PLANT CITY, Fla. — As we celebrate Black History Month, one local museum in the Tampa Bay area is working to preserve that history despite recent hurricane damage. 

What You Need To Know

  • Bing Rooming House is in Plant City at 205 Allen Street

  • The house, located in Lincoln Park, is one of the several properties that saw several inches of water from Hurricane Milton

  • The museum is hosting a fundraising campaign to help with some of the costs of damages

Preserving history isn’t an easy task, and William Thomas Jr., president of the Improvement League of Plant City CDC, knows that all too well.

While most of these pictures may be damaged, nothing can erase history.

“A lot of these pictures depict the history dating back to 1930s through 1960s here in Plant City,” he said.

Thomas spends a lot of time at the Bing Rooming House African American Museum. Lately, a lot of that time has included sifting through what can be salvaged after last year’s hurricanes damaged the first floor of the building.

“We’ve done our best to try and dry the museum out, and obviously water and moisture still is a culprit,” Thomas said.

Aside from pictures being damaged, floors have to be replaced and all the display cases need to be restored.

“This is a low-lying area, it’s known for frequent flooding, but not to that severity and I think this one, as I’m sure as the rest of the city of Plant City, figured out it caught us all off guard,” Thomas said.

Despite the damage it’s sustained, the museum is still operating serving military veterans every Wednesday and youth forensic classes on Mondays.

But Thomas says it’s going to take a lot of work and help from the community to open the museum back up to tours.

“Our goal is to be proactive, regarding knowing that future hurricanes and things are going to come through, so the step process will be obviously to restore the damage, fix the damage, get the museum back on track hopefully between now and the summer,” he said.

Thomas says the storms and the cleanup are just the latest chapter in the museum’s ongoing history.

The museum is also raising money to help raise the property up to four feet to prevent future flooding impacts to the building. The total cost to raise the building will be $80,000.

They will also have a Black History Month program held on Saturday, Feb 15.