One of the houses that I particularly liked was the Lear House. This was owned by a lady who operated it as a boarding house. It was interesting to see things in there that I had remembered from my childhood. For some of the younger people in the tour I'm sure they were things they had only heard about from their parents or grandparents. Windup Victrolas and old tube radios among a few. I tried to imagine the work that would have involved running a boarding house in a town such as Pensacola, in the 1920s. From what I have read the landlady filled a role of surrogate mother, housekeeper, and in some cases very strict rule keeper. Most boarding houses had strict rules about visitors, hours, etc., so that young ladies who came to "the big city" seeking their fortunes could stay there without damaging their reputations.
As we bid our Tour Guide goodbye we walked over to the T.T. Wentworth, Jr. Florida State Museum. We happened to be going the same direction as one of the ladies who worked at the Museum and she gave us a little background on the museum. It seems that T.T. Wentworth, Jr. was simply a man who enjoyed collecting "things". It really didn't seem to matter what things, just "things". It was an eclectic mixture of everything you've ever seen collected. Matchbooks, war memorabilia, buttons, the list goes on. Well, once people found out that Mr. Wentworth collected "things" anytime one of them would clean out their basement or attic or a relative died, they would donate these to Mr. Wentworth's collection. So his collection grew by leaps and bounds. Very quickly he had to find somewhere to house this huge collection that he was amassing. After several locations and buildings the entire collection ended up being house in the building it is now in which was originally built as Pensacola's City Hall. On the third floor they have created the Discovery Gallery, which is an entertaining hands-on exhibit for children of all ages. On the day we visited we discovered two local children at play there, lost in their own world of make believe.
Pensacola is known, of course, for its National Museum of Naval Aviation, (which Bob has a story on) but I certainly felt that the Pensacola Village was well worth the time we took seeing it.

*** THE END ***

Good Luck! Have Fun! and Stay Safe!

Laura

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