Plant City Photo Archives, Inc. was founded in 2000 when Ed Verner acquired the collection of the late photographer, Bill Friend. Verner was a two-term President of the East Hillsborough Historical Society. He asked Gil Gott, who also had served on the Historical Society’s Board of Directors, and as Museum Chairman, to serve as the Executive Director.

The Photo Archives was established as a 501 (c) (3) non-profit corporation dedicated to the preservation of the community’s heritage through the collection and the preservation of the community’s historical photographs, and the stories enveloping those photos.

From that evolved the mission, not only to collect and preserve the photographic history of the community, but to develop the stories around the photos, and to make all this available to the public at large. This required a massive digitization process, which is continuing – and will probably be continuing through the years – and which has resulted in scanning and digitizing over 25,000 photos, some of which are exhibited in our gallery.

To date, we have placed our exhibits in a number of public places, including bank lobbies, the Greater Plant City Chamber of Commerce, various restaurants, several churches, the MLK Recreation Center, the Bruton Memorial Library, the Florida Strawberry Festival, South Florida Baptist Hospital, and Hillsborough Community College.

The Photo Archives began in borrowed quarters in the Lee Building, thanks to Verner Investments, and hosted tours for Boy Scouts and Strawberry Queen Contestants, WWII veterans, and interested citizens. In our Outreach program, volunteers, such as Judy Glorioso, have taken our photos to nursing homes, where the elderly were able to renew memories.

In 2002, the Photo Archives established a working relationship with FOCUS Magazine, and we have contributed monthly articles since. We have also contributed a number of articles to In The Field magazine. Through these articles we try to develop a greater appreciation of the history of the greater Plant City and the West Central Florida community.