s population. The Town of Orange Park purchased the property. Mr. Racer then set about work to build a playground. With seed money from the Town of Orange Park, he formed a nonprofit corporation called Project Playground then worked with former Town Manager John Bowles on a master plan for the park. He also worked with the Robert Leathers Co., a firm specializing in playground construction, on a plan for the playground itself. With the help of dedicated group of people, he then raised funds and recruited volunteers to construct the playground. The group raised over $150,000 for the construction of the playground. A group of volunteers came together in early 2000 to construct the playground. The project took approximately one week to complete. It was the largest public playground in the State of Florida at that time. Mr. Racer estimated that the total value of the playground was over $1 million when all volunteer contributions were considered. The playground successfully opened in April 2000 and has been enjoyed by many children since that time. Shortly after the playground was completed, The was formed with the mission of preserving the Clarke House. Through the efforts of the Town of Orange Park and various civic groups, Clarke Park, as we know it today, took shape. Coldwell Banker Award The HSOP was presented with a check for $500 by Mrs. Parveen Hughes, Vanguard Realty agent with Coldwell Banker. This check was presented at out April meeting. Thank you very much to Coldwell Banker!

Page 4 Celebrate Clay at the Thrasher-Horn Center Celebrate Clay was created in 2009 by The Paul E. & Klare N. Reinhold Foundation, Inc.

Annual cash awards are presented to non-profit groups providing outstanding services, as selected by a panel of judges who vote the best for that year.

net/celebrateclay.php) The was recognized for their community service at the recent annual Reinhold Breakfast.

4 Page 4 Celebrate Clay at the Thrasher-Horn Center Celebrate Clay was created in 2009 by The Paul E. & Klare N. Reinhold Foundation, Inc. to recognize, reward, and encourage community service within Clay County. Annual cash awards are presented to non-profit groups providing outstanding services, as selected by a panel of judges who vote the best for that year. Since 2009, the Reinhold Foundation has awarded $390,000 to more than 100 nonprofit organizations at its annual Celebrate Clay community service awards breakfast. (Source: The was recognized for their community service at the recent annual Reinhold Breakfast. The Society received an award of $750 to assist with our efforts to promote the history of our area. Cumberland Island Trip On Sunday, April 12, members of the Historical Society participated in an outing to Cumberland Island National Seashore. We traveled to St. Mary's and boarded the 9:00 AM boat to the island. After a 45 minute ride down the St. Mary's River we arrived at Cumberland Island. We disembarked and boarded a passenger van for the Land and Legacies tour. This 6-hour tour focused on the north end of Cumberland Island. We traveled approximately one hour on a single-lane dirt road to the north end of the island. Our guide related the history of the island as we traveled. The island is very heavily wooded and home to a variety of wildlife, including wild horses. The island was originally home to Native Americans. In the eighteenth century, James Oglethorpe built fortifications on the island to protect Georgia from Spanish incursions. Later, General Nathaniel Greene, was given land as compensation for his contributions during the

5 Page 5 American Revolution. In the nineteenth century, plantation owners such as Robert Stafford, grew crops on the island. They were followed by wealthy families of the Gilded Age, primarily the Carnegie family, and their descendants. At the north end of the island we visited a small African-American settlement and saw the small, First African Baptist Church that hosted the wedding of John Kennedy, Jr. and Carolyn Bessette in We next traveled south to Plum Orchard mansion, home of a Carnegie descendant, where we enjoyed lunch on the grounds then spent an hour touring the house seeing all of the cutting edge features of an isolated mansion at the turn of the 20th century. Traveling farther south we stopped by the site of the Stafford Plantation and cemetery. Traveling to the south end of the island we saw the ruins of Dungeness Plantation, the original Carnegie mansion on the island, which was destroyed by fire in We ended the day by catching the 4:45 PM boat back to St. Mary's. It was a great way to spend a day! Other News Clay County Public Library Genealogy For more information please visit the Genealogy page of the Clay County Library website, There you will find information on upcoming meetings as well as previous meetings you might have missed. Ancestry.com Ancestry Library Edition provides access to a number of genealogical and historical resources, including images of the decennial U.S. census from (Available only in the library.) Veterans Memorial The Veterans Memorial Committee continues to receive orders for inscribed brick pavers that are installed at the site. Order forms are available at the memorial site, in the Orange Park Library or may be downloaded from the HSOP website If you are interested in purchasing an inscribed paver to honor a veteran you may download a form from our website or pick up a form in the box at the memorial site. We will be installing pavers in time for Veterans Day. For more information call Carolyn Day Pavers are $50 each. Help Save Our Sound The Town of Orange Park has offered the Historical Society the opportunity to save the audio recordings of the town's council meetings going back to the 1960 s. They have written minutes of these meetings but are running out of storage space for the tapes. Contained within those tapes, which would otherwise be thrown away, are the exchanges from past council meetings during the 9-11 alarms, the creation of the OP Mall, the opening of the Buckman Bridge, and more close to our own hearts, all the banter regarding the preservation of the Clarke House. As the we are the logical choice to keep the tapes that matter to the history of the town. We need your help! If several people can adopt a year (or perhaps two?) to

6 Page 6 scrutinize we can decided which tapes to save and which we can part with. Those worth saving can be digitized for the future. Please contact Cindy Cheatwood (ckcheatwood@hotmail.com or ) if you can help. There are two ways to determine which tapes contain must-save material, by using the actual tapes and listen for which to save, or by reading written minutes and noting the tapes that contain significant topics. While there is not a definite end date as to when this must be done, the Town is ready to have the tapes moved out. Sooner is much better than later. If you have a few minutes to listen to a tape or scan through printed meeting minutes to summarize the points of discussion, please contact Cindy. Sunshine Please keep these members in your thoughts and prayers: Dot Patterson Trudy Sigman Look For Us on Facebook Look for the the next time you visit Facebook. Check our page for updates on society activities and updates on the Veterans Memorial. Don t forget to click Like on our page. Membership in the We encourage you to support our mission to preserve the history of Orange Park and share that history with the community by becoming a member of the. We also ask your support and participation for the many community activities we undertake during the course of the year. You can visit our website,, to download a membership form.

The Historical Society of Orange Park

The Historical Society of Orange Park Newsletter Monthly Meeting Annual Christmas Dinner 6:00 PM, Monday, December 10, 2018 Clarke House 1039 Kingsley Avenue, Orange Park, Florida Please join us Monday