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ATTRACTIONS
PLACES
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 de nite 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 ful l 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 o cially 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 a ected 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
at the historic village indicates that about one in ve 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 Clermont purchased property number of visitors rose to 2,731. In 2020, visits dropped for the historic village, and the considerably to pandemic related closures. Luckily, attraction has since obtained the Clermont Historical Society was able to receive a various local historical buildings to ful l 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 o cially 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 a ected 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
Volunteer docent Donna DiGennaro assumes the role of schoolmarm in a replica of the Herring Hooks one-room schoolhouse.
Volunteer docent Sarah McCullough uses some of the “modern” gadgets in Mrs. Alexander Kern’s kitchen. Volunteer docent Maureen Potter proudly displays the Townsend House spinning wheel.
relief grant from Lake County to make up for revenue lost from admissions and donated funds.
Most buildings at the historic village were moved there from other parts of town, and some were repaired and refurbished.
Clermont Historic Village is home to the very rst Cooper Memorial Library, built in 1914 and nicknamed the Little Cooper.
The only building that is a replica is the Herring Hooks one-room schoolhouse, recreated by volunteers using old photographs of the actual building.
The schoolhouse is the most recent addition to the historic village, and was dedicated on April 13, 2013, thanks to many generous donations from the community and local builders. The original building, built in 1881, was located on the east side of US 27 near Jack’s Lake. It originally served as Herring Hooks’ Hunting Lodge, until Mrs. Thomas J. Hooks took it over to teach neighborhood children. Later, Lake County formed a school board and created a traditional school system, giving Mrs. Hooks a true classroom for her students.
The gem of the Clermont Historic Village is the Townsend house, originally built in 1895 by the rst Black family to settle in Clermont. James and Sallie Townsend’s family was so well-respected that members of the business community paid to move and restore the house, Jim says. It was the rst building to be moved to the historic village property in 2002. It has been open for public tours since 2005.
The other family home is the Kern House, built in the traditional New
England style of homes in 1885 on Montrose Street by Alexander Kern from New Jersey. It was moved to the historic village in 2008 and opened for tours. Years later, Mr. Kern was one of the signers when Clermont was incorporated. Jim likes to point out the di erences between the Kern House and the Townsend House, “because that’s what the Clermont foundation was; a mix of people from all over with di erent interests and di erent nancial situations,” he says. He calls the Kern House a “Yankee house,” whereas the Townsend House represents Florida “Cracker” architecture, and was built with local lumber. Between the Kern and Townsend houses you will nd a typical outhouse, which was built as part of an Eagle Scout Project by Jamaal Anderson Reid and the historic village. Other buildings at Clermont Historic Village are an original Quonset hut, built on site by the U.S. Military in 1943 during WWII, which IF YOU now serves as a WWII museum, and GO Clermont’s Train Depot, which also stands at its original site. The train depot
CLERMONT HISTORIC was refurbished in 2011. VILLAGE MUSEUM Admission to the museum is free, but 490 West Ave., Clermont a suggested donation of $5 per adult
Hours: Sat. and Sun. 1-4 p.m. for a tour is appreciated. If you would (subject to change) like to make additional donations to For more information, keep the Clermont Historic Village call 352.432.3496 or open and running, you can do so 352.242.7734. You can also visit at the village. Donations help with clermonthistoricvillage.org or insurance, maintenance, and special Clermont Historic Village Museum events, including an annual Heritage on Facebook. Day Festival the historical society hopes to resume in November.
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