Fund raising begins for Heritage Center

LAKELAND — Almost 200 years of history may soon have a permanent home as fund-raising efforts get underway for the new Florida United Methodist Heritage Center. The goal of the effort, coordinated by the Commission on Archives and History, is to raise $600,000 for the new archives building.
   
The proposed 3,600-square-foot facility will be built in Lakeland between the United Methodist Building and the Episcopal Building, which houses the offices of Florida Bishop Cornelius L. Henderson. It will be home to the Florida Conference archives collection, a record of the conference’s history back to the circuit riders from the South Carolina Conference who first brought Methodism to Florida in 1822.
   
The official name of the building will be the R. Ira Barnett Building in recognition of a $225,000 gift in honor of Dr. R. Ira Barnett, a longtime member and leader of the Florida Conference who served as executive secretary of the Conference Board of Education and was a significant proponent of the Methodist Youth Camp, later renamed the Warren W. Willis United Methodist Camp.
The historical data that will be housed in the center includes local church histories, conference journals, district records, records from closed churches and personal papers. The collection also includes artifacts and a library of books on United Methodism.
   
In addition to fireproof and climate-controlled storage facilities for the archives, the building will house an exhibit area, a conference room, a reading and research room, offices and work areas. The center will be open for use by individuals and groups for research and browsing.
   
The fund-raising campaign got its start at the 1997 Annual Conference when delegates voted to give the Board of Trustees permission to “solicit funds from individuals, organizations, and foundations for the purpose of constructing a building to house the archives of the conference.”
   
Each church in the conference is invited to participate in the project by giving $500 toward the construction of the building. Those that contribute will be recognized in a memorial book and on a video monitor set up at the center.
   
The commission is also inviting individuals and organizations to make memorial gifts. For a gift of $25,000, the patron may have one of four rooms named in someone’s honor or memory. Gifts of $5,000 or more will be acknowledged with a plaque displayed in the center. A donation of $500 or more honoring an individual who has made a significant impact on United Methodism will be acknowledged on a Heritage Tree, which will be displayed in the lobby of the center.
   
For more information on the Florida United Methodist Heritage Center or the fund-raising effort, contact Dr. Robert R. Barber, chairman of the Heritage Center Campaign Committee, at 941-853-3665, or write to him at P.O. Box 3767, Lakeland, FL 33802. For information on the Florida Conference Archives, contact Nell Thrift, the conference archivist, at 941-688-9276

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© 1998 Florida United Methodist Review Online