The Carver-Hill Museum
The Carver-Hill Museum is a Florida Historical Site located in Okaloosa County Florida, City of Crestview!
The Okaloosa Negro Civic Club established a neighborhood park in the early 1950s. When a new school was built in 1954, Carver-Hill, the old one-room frame lunchroom building was given to the Civic Club by the Okaloosa County School Board. Enlarged and renovated, it became the Carver-Hill Museum, operated by the Carver-Hill Memorial and Historical Society, Inc.
The Carver-Hill Museum honors the Carver-Hill School and chronicles the history of the local African-American community.
The late Caroline Baker Allen, Founder and first President of the Carver-Hill Memorial and Historical Society, Inc. provided the leadership that lead to the building of a new Carver-Hill Museum.
After the school was closed in 1969 as part of the county’s school integration, alumni association members organized the Carver-Hill Memorial and Historical Society. They first used an old lunchroom building to house a museum and later built a larger brick community center with donated materials and volunteer labor.
The building that currently houses the museum was built in 1997 with funding sources from a variety of government, community and church organizations, as well as individual donations. The museum is the only one of its kind in Okaloosa County, which emphasizes black history. It serves as an archive for artifacts related to Carver-Hill School, such as photos, yearbooks and sports memorabilia, and also contains historical documents of local families and the community.
The Carver-Hill Museum is also a site for many community events for the city. The Carver-Hill May Day Festival and Museum Day is a great memorial event for the museum. Families can compete in amateur sports competitions or just relax and enjoy the food and drink provided. Besides museum tours, the event has a large community parade through the area. It is a celebratory and reflective day for this great institution in Crestview.
