History of 301 and 303 South Washington Ave.

History of 301 and 303 South Washington Ave.. Titusville. The first commercial building on this site, later destroyed in the fire of 1895, was a wood frame structure that housed Brady Bros, Groceries. In 1914, J.E. Easterly built this existing building, #301 for E L. Brady who soon rented it to the Southern Express Company. In 1915, Easterly built the adjacent #303 building also for E.L. Brady, who for many years leased it to Western Union. For much of the 1930’s and 1940's, #301 was the location of Piggly Wiggly grocery store, part of the Winn and Lovett chain that later became Winn Dixie Stores. By the early 1950's Piggly Wiggly and Western Union were gone. Over lime, several different drug stores as well as a variety of other businesses occupied these buildings., The North Brevard Historical Society, founded in 1966, looked forward to having a museum to preserve the history of the area. In October of 1988, Glenn E. Patch,a Titusville businessman, offered the Historical Society the use of these buildings. After a year of renovation by members, the North Brevard Historical Museum was opened in #301 on October 28, 1989, At that time, #303 was used for storage. In 1995, Mr. Patch donated both buildings to the Historical Society. In 1998, the exteriors of the buildings were renovated when the City of Titusville provided a Facade Improvement Loan The Museum was enlarged by opening a wall between the two buildings in 1999 The interior of #303 was renovated to provide a meeting room and much needed display space for donated artifacts and historical materials. , Sponsored by Lewis Pritchard #561 Chapter of Florida State and International Questers