The Gulf Beaches Historical Museum has new hours – and needs more volunteers. Gulf Beaches Historical Museum
The Gulf Beaches Historical Museum is open and has recently extended their hours. Voted #6 of Trip Advisor’s 20 Things to do in St. Pete Beach, the Gulf Beaches Historical Museum is full of hands-on activities and mostly run by volunteers. Located in a former church that was built in 1917, the building itself is history: The church population outgrew its four walls and moved to a larger facility in 1952, selling the small kirk to a widowed journalist named Joan Haley who moved from Washington, D.C. and made a home for herself in the space. Upon Haley’s death in 1989, she left the property to Pinellas County, who refurbished it and opened it as The Gulf Beaches Historical Museum four years later. The GBHM has a large collection of photographs, maps, and yearbooks, a Don CeSar display, a World War II exhibit, and some of Haley’s own collected items.
With the pandemic, the museum temporarily closed; when it finally reopened, it kept extremely limited hours (Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.). In March, the GBHM proudly announced it has extended its hours and is now open Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. until noon and again from 1-4 p.m., and Sundays from 1-4 p.m. They need new volunteers, too – for more information, contact them via email.
