History Center gets ready for Saturday debut

Interactive exhibits allow visitors to design their own citrus label, bounce in a saddle while watching a cattle-round up video, and sit on wooden crates and a metal cargo container while learning about the Port of Tampa. A cigar store with a stamped metal ceiling and tile floor is packed with original glass display cases, factory tools and vintage cigar boxes.

"This is a fantasy cigar store that would have probably been in Philadelphia, New York or Washington,' said Mike Turbeville, an antiques dealer who spent years combing the country for the items and sold them to the museum.

Museum president and CEO C. J. Roberts said the goal of the museum is to make learning about bay area history fun.

"At the end of the day, if it doesn't have maximum value for education then we missed the boat," he said.

Planning for the museum began more than 20 years ago, with the history center housing modest exhibits in a downtown storefront. The dream of enough space to display most of the center's collection became reality after a $17-million contribution for construction from Hillsborough County, a $2-milion land donation from the city of Tampa, and a $32-million fundraising campaign that has almost reached its goal.

Board chairman George Howell has been involved in the project from its very beginning.

"The original goal was to build one of the finest regional history museums in the United States," he said.

And because history-making never stops, the third floor was built with the possibility of a 7,000-foot expansion.

"It's taken a long time to get this thing done," Howell said. "But the possibilities for the future are endless."

Janet Zink, Times Staff Writer