Area residents working hard on Jay Museum

The Jay Historical Society has a cookbook for sale.

Dot Diamond and Donald Hendricks busy working on the new museum Saturday.

The cookbook has, not only the recipes, but a story behind the actual recipe or the cook.

The new site of the Jay Museum in downtown Jay

Members of the Historical Society work on the interior of the new museum Saturday during its scheduled workday.

All of the current displays located at the Hwy. 4 museum site will need to be moved when the new site is completed – hopefully in November of this year.

This old kitchen sink, showcasing an antique pump handle, is just an example of some of the displays to be enjoyed at the Jay Museum.

Written by Susan McGee, NorthSantaRosa.com

Jay, Florida — Some people remember the “new” location of the Jay Museum as the “5-10-cent store.” It has housed several businesses throughout the years, including most recently a clothing shop, and Shorty’s Barbershop before that. Saturday, during a museum workday, Dorothy Diamond (Dot), took the time to explain plans and dreams the Jay Historical Society has for the old building. All the building walls have been pulled down – leaving a clean slate for the new museum.

People were encouraged to show up with their tools, time, and energy as they painted, cleaned and prepared the building for the museum. The new location was made possible by a generous donation by C.B. Cannon, former owner who recently passed away. Mr. Cannon donated the building for the purpose of preserving history in the Jay area.

Three years ago, the current Jay Museum was started on Hwy. 4 in a temporary location which currently houses displays of the Florida Creek Indians; farming equipment, antique kitchen equipment, clothing, physician’s office – and on and on. It also houses a library which includes histories of long-time Jay families, ledger books from a store in Berrydale from many decades gone by, memoriam to many Jay (and surrounding communities) residents. Recently older more “seasoned” residents of Jay have begun to make CDs of their memories and invaluable records of how things were done and what things looked like. Irreplaceable memories – recorded for generations to come. These can now be viewed at the museum. Diamond also added that she has a dream of moving an old corn crib that she owns into a vacant lot behind the museum. “My dream would be to put an old replica of a homestead up with all the outside area replicating what it would be like back then.” Mrs. “Dot” also asks if you have antique items of any kind – especially old school related material or pictures of the town of Jay, (Chumuckla, Munson, etc) to please consider a donation to the museum. She also encourages families in the Jay area to write stories of their families to include in the genealogical library at the museum. There are also opportunities to research your family at the current museum.

The Jay Historical Society meets monthly and boasts a website at JayHistoricalSociety.org where you can get information on joining or donating time or money. The Historical Society needs approximately $25,000 to complete the renovations on the new museum. The group is currently selling cookbooks, which is compiled of very old recipes. On each page, is not only the recipe, but photos and personal stories of the people who have passed the recipes on to their families. The cookbooks are $20 and can be purchased from any member of the society.