Located in Baker, Florida, the Baker Block Museum was completed and opened to the public in July 1996. The building was once the old General Store built in 1908 and is located where cattle once were penned awaiting shipment by rail to market. After the property was purchased by the Association, work began on restoring the old store as our Museum, which now houses many artifacts from the local area such as old turpentine stills and Native American items. Photo below is the way the building looked before the current mural was painted on the east side.
The town of Baker was established in 1907 along a well used migration trail from North and South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama. It was named in honor of Reverend R.G. Baker, the father-in-law of J.D.C. Newton. Before that, the community was known as Cobb. Early settlers gained their livelihood from cattle raising, sheep herding, logging, and naval stores operations (turpentine industry and it's associated products).
As Baker grew it boasted cotton gins, a bank, drug store, lady's store, doctor's office, mercantile (now the Museum), hotel, post office, turpentine still and the Shaw blueberry farm, which was at the time, the world's largest.
The beautiful mural painted on the side of the building after its restoration represents much of the area's history; it was hand painted by Mr. Larry Demmers. It is in need of restoration.
