Construction Nearing Completion on Agricultural and Citrus Packing House at Old Davie School Historical Museum

New Interactive Educational Exhibit allows Students 
and Museumgoers to Step Back in Time to the Pioneer Days

Construction is nearing completion on the Agricultural and Citrus Packing House Exhibit at the Old Davie School Historical Museum. The new exhibit will become a part of the Step-Back-in-Time interactive educational program that demonstrates the life of Davie pioneers to the thousands of students and museumgoers that frequent the historical campus each year.

The Agricultural and Citrus Packing House Exhibit places Davie in the context of a growing Florida citrus industry by using equipment donated by Math Igler Grove, a citrus grove and packing house business that has operated in Davie since the 1950s.

“This new exhibit will provide an opportunity for both residents and tourists to understand how oranges are grown, harvested and marketed, and to understand the tremendous influence the industry had on Davie and Florida’s history,” said Leslie Schroeder, Executive Director of the Museum.

The equipment was donated after the Old Davie School Historical Museum Board of Trustees became aware that the business was being dismantled to make way for the development of homes and a park. The equipment consists of scrubber sections, which cleaned the fruit; the sorting section, where workers pulled the fruit that was too small for shipping; the wax and dryer, to polish the fruit; and, the bin area to prepare the fruit for shipping.

The exhibit will include the citrus packing equipment, antique farm equipment and other early 20th century artifacts. The building will visually replicate an original citrus packing house and will prominently display the citrus packing house equipment to allow visitors to experience the packing process.

Citrus crates and signage will be placed around the packing equipment to replicate the interior of a citrus packing house as it was in the 1940s. Photographs, ledger books noting production schedules, collection bags, clothing and other items associated with Davie’s citrus farms, along with agricultural equipment from the early 1900s to the 1950s, including a tractor, hay rake, oxen plow and other unique implements used to farm in the Everglades will be arranged in a manner to help a visitor think they are stepping back into a moment in time.

The design, fabrication and installation of the exhibit will be completed with the help of museum staff, as well as donated time by local grove owners, architects, engineers, contractors, graphic designers, writers and photographers.