48th ANNUAL PIONEER DAY

Description

48th Annual Pioneer Day, Saturday, October 11, 2025 The East Hillsborough Historical Society is pleased to announce that the 48th Annual Pioneer Day celebration will be held on Saturday, October 11, 2025, at the historic 1914 Plant City High School Community Center, 605 North Collins Street, Plant City, Florida. Hours for Pioneer Day will be 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. We welcome food & craft vendors, pioneer exhibits, and the display of homemade and historic quilts. The family-oriented, free, all-day celebration will include live entertainment, a train ride for kids, and a day of fun. Visit the 1914 PCHSCC Pioneer Museums, the Henry B. Plant Railroad Historical Society’s model train layout, museum exhibits, heritage demonstrations, clogging, dancing, singing, and much more. Alumni from Turkey Creek High School will share their archival collection of the school’s history with the community. We are incredibly pleased to welcome back the Plant City Garden Club with their National Garden Clubs Show, “Birds of a Feather.” The Quintilla Geer Bruton Archives Center is always a popular destination for those seeking to browse the yearbooks of Plant City High School. Exhibits in The Classroom Gallery include the Seminole and Miccosukee People of Florida, as well as paintings by Dorothy Greenlee Fascenda and her mother, Marie D. Greenlee. Artist John Briggs will be in his studio, talking about the lithograph press. Prints will be offered for sale. Writer Betty Savidge Briggs will be in the gallery exhibit room with her new book, Under the Shadow of Wings Diary of a WWII P-51 Mustang Fighter Pilot. Copies will be available for sale and signing. Henry B. Plant will bring some of his fellow hotel staff from the Plant Museum, and they will tell the inside stories from Mr. Plant’s famous Tampa Bay Hotel. Mr. Planter, the mascot from the days when the 1914 was a high school, may pay a visit to a classroom and check on the students’ grades. New this year will be an outdoor World War II field exhibit, featuring a tent headquarters display with a PA playing vintage broadcasts, a 1942 Harley-Davidson WLA motorcycle, and a rare 1942 Plymouth P-14C staff car. The exhibit is owned by resident Brandon Shearer, a Colonel in the USMC (ret). Descendants of pioneering families who have lived in the Eastern Hillsborough County area for one hundred years or more are eligible to receive a Pioneer Certificate. Applications are available in the Archives Center or by email info@ehhsoc.org. Application forms for Pioneer Day vendors and events are available by contacting the EHHS office or visiting the website Come out, enjoy the day!