Museum in Panama City added to National Register of Historic Places

PANAMA Town, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) – Quickly ample, you are going to be observing a shiny plaque on the exterior of Panama Town Publishing Corporation Museum in the heart of Historic St. Andrews.

“This creating has been mentioned on the National Register of Historic Sites. The building was designed in 1920. And, so 101 many years afterwards we get detailed on the National Sign up,” Lisa Barnes Tapscott, the museum’s Executive Director, stated.

Crafted by George & Lillian West, the Panama Town Publishing Organization stayed in the West loved ones all the way until eventually 2005, when it was marketed to the point out.

The shop is a rather tiny setting up in comparison to the quantity of background it holds.

“Its full of record. It did not just come with spring break and Panama Town Seaside. Panama Metropolis, Bay County has been about rather a although,” Barnes Tapscott stated.

The Wests are most normally acknowledged for pioneering a number of newspapers. It appears Lillian could have definitely been the inspiration behind the idiom “she wears the pants in the relationship” being that she owned a majority of their business.

“She was actually 3/4 proprietor. They published a few papers in this article The Panama City Pilot, The Lynn Haven Cost-free Push, and The St. Andrews Bay News, and also did commercial career printing,” Nancy Hudson, a very long-time volunteer at the museum, reported.

When you open the doors of the publishing business, the legacy of George, also recognised as the founding father of Panama Metropolis, and his 3rd spouse Lillian comes to daily life.

To the appropriate, you see their workplace furnished with their first desk.

To the remaining you’ll see elaborate equipment like the 1915 Chandler & Cost Push, the Heidelberg which was brought there for printing in the 1960′s, and a press that revolutionized the printing enterprise.

Further more down the store, drawers keep an endless sum of tiny metal pieces identified as variety made use of for the textual content.

“We have 190 drawers with sort in them that volunteers use and then we have more than 1,200 printing plates in the selection,” Hudson explained.

It’s a collection that ranges anyplace from a 1915 variation of a paper perforating device, to George’s atlas where by he would paste previous newspaper clippings.

All of which assisted contribute to George’s principal mission, which Nancy claims just after studying his journal, was to generate one thing.

“George basically mailed newspapers out all above the country. He really utilized the newspaper as a device to market this space,” Hudson said.

Although he obtained that with his printing organization, when you dive further into his record, he created a lot more than that.

“From finding AB Metal to develop the rail road into here, 64 miles of railroad from Cottondale to Panama Town. He and Metal named the city Panama City. George produced the initial developing downtown, printing the to start with newspaper, he gave land for parks, for churches,” Hudson reported.

George also developed the very first metropolis dock, the very first Panama City College, he even gave the land for a university situated on 7th and Harrison, together with the land for the courthouse.

When it’s safe and sound to say he presented the pillars of Panama Metropolis, the entirety of Bay County wouldn’t be what it is today with out the West household.

“Actually the West spouse and children was instrumental in carving Bay County out of what was Washington County,” Barnes Tapscott explained.

“In 1913 he paid out the $400 rate to the state and got Bay County made,” Hudson claimed.

A guy decided to produce one thing, made a position so lots of of us now get to simply call home.

Now, a team of tricky performing volunteers hope their perform to protect the West’s legacy will encourage the group to study much more about how the city came to be.

“It promotes general public delight. People today get an appreciation for what transpired ahead of we received here, the really hard operate that took position. You know, we call ourselves doing work really hard, but it is been all by way of heritage and there people today which is been in this article right before us,” Hudson explained.

The Panama City Publishing Enterprise Museum is open Tuesday through Friday from 1-5:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 9-1 p.m.

It is absolutely free for anybody to get a tour, enjoy a printing demonstration, seem by aged newspapers, and additional.

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