Hidden gem
Full size replicas of some of Central Florida’s earliest ‘residents’ are part of the Tooth and Claw display at the Brevard Museum of History and Natural Science in Cocoa. ASHLEE NEAL PHOTOS
From dinosaurs to astronauts, museum has an exhibit for that
The museum chronicles the history and science of Brevard County and Florida, from the Ice Age to the Space Age.
In a newspaper story from 2004, Brevard Museum of History and Natural Science Assistant Director Marykim Brown noted that “The museum has been here for years, and we are amazed at how many people in Brevard don’t even know we’re here.”
Two decades later, Brown is long gone, and the museum remains somewhat of a best-kept secret. That’s a shame, because the Brevard Museum of History and Natural Science has so much to offer.
Part of the problem may be location, location, location. While most museums are situated close to major roads or in downtown areas, this one is tucked away in the middle of the College Green Estates residential neighborhood behind Eastern Florida State College in Cocoa. The large campus encompasses 22 acres that, in addition to the 13,000-square-foot museum building, includes a network of walking trails where visitors can get a peek at different Florida ecosystems and their inhabitants.
Inside the museum is a chronicle of the history and science of Brevard and Florida, from the Ice Age to the Space Age. Among the stars in the exhibits — all donated or on loan — is the display about the Windover Archaeological Site. The Windover Site made international news in 1982, when ancient skeletal remains were found during the development of Windover Farms in Titusville. Archaeologists later discovered well-preserved remains of 168 individuals who lived more than 7,000 years ago — making them older than the builders of the Great Pyramid of Giza and more than 3,000 years older than King Tutankhamen. The remains, many of which contained brain matter, were preserved in the peat of the burial site, at the bottom of a pond. The bodies had been wrapped in the oldest fabric that has been found in the Southeastern U.S. The site was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987. Brevard Museum’s Windover: Window to the Past exhibit recreates the archaeological dig.
“The Windover exhibit is very popular,” said Ben Rader, facility attendant at the museum.
ALL ABOUT BREVARD
Vintage clothing and furniture offer a peek at life in Brevard County long before the region became the Space Coast.
Additional museum exhibits highlight the Space Coast’s once thriving citrus industry; a replica of the one-room segregated Cocoa school where civil rights activist Harry T. Moore taught in the 1920s; displays of the myriad shells and sea creatures that inhabit Brevard waterways; and an interpretation of how Henry Flagler’s Florida East Coast Railway changed the lives of area residents when it arrived in 1893. On loan from the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex are displays on the Space Shuttle and the Hubble Telescope. And there are the prehistoric critters.
In the Tooth and Claw exhibit, a life-size replica of a giant ground sloth skeleton vies for the primo eye-magnet prize with a skeleton of a real saber-toothed cat. The exhibit also includes a fossilized giant shark tooth, mastodon jaws and other specimens that appeal to the kid in all of us.
If it has anything to do with Brevard County and East Central Florida, the museum probably has it. Historical photos, coins and documents; vintage textiles and clothing; antiques, including a buckboard, cameras, typewriters, print shop, tools and an operating table; mounted fish, birds, mammals, turtles, snakes and alligators; plus, a sizable selection of sea beans are part of the vast number of items amassed.
The museum began life in 1969 after the Friends of the Brevard County Museum Inc., a hardworking group that put years of effort into securing the acreage that abuts Clear Lake in Cocoa. Service organizations joined the effort, as did the Brevard County School Board, which offered a portable classroom for temporary museum housing. Support from the community, and the estate of Grace and Albert Taylor, allowed Brevard County Museum Inc. to begin construction of the current museum building, which was completed in 1976.
Ambitious long-range plans called for a Pioneer Village, more buildings, classrooms and even a petting zoo. None materialized, as the museum was barely surviving on insufficient funds.
“They struggled to make ends meet, because they didn’t have a grant writer,” Rader said.
The museum’s most popular exhibit, Windover: Window to the Past, examines the Titusville archaeological discovery that made international news.
LIFE SUPPORTS
Ben Rader, facility attendant at the Brevard Museum of History and Natural Science, depends on a small but devoted group of volunteers, such as Rosalyn Welch.
In 2014, Brevard Museum Inc. transferred the operations and assets to the Florida Historical Society, the oldest cultural organization in the state — and a group that did have a grant writer. Unfortunately, the Florida Historical Society also couldn’t raise the money needed.
“Three years ago, they gifted the contents to the City of Cocoa,” Rader said.
Since 2021, the City of Cocoa — and a trickle of donations — has provided the funds to keep the museum running, albeit in a lean way. The museum is open only three days a week and Rader is its only staff member. He joked that he was “voluntold” to help at the museum by his wife, Nancy, who was serving as its executive director when the historical society oversaw the complex. After his wife left the position, Rader applied to essentially become the museum’s guardian, aided with a small and eclectic corps of volunteers who range from middle schoolers to 70-somethings. Jeffrey Colgin, the youngest volunteer, still has some years before he’s old enough to drive, but he’s not too young to be extremely earnest about serving the museum.
“One day, we had a grandfather and his grandchild in the museum, and Jeffrey explained the collections,” Rader said. “You could see the grandfather’s face change in amazement, and, at one point, I heard him say to the grandchild, ‘See what you could be doing?’”
The City of Cocoa is committed to keeping the museum open, but the current budget allotted for its operation is only enough to do just that. “We’re waiting on guidance from [city] council,” said Samantha Senger, the city’s director of communication and economic development. The city promotes the museum through its Museum Mondays postings on Facebook and through the facility’s membership in Museums of Brevard.
“We want people to use it,” Senger said.
Rosalyn Welch, who moved recently from Texas to Cocoa, sought the museum for her volunteer work. The retired supply-chain consultant helps Rader clean and helps with tours. She also enjoys exploring the trails during her spare time.
“The museum is fascinating,” she said. “I learn something every day.”
On loan from the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex are displays on the Space Shuttle and the Hubble Telescope.
Brevard Museum of History and Science
The museum, which contains exhibits and examples of the history of Brevard County, is located amid a network of walking trails adjoining the Cocoa campus of Eastern Florida State College.
2201 Michigan Ave. Cocoa
321.632.1830
Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Thursdays through Saturdays
Admission: Free
Maria Sonnenberg
Maria is a prolific writer and proofer for Space Coast Living and an adjunct professor at Florida Institute of Technology’s Nathan M. Bisk College of Business. When not writing, teaching or traveling, she can be found waging a one-woman war against her lawn and futilely attempting to maintain order among the chaos of a pack of extremely clueless wirehair dachshunds and an angst-driven basset hound.
