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JULY/AUGUST 2017 | TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE 155
Byrdie Lewis grew up in this home that was designed
by Frank Lloyd Wright for her parents.
Chef Jessica Bright McMullen prepared
this pineapple citrus coleslaw at the
KitchenAble Cooking School.
On the government side of the equation,
we visited three places that rely on the
state in some manner for funding. The first
of them, the Museum of Florida History,
which has its main site near the Capitol,
opened in 1977. It was mandated by the
Florida Legislature to collect, preserve,
exhibit and interpret human culture in
the state. The second place was the Knott
House Museum on Park Avenue, only
one house away from where we stayed.
Now celebrating its 40th anniversary, the
museum totally captivated us with its
exhibits that followed a timeline that made
it easy to place everything in perspective.
The third place we visited was the
Grove Museum that explores the legacy
of nearly two centuries of the Call and
Collins families, who both left incredible
marks on history as public servants. The
museum opened in March of 2016, so we
were excited to be able to visit this home
that since 1840 had been the home of
former territorial Governor Richard Keith
Call and former Governor LeRoy Collins.
Set on ten wooded acres of magnolias and
sprawling live oaks, this historic site was
listed on the National Register of Historic
Places in 1972. Call and his descendants
owned the property until 1942, when his
great-granddaughter and her husband
LeRoy Collins, who became governor in
1955, acquired the property. The Collins
family sold this Greek Revival home to
the state in 1985 and received a life lease
on it. From 2009 until this year, the estate
was being rehabilitated for structural
stabilization and a multitude of other
improvements. Governor Collins’ study
is in the basement, just as it was when
he died in 1991. Throughout the rest of
the house, there are interactive exhibits
that show what life was like in Tallahassee
throughout the decades.
Since we were staying in the Park Avenue
Inn, a beautiful antebellum mansion that
was built in 1838 and has been converted
into a luxury boutique hotel, visiting the
Knott House Museum that is only one
home away was easy. The Knott House
was built in the 1840s and is a fine example
of Victorian splendor, since all its original
Tallahassee is a city
filled with pleasant
surprises, including the
only private residence
in the state designed by
Frank Lloyd Wright.