Oral history of David Grace, the master gardener and docent at the Student Museum, located at 301 West Seventh Street in Sanford, Florida. Fisher Parks was born in Wichita, Kansas on December 2, 1942. He attended Wichita State University and was commissioned as Second Lieutenant in the United States Army in 1965. He performed missile maintenance at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama until he retired after three years. He accepted a job with United Telephone and moved to Fort Myers, Florida around 1970. When United Telephone purchased Winter Park Telephone, Grave migrated to Central Florida. After being laid off, he decided to become a Master Gardener for the Student Museum, while also working as a Chief Financial Officer for the Florida Safety County. This interview was conducted by Autumn Reisz in Sanford on October 30, 2012.
The Student Museum, located at 301 West Seventh Street, was originally occupied by Sanford High School, which was established in 1902. The structure was designed by W. G. Talley in the Romanesque revival style. Due to an increasing student population, a new school building was constructed on the corner of East Ninth Street and South Palmetto Avenue in 1911. The original building on Seventh Street served as Westside Grammar Elementary School, which was later renamed Sanford Grammar School. In 1984, the structure was placed on the National Registry of Historic Places and converted into the Student Museum. The building reopened as the University of Central Florida’s Public History Center in 2012.