The
Sarah D. & L. Kirk, Jr. McKay Archives
Center Lakeland,
Florida
Project
Background Information
Since the College's founding in 1883,
has pursued the mission of preparing students
to make a positive and consequential impact on society.
This mission can actually be traced to their founding
purpose as a United Methodist seminary. Now as a nationally
ranked private comprehensive college, Florida Southern
has acquired an impressive collection of significant historical
documents, and it also serves as the home of the archives.
In 2004, President Dr. Anne Kerr started working with
Dr. Sarah McKay, who was at that time Chairman of the
Board of Trustees, on a plan to expand the scope of the
Roux Library to provide state-of-the art archive space
for valuable College and Conference materials and to expand
the students’ opportunities to conduct important
historical research and participate in archival projects.
With a leadership gift from Dr. McKay, Trustee and devoted
friend of Florida Southern College, the project can now
become a reality. Dr. Sarah McKay is a revered leader
on the Board of Trustees and she has introduced many positive
enhancements to College operations. This is not surprising,
since she continues a special legacy between the McKay
family and Florida Southern, which began when her beloved
husband Kirk’s father befriended President Ludd
Spivey in the 1930s. Her husband Kirk attended Florida
Southern, as did their daughter Paula Mims and Paula's
husband Tom.
The McKay Archives Center for Florida Southern College
and the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church
signifies in a tangible way the bond between the two organizations
and will allow the rich history of both to be preserved
and shared for future generations. The new two-story facility
will house the College's Frank Lloyd Wright documents,
drawings, photographs, and other memorabilia from Wright's
time at the College. Other collections that are tied closely
with the history of the College or the Methodist Conference
will also find a home here as well as Florida Southern
College's Center for Florida History and the Florida Citrus
Archive.
Concept
Renderings
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thumbnail to display image.
This project will be located
adjacent to several Frank Lloyd Wright-designed structures
on the Florida Southern Campus that received a Campus Heritage
Grant of $195,000 from the Getty Foundation to develop a Historic
Preservation Master Plan for the buildings, structures, and
landscapes designed by Wright. Additional information is available
on the Getty Web site at .
The campus was also recently included on the World Monument
Fund's list of 100 most endangered sites in the world. The
College has the world's largest single-site collection of
Wright's buildings and is the only college campus designed
by Wright.
The World Monuments Fund chooses sites based on historical
or cultural significance, urgency of the threat, and viability
of a sustainable solution. All 12 Wright structures are in
need of restoration, and their inclusion on the Watch List
designates the structures as worthy of preservation. Other
sites on the 2008 list include Peru's Machu Picchu; Shanghai's
modern architecture from the 1920s to the 1940s; areas of
New Orleans already devastated by Hurricane Katrina and threatened
by rising seas; and sites along U.S. Route 66, once the main
thoroughfare to the West. The World Monuments Fund has included
other world renowned sites such as the Taj Mahal, the Great
Wall of China, Ellis Island, and the Panama Canal on past
Watch Lists. .
Guggenheim
Museum Exhibit
The campus is currently
featured as a part of a comprehensive Wright exhibit
"From Within Outward" celebrating the fiftieth
anniversary of the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.
In June, the College
hosted an evening at the musuem to cellebrate
