05/15/2026
Welcome to Fiftieth Fridays! This week, we’ll explore the journey of Heritage Village’s newest building: the Turner Bungalow!
The Turner Bungalow was built in 1915 at 801 S. Ft. Harrison Ave. in Clearwater, Florida, by Alfred Cleveland Turner and his wife Amber Elizabeth Clark Turner.
Alfred was the son of Clearwater pioneer Arthur Campbell Turner and his second wife, Lilian Eugenia Ramage Turner. Arthur was a businessman and at one time owned the West Hillsborough Times, a predecessor of the Tampa Bay Times.
Amber Elizabeth was born in Pittsburgh to a Scottish immigrant father, though she moved with her family to Clearwater as a young girl, where her parents established the Oak Grove Dairy.
The Turners’ oldest daughter, Amber Vivian, was born the same year they built the house. They would welcome the second child, Geraldine, six years later. Both daughters led socially and intellectually active lives, attending Florida State College for Women (now Florida State University), earning master’s degrees, and working in the field of education, while being involved with multiple civic and social clubs and traveling extensively.
After their parents passed away in the 1970s and ‘80s, Geraldine and Amber Vivian inherited the bungalow. Amber Vivian passed in 2004.
Geraldine Turner, now the sole owner of the bungalow and recognizing the historical significance of her family home, put in her will that the home and its contents would be donated to Heritage Village; she also bequeathed $100,000 to cover the expenses of relocating the building.
After Geraldine passed in early 2013, Heritage Village volunteers began the careful work of organizing and boxing the contents of the house, while staff planned the moving of the structure.
The house was too tall to make it under fixed traffic lights, so the roof and chimney had to be removed before it was transported. At 11:30 on January 21, 2014, Above All Structural transported the bungalow from S. Ft. Harrison Ave. to Court St., to Missouri Ave., Ulmerton Ave., and finally into Heritage Village.
Over the years, Heritage Village staff and volunteers have worked tirelessly to preserve and catalog the thousands of objects and archival materials that were recovered from the bungalow. Together, they tell the story of nearly a century of life in Clearwater.
The Turner Bungalow required extensive restoration before it could be opened to the public. The roof had to be replaced, termite damage necessitated replacement of the floors and restoration work to the architectural elements, and the plaster needed repairs. This restoration work started in 2021 and continued through 2023. Heritage Village staff spent much of 2024 and early 2025 carefully staging the house and crafting exhibits, as well as installing plexiglass barriers so the building could be open to the public without a docent while protecting its contents. On May 7, 2025, the Turner Bungalow exhibition opened to the public.
Watch a video on the moving of the Turner Bungalow, here: https://youtu.be/ti0IavyCy8Y?si=uQRKfixcBa7-AkK0.
To learn more about the Turner Bungalow, visit the Heritage Village App, or go to the web version, here: https://heritagevillage.stqry.app/2.
