Maitland A&H Summer Blog Entry 9

 This week has been my first time back to Maitland since my devastating time dealing with Covid. It has been an honor to be back, as it means I finally have finished scanning the first Waterhouse box. It was the same box I had been working on since my first time at Maitland A&H. It has been a journey working at Maitland. I had learned so much from one box alone about one of Maitland's founding families. I also learned a decent about the town of Maitland as the family kept outstanding records about Maitland.

I learned that Maitland was a booming town in Central Florida during the late 19th century. Many of the residents who came to Maitland were not originally from Florida. The Waterhouses came from New York and New Jersey. With them coming from the North, they brought Northern traditions to Maitland. One of the essential beliefs they brought was respecting the newly freed Black community. The Black community in Maitland was one of the first to set up their community, thanks to the White community helping them and protecting them from outsiders who wanted to stop them. Unlike the rest of Central Florida at the time, such as Kissimmee and Orlando, who pushed away their black community, Maitland came to them with open arms and allowed them to take part in government roles.

With this finally being the week that I completed the first Waterhouse box, I took pictures of what I had to work with for weeks, and I was also able to take part in a tour of the Waterhouse residence.

The first photo is of the infamous equipment I had to work with a slow laptop and a slow scanner. In this photo, you can see a stack of Photos I was scanning on the bottom left of the table. To the right of that is the ruler, a form that I filled out to record keep what is in the box. It ended up being 15 pages. Next to that is a stack of folders that I had taken out of the box. These folders are filled with a mixture of paper, photos, or both. The final thing on the far right is the box I was working on that you can see is also filled with folders which are also packed.

These photos show the archival room. The room is filled with shelves that are each packed with archival boxes. This room is only one of three rooms that Maitland has for archival purposes. Knowing how much time I was able to work on one box and how long it took me to finish, it would take years for the process to complete with all the boxes in the room.

 

These final photos are of the Waterhouse residence. The house was completed in 1883 By the father of the house William Waterhouse. Later additions would be added to the home, such as running water and electricity. The first photo shows the front of the house. Behind the house is an addition where the daughter Stella Waterhouse, the town Librarian, would live. What is not in the photo but is to the left of the house is Lake Lilly.  

This photo is of the Living Room of the house. This room is where most of the family was able to spend time together.

The bedroom is Charles Waterhouse's. He would come down when his father William needed assistance. What was surprising was how small Charles's bed was compared to modern beds. In the house, there are three other bedrooms. One room was for Charles' sister Stella until she moved out, and the last bedroom was the master bedroom.

The rest of the house was packed with history yet small. It is highly suggested to be visited.