Depot Museum Exhibits
The Military Room
Uniforms, documents and photographs from Avon Park's service in both World Wars, with a 1940 Zenith radio that still plays Roosevelt's declaration of war.
The military room holds uniforms worn by Avon Park residents in the First and Second World Wars, together with the documents, letters, newspapers and photographs that record the town’s part in both.
Avon Park’s connection to the Second World War ran deeper than most towns its size. The Avon Park Army Air Field, opened in 1942, trained bomber crews and brought thousands of airmen through the community.
A 1940 Zenith radio, donated by the Jacaranda Hotel, has been modified so visitors can hear President Franklin Roosevelt’s address to Congress of 8 December 1941, asking for a declaration of war on Japan — the same broadcast that families in Avon Park gathered around their own radios to hear.