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Tuesday 12pm - 4pm Wednesday 12pm - 4pm Thursday 12pm - 4pm Friday 12pm - 5pm Saturday 10am - 2pm

Hannibal Square Heritage Center

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Winter Park, FL
Hannibal Square Heritage Center

The Hannibal Square Heritage Center was established in 2007 by Crealdé School of Art.

Our mission is to pay tribute to the past, present, and future contributions of Winter Park’s African-American community. The Hannibal Square Heritage Center hosts the nationally recognized "The Heritage Collection: Photographs and Oral Histories of West Winter Park," a permanent, museum-quality exhibition of more than 100 framed, archival pieces that capture the lives of Winter Park’s African-Ame

rican community spanning the 20th century, and "The Hannibal Square Timeline" that documents significant local and national events in African-American history since the Emancipation Proclamation. The center also offers a rotating Visiting Exhibition Series, community-created public art installations, as well as educational programs and that explore the African American experience, black heritage, cultural preservation, and southern folklore.

06/16/2026

Thank you to everyone who came out in support of our 11th Annual Juneteenth celebration!

Special shoutout to Form 2 Fashion® for hosting our community arts workshop. It was very engaging and we cannot wait to hang up the community quilt our guests created!

Our deepest appreciation to our featured panelists, Keidra Daniels Navaroli, Phyllis Biffle Elmore, Janice Gilyard, and Dr. Denice Evans-Sheppard.

06/12/2026

Meet our panelist: Janice Gilyard!

Janice Gilyard is a dedicated genealogist and historian with over 30 years of experience in family research. She has traced her lineage back to 1720, uncovering rich ancestral roots that include African American, Indigenous/Native American, and European heritage.

Her ancestors include authors, midwives, mariners, professors (two of whom founded colleges), abolitionists, pastors, political campaigners, and farmers—each inspiring her commitment to preserve and share their legacies.

Janice is passionate about educating others through history and genealogy and has done research for the popular television show Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Join us on Sunday, June 14, for our 11th Annual Juneteenth Celebration and be a part of an engaging conversation during our panel.

Free and open to the public. View the link in our bio for more information.

06/11/2026

Discover the rich history of Hannibal Square, a historic black township, in the heart of Winter Park!

Depicting the hardships and the triumphs of Winter Park’s African-American community from 1900 to the present, these personal accounts of community life make history come alive and engage visitors through the photographs and oral histories preserved in our permanent collection.

Make your visit today!

06/10/2026

Meet our panelist: Dr. Denice Evans-Sheppard!

Dr. Denice Evans-Sheppard currently holds a Doctorate in Educational Leadership for Diverse Learning Communities from Molloy University in 2023. She also has her master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Long Island University and Charles William Post University.

Currently, she serves as the Executive Director for the Oyster Bay Historical Society. As an administrator since 2017, she has utilized her expertise in educational leadership to consult with local school districts, libraries, and museums, not only advocating for local history to be a part of the curriculum but also highlighting the integral role people of color have played in the development of Long Island’s overall history.

She offers local artists opportunities to exhibit their work while providing programs, events, and activities that demonstrate the Town of Oyster Bay’s historical presence on the North Shores of Long Island.

Dr. Sheppard's resilience and tenacity in her role as the family historian, garnered the Carll family of Oyster Bay a New York Emmy Award in 2022. This highly achieved honor recognized Denice’s work as a family historian and research contributor for the David Carll story, promoted through ABC affiliate, WABC, channel 7.

Join us on Sunday, June 14, for our 11th Annual Juneteenth Celebration and be a part of an engaging conversation during our panel.

Free and open to the public. View the link in our bio for more information.

06/09/2026

From the Heritage Collection:
"These are the Pastors, Deacons and Deaconess of Mt. Moriah in the 1950s. They are celebrating possibly the Pastor’s anniversary. It could be somebody’s birthday. And this is at the Ideal Woman’s Club, the inside of the original building.

Standing left to right; Paul Laughlin of the Laughlin Hotel on New England Avenue and his wife Chaney, a founding mother of DePugh Nursing Home; Lula Durant, community social activist; Lonnie Rountree, carpenter, contractor and owner of rental property; Archie and Lizzie Hawkins, owners of a beauty shop located in their home; Walter Durant; Arthur Cleveland, who rang the bell at our church on Sunday mornings and 6:00 p.m. on Thursdays; and Nellie Lewis beauty shop owner.

From the left seated: Mrs. Jessie Cleveland; Thelma Mathern; Claudia Rountree, beauty shop owner; Rose Marie Wilson, teacher; Reverend K.S. Wilson, church pastor for 37 years; Reverend C.L. Jones of New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, Fannie Morgan, (we called her Mother Morgan); Elijah Lewis, carpenter, contractor and owner of rental property. We called him E.L. Lewis, in fact I didn’t know until 2004 that his name was Elijah Lewis.
He and Lonnie Rountree built Mary Lee Depugh Nursing Home. The lady on the end I’m not sure of, I want to say Mrs. Minnie Jones."

–Juanita Rountree | Life Long Winter Park Resident

06/08/2026

Meet our panelist: Phyllis Biffle–Elmore!

Ms. Biffle-Elmore was born in Detroit, Michigan. At the age of four, she was sent to Livingston, Alabama, to be raised by her grandmother, Lula Horn (1883-1988), who only made quilts from the clothing of those who had passed on. Each strip of fabric told the story of the wearer’s life and death.

She shared these mostly tragic and sometimes witty tales of these individuals with little Phyllis as she sewed their clothes into a quilt. Each piece of cloth weaves broken lives back together. And now, Ms. Biffle-Elmore shares these profound stories with the world as Grandmother Lula told them to her.

In 2013, Ms. Biffle-Elmore, in honor of her grandmother’s quilts, completed her self-published memoir Quilt of Souls. As a result of Quilt of Souls' popularity, Biffle-Elmore’s book was picked up by Susan Ginsburg of Writers House Literary Agency of New York and published by Charlesbridge Publishing.
Her current book is titled Quilt of Souls: A Memoir and is distributed by Penguin Random House.

Not only has Ms. Biffle – Elmore received a Bachelor of Science in Sociology from the University of Maryland and an M.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Denver, but she is also a certified Genealogist who has researched and processed over 100 research projects for her genealogy clients.

Join us on Sunday, June 14, for our 11th Annual Juneteenth Celebration and be a part of an engaging conversation during our panel.

Free and open to the public. View the link in our bio for more information.

06/03/2026

Meet our panelist: Keidra Daniels Navaroli
We are so excited to welcome Keidra as she joins our upcoming Juneteenth panel!

Keidra Daniels Navaroli is an independent curator and thought leader who teaches in the School of Visual Arts and Design at the University of Central Florida (UCF). For over eighteen years, her work in arts management, scholarship, and curation has focused on examining how museums, broadly (and textiles specifically), can be used to question cultural divisions, foster intergenerational dialogue, and enhance understanding of traditionally underrepresented communities of practice.

Keidra has lectured to audiences across the United States and abroad, including presentations organized by the Florida Association of Museums, Parsons School of Design, George Washington University, and the American Alliance of Museums, among others. She completed internships with the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Sotheby’s Auction House in New York and is an alumna of the Museum (Getty) Leadership Institute’s NextGen Program. Her award-winning curatorial work has been featured in Forbes, Culture Type, and numerous other media outlets.

Currently, Keidra serves on the boards for the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries, the Mennello Museum of American Art, and the Surface Design Association, as well as the Membership, Outreach, and Programs Committee of the Textile Society of America.

Join us on Sunday, June 14, for our 11th Annual Juneteenth Celebration and be a part of an engaging conversation during our panel.

Free and open to the public. View the link in our bio for more information.

06/01/2026

From the Heritage Collection:
"This picture is of Cynthia Ball Robinson, the 1950’s Homecoming Queen, Hungerford High School.

I went from elementary school through college with Cynthia’s sister, Loretta, and am friends with the entire family. The Robinson’s couldn’t be here today, so they entrusted their photos to me for The Heritage Collection.

At one time, their mother, Ruby Ball, owned a lot of property in Hannibal Square. Each time one of her kids graduated from high school and needed to go to college, her mother ended up having to sell a piece of her property to send her children to school. She couldn’t get a loan, nor would a financial institution agree to hold part of the land as collateral for her to pay back. Her only option was to sell parcels of her land to help each child. Today, all the family has left of their holdings is their original family home in west Winter Park."

–Linda Walker | Life Long Winter Park Resident

05/29/2026

Juneteenth is a celebration of liberation and resistance.

On June 19, 1865, the Union forces arrived in Galveston, Texas, to enforce the end of slavery. Two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. 161 years later, we celebrate this day and reflect on our history.

Join us in celebration at our 11th Annual Juneteenth event, Threads of Freedom: Memory, Resistance, and Legacy on Sunday, June 14, from 1–5 PM!

Free and open to the public, guests are invited to participate in a community arts workshop led by Form 2 Fashion to experience the art and tradition of quilting, and join a panel discussion to learn how this art form preserves sacred histories.

We can't wait to welcome you!

05/28/2026

From the Heritage Collection:
"This was at the Welbourne Day Nursery. I am in this picture sitting in front, on the left-hand side, next to the little boy. The children had been told to look straight ahead. Only one student didn’t follow directions…. The woman in the nurse’s uniform is Minnie May Ball."

– Linda Walker | Life Long Winter Park Resident

Address

642 W New England Avenue
Winter Park, FL
32789

Opening Hours

Tuesday	12pm - 4pm
Wednesday	12pm - 4pm
Thursday	12pm - 4pm
Friday	12pm - 5pm
Saturday	10am - 2pm

Telephone

(407) 539-2680

Website

http://hannibalsquareheritagecenter.org/, https://www.instagram.com/hannibalsquareheritagecenter/

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