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Travel back in time Add Clermont Historic Village to your list of places to visit. STORY: VICTORIA SCHLABIG
≈ PHOTOS: NICOLE HAMEL
hether you are a local Clermont resident or an out-of-town visitor, the Clermont Historic Village is a definite must-see. In 1996, the City of Clermont purchased property for the historic village, and the attraction has since obtained various local historical buildings to fulfil the Clermont Historical Society’s mission to preserve, maintain, and share the history of South Lake County’s pioneering families. The Clermont Historic Village, which officially opened as an attraction around 2005, is now a “cluster of buildings that have been moved in from parts of town that give them a good cross section of what life was like around 1900,” says Clermont Historical Society President Jim Briggs, who has served as president of the organization’s board for four years and recently got re-elected for another term. Historical society volunteers previously conducted extensive tours of the historic village, but due to COVID-19, volunteers are limited to demonstrating certain features and answering questions. Audio recordings activated by push buttons tell the stories of each building. COVID-19 also affected hours of operation. Clermont Historic Village is now open Saturdays and Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m. Jim says they usually see anywhere from a handful of visitors up to 75 people. “Thanks to the internet, we’re getting a lot more people from out of town, even out of state and out of the country,” Jim says. A review of the guestbook
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at the historic village indicates that about one in five visitors is local. In 2018, the Clermont Historic Village registered a total of 2,553 visitors from 35 states, Puerto Rico, and 11 countries, including Costa Rica, Brazil, Germany, England, Canada, Venezuela, the Netherlands, Scotland, Israel, Norway, and Slovakia. In 2019, the number of visitors rose to 2,731. In 2020, visits dropped considerably to pandemic related closures. Luckily, the Clermont Historical Society was able to receive a Volunteer docent Donna DiGennaro assumes the role of schoolmarm in a replica of the Herring Hooks one-room schoolhouse.
