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During World War I, the League of Woman’s Services operated the Blue Bird Tea Room to raise funds for the
Red Cross. After the Tea Room closed, $2,500 remained in the organization’s bank account. Miss Jane
Beverley Evans, a Florence community leader, artist and member of the League, met a Mr. Chapman of the
Santa Fe Museum, now the Museum of New Mexico, while traveling in the Southwest during 1924-25.
Mr. Chapman was selling a surplus of Indian pottery to other museums. Miss Evans reorganized the Tea
Room Committee into a museum in order to purchase pottery in the amount of $400. The newly acquired
collection was exhibited in a small room of the Florence Public Library.
The Florence Museum was incorporated March 8, 1936. In 1952 the Trustees purchased a 1939 Art Moderne
style house having over 5,000 square feet. The residence had been designed by Sanborn Chase and built by
Maner Lawton. That same year, the Museum’s first full-time curator, J.E. Kaufman, was hired.
During the summer of 1953 the house was renovated to become the Museum as it stands today. Its lot
borders to the south on a greenway known as Timrod Park. In 1969 a 1,681 square foot house adjacent to the
Museum was purchases to service as office and storage space.
A 26 member Board of Trustees governs the Museum. For more than 25 years, it has had the support of the
Friends of the Florence Museum. Board Members and Friends have an active role in the life of the Museum.
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