Being My Own Boss

This week I was elected to the board of directors of the Polk County Historical Association. The PCHA is the partner of the Polk History center so I am in a way my own boss, well its more like a sister organization but there is a lot of overlap in this county. This doesn’t change my duties but it does make everything I am doing go in one direction. My goal in doing all of this for my home county is to bring its history to the citizens who live here and some that don’t. Polk County has a deeper history than most people understand.

I am continuing to work on the architectural tour and updating the app to facilitate it. We need to start the process of making QR codes as soon as I am able to finalize the tour. One thing I am considering is to combine the history and architectural tour into one and then do a court room experience or court room focused tour.

The booklet the guides get for the architectural tour has a lot of historical elements in it and having walked the tour with it, it makes more sense to combine stops rather than have someone take the tour for the architecture and then go back around again for the history of the land and courthouses. The growth of Polk County is illustrated by the fact that there were 3 courthouses and a major expansion on the same spot from 1867-1926, with the three courthouses being constructed from 1867-1909. The current form is the 1909 version with 2 wings added since the county grew faster than most in Florida at that time.

There is obviously a lot to consider when making a combined tour as some people want know about the doric columns or the beaux art style and don’t care about the function the courthouse played in early Polk County as the defacto parade area or event space. Others might not care about the chickenwire windows but instead want to know about the famous incidents that happened in the courthouse or the old fort that was located outside.

I also have to consider the length of the tours since they are self guided. My thesis is focused on guided walking tours, which allows for a slower pace in information as there is a person there to entertain you. A booklet or an app in this case, will just be providing the guests with information without much elaboration available and getting the blend between the human elements and the architectural elements will be something I will have to tweak in July and August.