PEOPLE
T
Christy Grieger has taken over operation of a small museum that enjoys an outsized presence in a community that’s steeped in history.
PHOTO BY RAFAEL TONGOL
THE ECHO OF OUR HISTORY Christy Grieger feels Winter Park’s unique vibe and recognizes that the past still permeates this special place. She wants you to feel it, too. BY RANDY NOLES
16 W I N T E R P A R K M A G A ZI N E | SP RI N G 2021
he Winter Park History Museum might be called “the Little Museum that Could.” The City of Culture and Heritage has plenty of culture to go around — but its heritage is squeezed into just 800 square feet. Nonetheless, the facility — which occupies a room inside the 97-year-old building that once served as the Atlantic Coast Line’s freight depot — has for years enjoyed an outsized presence in the community with creative exhibitions and lavish events. Now, a new executive director will be responsible for leading the small but scrappy operation and making certain that Winter Park’s storied past is remembered and celebrated. Christy Grieger, 48, had previously worked in event sales and management at Hello! Florida and House of Blues at Disney’s Lake Buena Vista. Later, she headed human resources in a family-owned printing business before becoming executive assistant to the energetic Susan Skolfield, her predecessor at the museum. Skolfield, who during her 10-year tenure was instrumental in raising the museum’s profile and staging some of its most popular exhibitions, left late last year to establish a Winter Park office for the presidential campaign of former Vice President Joe Biden. (She had opened a local outpost for candidate Barack Obama in 2008.) Luckily for the 11-member board of the Winter Park Historical Association — the nonprofit that owns and operates the museum — a worthy successor was already on the payroll. “In addition to the hard skills of being extremely well-organized, a strategic thinker and possessing a solid educational and employment background, Christy has attributes that can’t be taught,” says Betsy Owens, chairperson of the board. “She has a magnetic personality, a passion for local history and a true desire to share Winter Park’s heritage with others.” Owens, now vice president of marketing and communications for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida, takes such matters very much to heart — which is not surprising, considering her background. A prominent activist for historic preservation, Owens was previously executive director of Winter Park’s Casa Feliz Historic Home Museum — which was designed by her grandfather, iconic architect James Gamble Rogers II. She says the board chose Grieger from more than 100 applicants. Linda Kulmann, the museum’s archivist and a past board chairperson, originally recruited Skolfield a decade earlier. She also cited Grieger’s “warm personality, leadership skills and, most importantly, her love of Winter Park history” as reasons why she believes the Tampa native is an ideal fit for the position. Grieger does indeed display genuine enthusiasm about Winter Park’s historic vibe. “When people come here, they notice a feeling and an energy that you don’t find in every town,” she says. “[Original developers] Oliver Chapman and Loring Chase created something special that’s still preserved
