ORLANDO, Fla. — During Black History Month, one local volunteer is making sure the stories of west Winter Park’s Black community are never forgotten.

For more than two decades, Fairolyn Livingston has helped preserve generations of memories contained in photos and artifacts at the Hannibal Square Heritage Center Museum — a free space where neighbors, old and new, can connect with the area’s rich past.

What You Need To Know

Museum volunteer Fairolyn Livingston has been working for decades to preserve Black history through photos, artifacts and personal stories at the Hannibal Square Heritage Center Museum
Livingston, a lifelong west Winter Park resident, has been volunteering for more than 20 years to help revive and preserve the Hannibal Square Heritage Center Museum
Volunteers work tirelessly to educate people ensuring that the community’s legacy is remembered, not erased

Livingston knows the museum like home — because it practically is.

“I was born only a block away from here,” she said. “I spent all of my childhood, my teenage years, my young adult life here.”

She said growing up in west Winter Park wasn’t defined by struggle alone, but by strength and connection.

“We didn’t live in the kitchen of despair — our community was vibrant,” Livingston said. “I don’t remember thinking about it as segregation. It was my world.”

That world is now carefully documented inside the museum’s walls — from family photographs to oral histories — many of which Livingston helped research and organize herself.

Her passion is driven by one concern: that new residents may not fully understand the neighborhood’s roots.

“I’m so passionate about this collection and this community,” she said. “My only disappointment is the new residents — I only wish they knew and understood the history of this community.”

Museum visitors say her work makes a difference.

“It is absolutely amazing (that) there are people here that are preserving stories,” said one patron. “It’s really important to see that being showcased.”

Staff members say Livingston has led much of the research behind the exhibits, helping hundreds of guests immerse themselves in local Black history each year.

For Livingston, the mission is simple: protect the past so it can inspire the future.

“There may be institutional situations where they can erase or minimize our history,” she said. “This is still here — and that’s what I’m thankful for.”