Thank You Miss Sadie

She was just a young girl of seventeen when she arrived in Largo with her family in 1925 but over the next seventy years Sadie Crawford Johnson spent a good portion of her time chronicling the lives and legends of her adopted hometown and championing for its preservation.

Sadie was ready to go to work when she got to Florida. The nation was at the brink of the Great Depression and many folks in the Largo area - as in other parts of the country – were losing their jobs. Sadie, however, had managed to secure a job with Guarantee Title and Trust Company in Clearwater. One day in 1930, one of her customers walked into the bank and offered her a job. That man was Senator John S. Taylor, owner of the Taylor citrus packing house. It was Mr. Taylor who bestowed the name “Miss Sadie” upon her and continued to call her that even after she married and became Mrs. George “Jack” Johnson.

In the mid-1940s, Sadie got a job as Largo’s town clerk and soon became Largo’s undisputed town historian. Her voice was heard on more than one occasion over the next decade or so as efforts were made to preserve the Largo’s history and its historic landmarks. In the early 1960s, the Ulmer manse and Kingsbury house (the site of Largo’s first school and Town Hall) were demolished and the Atlantic Coastline Railroad depot and the Ulmer Arcade were next in line. The razing of these downtown landmarks raised public awareness and brought preservation to the forefront as a serious issue.

On October 17, 1973 things began to change. It was on that date that the Largo Area Historical Society was granted a charter by the State of Florida. With twenty-one founding members and under the leadership of “Miss Sadie” as its first President, the society began its mission to provide historical education, promote the research and preservation of historical places of interest, historical documents, and historical items, and to encourage the appreciation and understanding of local history.

The first project on the Society’s “save” list was the restoration of the town’s first bank, The Bank of Largo. Despite numerous volunteers’ hours spent on its renovation, the building was ruled structurally unsound and was demolished in July 1975. Not to be discouraged, Sadie and other dedicated Society members set about gathering stories and researching local history for publication of the Society’s history book, “Largo, … then ‘til”. No sooner was the ink dry and copies began appearing on bookshelves, that Society members continued their quest to save Largo’s history.

The Society was instrumental in the preservation of the Lowe Barn which is restored and sits amongst the pines and palmettos of Heritage Village. Homes of some of Largo’s pioneering families – the McMullen’s, Walsingham, and Lowe – have survived and are also at Heritage Village. We managed to save some of the City’s 1915 Ragland and Augusta brick streets as well; however, our most successful preservation effort is the historic Feed Store!

Since at least 1902, there was a feed store near the railroad in Largo serving the needs of local cattle ranchers, and citrus and produce growers, who were primary to the economy of the area. In 1910, when Largo was an incorporated town with a population of 281, John Gainey built the historic Feed Store building of rusticated block and joists of heart of pine on a site at 300 Church Street (now West Bay Drive). With plans to widen Bay Drive by the Florida Department of Transportation some eighty years later however, the Feed Store was in jeopardy.

In 1988, the Society negotiated an agreement with the city to move the Feed Store to a quarter acre plot adjacent to Mr. Taylor’s packing house to be used as a historic museum. In 1992, at a cost to the Society of $49,000.00, it was moved from its location on Bay Drive to its permanent site in Largo Central Park.

The Society has come a long way since our humble beginnings some forty years ago. True, we’ve lost the train depot, the Arcade, the Bank, Mr. Taylor’s packing house, and most recently the Hotel Largo, to progress. The Feed Store, however, has survived and now houses our historic displays. Our storage area, however, is overflowing with memorabilia and we have no additional area available to display them.

In addition to the Feed Store, there are a few historical sites which still remain in our city sitting amongst townhouses and beside the concrete highways which deserve to be saved and restored for the sake of posterity. With that in mind, we will continue on our mission to preserve Largo’s history. As we journey into the 21st century, we’ve partnered with the Pinellas Genealogy Society and the Largo Public Library with a common goal of promoting research and preservation of not only our ancestral family history but local history as well.

“Miss Sadie” passed away on August 31, 1998. It was most fitting her memorial service was held in the historic Feed Store, a landmark she fought so hard to save. The Society is hopeful that the City fathers will see the need to preserve what history we still have and pass the Feed Store on to us as a historic museum to showcase Largo’s rich history. It would make Sadie’s preservation efforts all worthwhile.

Source: Material for this article was taken from the Society’s history books,
“Largo, ….then ‘til” and “From Pines and Palmettos”