Clermont’s Historic Village has been closed, just like all the other parks and locations owned by the city of Clermont, because of “stay at home” and social distancing. The gates to the parking lot were closed and locked by city workers. But now restrictions are being eased. Various locations around the city like the new boat ramp have been opened. But the Village is now facing a completely different challenge—a road closure!
As part of the beautification of the historic downtown area, the city is installing new utilities and resurfacing roads. They have completed work on 7th Street and laid a beautiful new brick surface on Osceola between 8th and West Avenue. Now they have turned the corner on to West and are working their way south toward Minneola Avenue. The final result will be a beautifully paved street with additional public parking for residents and visitors to the waterfront and downtown. The immediate result is no access to any of the buildings on that block by way of West Ave. There is parking on the grass parking lot behind the Village Schoolhouse but that requires an inclined walk up to the Village and back down after your visit. This is not easily accomplished by everyone. The very young and the elderly can have difficulty with that.
The outcome is the delayed reopening of the Historic Village. The exact date for that will be dependent on the construction and we all know that is dependent on a variety of things especially Florida’s unpredictable weather. But that doesn’t mean that the members of the Clermont Historical Society are not making plans for the reopening or that we are not working on projects at the Village and at our homes while the Village is closed. As they used to say on radio and television, “Stay tuned for more information.” It will be our pleasure to keep you informed about changes and projects while we are closed and we look forward to seeing everyone when we are able to reopen.
Please visit our Facebook page to see photos of the Village and articles about history. If you are interested in the history of Clermont or in history in general, why don’t you consider joining the Clermont Historical Society? Membership is just $25.00 per person or $35.00 for a couple annually. Once West Avenue is reopened, we will not only resume our regular hours on Saturdays & Sundays from 1:00 to 4:00 PM as well as rental opportunities of the Depot and our grounds but also our monthly meetings that are held on the second Monday of each month in the Train Depot at the Village. The board meeting (open to the public) is at 6:00 PM followed by a presentation at 7:00 PM. For questions or further information please call 352-242-7734. We hope to see you all when the Village reopens!
