TAVARES, Fla. – You can step back in time at a new location in Lake County.

​The new Tavares History Museum recently opened in the train station at Wooton Park.

Relics of the past now have a new home in Tavares.

“The Tavares history is very rich and it’s really exciting to see and learn more every day,” said Debbie Blais, Community Services Coordinator for the City of Tavares.

The Tavares History Museum opened after acquiring items from the Tavares Historical Society. The building everything is housed in has a rich history itself.

“This building is actually a replica of the original train station that was built here in the 1800’s and it’s really close to what the original station looks like,” Blais said.

From train tools and artifacts to displays that give a nod to Tavares High School, law enforcement and historic homes, the museum is still looking for more donations.

“It can go back as far as a hundred years or even in the past twenty years,” Blais said. “Be it an actual artifact, digital photos or actual photos that you wanted to bring in. We’d be more than happy to acquire that and display it here for you.”

One of the most popular things so far is a huge interactive display. There are ten buttons to press to activate it all around the building.

“It’s an aerial shot from the 1950’s. It will have the old building and it will have the timeline on when the building was built and the location that it’s in,” Blais said.

The museum will have rotating displays.

“We want to keep it new and fresh. So if you came to visit this past week and you come back in three months we would like you to see changes,” Blais said. “We’ve just hit the tip of the iceberg and cannot wait to bring in more and build on what we have now.”

The museum is also in search of volunteers, from high school students on up, to help staff the building.