Springfield Preservation and Revitalization (SPAR) recently announced a Speaker Series for 2020. Topics include streetcars, Ottis Toole, resiliency in historic neighborhoods, and growing your own food.
On February 20, Robert W. Mann will take attendees "back to a time when Jacksonville once had the largest streetcar system in Florida and [will chronicle] the story behind Florida's bygone streetcar epoch and the dramatic history of city builders, financiers, organized labor, civil rights, fire, fever, nabobs, and railway men". The free event will be held at the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum. Doors will open at 5:30pm, and the program will be from 6-7pm. Learn more and check for event updates here.
On April 16, Tim Gilmore will present on Ottis Toole, who "grew up in Springfield in the 1960s and 70s and loved to set old houses on fire, but it's quite possible that everything else you've heard about Ottis Toole is wrong. So who was Ottis Toole really? How did he conform to what people wanted him to be? And what does what we believe about him say instead about us?" This free event will also be held at the Karpeles Mansucript Library Museum, and will run from 6-7pm. Read more about the event and check for event updates here.
June 18 will be "Building Resiliency in Historic Neighborhoods Panel" and October 15 will be "Growing Your Own Food/Urban Farming Panel". More details will be announced on the SPAR website.
