As Jim Crescitelli bicycles through communities photographing architecture, he sees more than homes and businesses. He sees multiple generations of people whose lives have become intertwined through history.
Crescitelli, on staff with the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation since 2012, is fond of telling youngsters on field trips that he was born in 1955, the 20th century, and is speaking to them in the 21st century. “You 8-year-olds are going to live well into the 22nd century,” he always adds. “Three centuries. That’s a pretty mind-blowing concept for kids to grasp.”
Taking photos while biking began when Crescitelli was growing up in Brooklyn and continued after he moved to Winter Garden to escape the frigid winter of 1978.
A writer and home-organization entrepreneur, he later started a blog about the homes that he saw as he wheeled his way through the erstwhile citrus town in West Orange County. The staff at the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation, where he volunteered, took notice and offered him a job.
Says Crescitelli with a chuckle: “Apparently they thought I was good because they insisted on paying me.” Over the years, he has seen the once-sleepy city become a bustling commercial and cultural hub. “I feel like we’ve been part of that change with the work we do,” he adds.
Crescitelli oversees three full-time employees and a handful of volunteers who manage the venues that operate under the foundation’s umbrella, including the Heritage Museum, the History Research and Education Center and Visitors’ Center, and the Central Florida Railroad Museum.
The Heritage Museum’s upcoming exhibition, Trailblazers: A Journey Through West Orange County’s Scouting History, will contain uniforms, books, photos and other artifacts to document how Scouts have served their community. Trailblazers will be on view from July 1 to September 30.
The Winter Garden Heritage Museum is located at 1 North Main Street, Winter Garden. For more information, call 407.656.3244 or visit wghf.org.
