ANNA MARIA, Fla. — One thing is for sure — when you ask people what they love about Anna Maria Island, it's the quaint, small-town feel.
While it's definitely changed over the years, that feeling has never wandered.
The Anna Maria Historical Society will take you back to the days when people first started coming to the island.
It was the 1800s, yellow fever was high and people wanted to escape the big cities.
The island was full of farmland and, imagine this, no bridges.
The museum was started in 1992 by two women journalists on the island who wanted people to remember how Anna Maria Island came to be.
"This museum shows people that this island didn't always look like this. Every place has a history. And as I say, we're not Rome, but we have a history," Nancy Deal, Board Member of the Anna Maria Island Historical Society says." This place will show you that there were families who lived here, we have a school, there is a school, there are churches, this was a residential community with a balance of renters, or snowbirds, people who came from Lakeland for the summer, or came down in the winter for weekends. "
They're making sure in 50 years, people will remember what the island is like today.
"We collect history, we collect the present so that people in the future can see what it was like," says Deal.
The museum is completely run by volunteers, operating off of grants and donations. You can read more about all they have by clicking here.
