BY PAIGE MCBRIDE
The Heritage Day Festival, held on Saturday, February 22, 2025, celebrated 182 years since the founding of Hernando County. The event took place at the Brooksville Train Depot Museum located at 70 Russel Street in downtown Brooksville. Mayor of Brooksville, Christa G. Tanner, signed a proclamation honoring February 22, 2025, as Hernando Heritage Day.
Attendees included military Veterans, families, community organizations and public officials. Vendors sold books, art, trinkets, pecans and delectable pies. Contestants got the opportunity to compete for best pie or best period costume in two different competitions as spectators watched the events and learned a little about the history of Brooksville and Hernando County’s heritage.
Demonstrators included Members of The Sons of the American Revolution, Withlacoochee Chapter, who set up a replica of George Washington’s war tent.
Hernando County was established on February 27, 1843 and the railroad first arrived in 1885. The land where the Train Depot now safely resides was purchased by the Hernando Historical Museum Association in 1986 and the actual Train Depot building was restored in 1991. After its purchase, the 1885 Train Depot Museum opened to the public in 1992. The Train Depot houses a surplus of historical American-made tools, ironworks, historical papers and court documents, books, typewriters, horse saddles, the city’s first fire truck, and model trains and stations that continue to tell the history of Brooksville.
Former City of Brooksville Mayor Blake Bell and County Commissioner John Allocco served as judges for the pie contest. The lucky first-place winner of the pie contest was Paola B., who had baked her famous award-winning “Paola Spiced Cherry Pie.”
