South Florida Museum Bell Tower - Bradenton, FL
Posted by: 
lazyCachers
N 27° 29.898 W 082° 34.313
17R E 344727 N 3042612
Located on Old Main Street in downtown Bradenton, Florida.
Waymark Code: WM65CA
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 04/06/2009
Views: 7
The South Florida Museum contains a Spanish plaza of which this bell tower is a part. It can be seen from all around the building.
Founded in 1946 by community leaders, the South Florida Museum opened in 1947 on Bradenton’s Memorial Pier with the Montague Tallant collection of Florida’s First Peoples pre- and immediate post-contact archaeological material as well as collections relating to the scientific and cultural history of southwest Florida and Manatee County.
In 1966, the Museum moved to its present site and added the Bishop Planetarium. The addition of the Planetarium afforded museum visitors an expanded opportunity to learn about history in the making with programming which coincided with early space exploration. Snooty™, who continued to thrill visitors was moved into a larger pool and new permanent exhibits about Florida’s earliest inhabitants, Florida’s natural sciences, a medical gallery and life-sized dioramas filled the two-storied museum.
In 1980, a Spanish Plaza featuring replicas of a 16th century home and chapel was built around a centerpiece fountain depicting Hernando De Soto on horseback.
In September 2002, the museum opened the first floor with new exhibits and changing exhibits gallery. A new education wing was re-opened in March 2004 and the new state-of-the-science planetarium and theater opened in June 2005.
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