MUSEUM & CULTURE
Constitution Convention Museum State Park
Gulf County · Panhandle & Emerald Coast
The place where Florida's first constitution was written in 1838, in a town that had vanished by 1844.
ABOUT THIS PLACE
St. Joseph was founded in 1835 and by 1837 was the largest town in Florida. It was chosen over Tallahassee to host the territory's first constitutional convention, partly through local promotion and partly because East and Middle Florida were divided over whether Florida was ready for statehood. The delegates met from December 3, 1838, and finished on January 11, 1839, 34 days of work that produced the first of Florida's six constitutions. Four more conventions elsewhere followed before Florida entered the Union in 1845. The town itself did not last: fire, yellow fever and hurricanes emptied it, and by 1844 it was gone. In January 1923, 84 years after the drafting, townspeople put up a monument to the delegates, and it still stands with a view toward St. Joseph Bay. Port St. Joe gave the museum site to the state in 1950 and the building opened in 1956 with Governor LeRoy Collins present, one of the first two museums the Florida Park Service built. The park covers 14 acres. Inside, a reproduction of the convention hall holds life-size animated figures of Robert Reid, William P. Duval, David Y. Levy and Thomas L. Baltzell arguing over the constitution
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