Welcome to ‘The Way Back’, an occasional community feature in What’s What New Port Richey.
This ought to be fun for local history buffs and those looking to get acquainted with some of the people that started it all – a little bit at a time.
This is a small-portions kind of history jaunt, that comes courtesy of Brian Schmit, Bob Langford, and Jeff Miller. They are offering up what they’ve come to know about the history of the place we live in, along with some pretty cool photographs – many that have been donated by long-time residents and their descendants.
These three kindly gents have volunteered countless hours at the West Pasco Historical Society Rao Musunuru, MD, Museum and Library, a local gem that’s nicely situated in Sims Park in downtown New Port Richey.
PHOTO | MICHELE MILLER
Theirs is a rather impressive endeavor that includes collecting, cataloging, displaying photographs and artifacts, and on occasion, tossing hand-me-down inventory that might have some historical meaning to someone but has nothing to do with local history.
There might be a place for that 1950s Niagara Falls ashtray, but it isn’t here.
The museum is housed in a charming, white clapboard building that once was the first school house in New Port Richey. Exhibits got a recent overhaul, courtesy of $40,000 in Pasco County grants and private donations.
Just weeks after the grand re-opening the museum was temporarily shuttered due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
That means a lot of you have not been able to visit. Even so, it’s well worth putting it on your “when-it’s-safer” to-do list – maybe mix a little history lesson in with the trip to the playground.
In the meantime, ‘The Way Back’ offers readers a small sampling of what the museum has to offer.
In the beginning…
Pasco County Begins with a Strategic Political Move
In the late 1800s the land now consisting of Pasco, Citrus, and Hernando counties comprised one giant county with Brooksville as the county seat.
When the southern portion of the county became populated, those settlers started to complain about making the long trip on horseback to Brooksville for court or government business. It was decided to propose splitting two additional counties from the giant Hernando County.
The bill to form two new counties to be known as Citrus and Banner Counties was having a hard time finding support. It looked like the bill was destined to fail. Yet, happening at the same time as the bill proposal, a popular judge from Monticello, Samuel Pasco, was elected to the U.S. Senate.
Moving quickly, it was decided to change the name of Banner County to Pasco County, to gain favor with the state legislature. The astute maneuver worked. The bill to establish Pasco County was passed unanimously by both the Senate and the House in 1887.
Learn more about Samuel Pasco and others by visiting the museum website at nprmuseum.org. Delve a little further out into history of Pasco County at fivay.org, a historical website founded and meticulously managed by museum librarian, Jeff Miller.
Contributor Brian Schmit is the curator of the West Pasco Historical Museum. He is the author of a self-published book, Glory Days: The History of New Port Richey Florida, and a retired history teacher.
Related
- Check out these historical maps of Pasco County at Maps ETC
- Lean more about Samuel Pasco at Fivay.org
- New Port Richey museum revamp brings it closer to the community’s true history, Michele Miller, Tampa Bay Times
