In just a week, Leflore County workers have already made significant progress toward cleaning up Florewood Plantation, which has sat vacant since Florewood State Park closed in 2004.
The grass is freshly cut, the weeds are gone from the driveway and the trees have been trimmed. The next step will be installing a wrought-iron fence around the property to keep vandals and trespassers out, says District 3 Supervisor Anjuan Brown, whose district includes Florewood.
Windows on many of the buildings on the property have been smashed, and their walls are covered in graffiti.
Brown is leading the county’s efforts to reopen the park to the public. The county took out a 25-year lease on the property in 2007 for $10.
Brown said he’s looking to form a committee to explore different ways to use the park. He suggested it would be great for hosting events such as birthday parties, weddings, concerts and family reunions. There are already grills, picnic tables and RV hookups at the site. He’d also like to find money to expand the pond and stock it with fish.
“It’s going to be a tremendous place to go in Leflore County once we get finished with it,” Brown said.
Brown said he’s already fielded calls from people interested in using the park. If Florewood became a popular place for events, that could help cover the upkeep expenses, he said.
“This can be rented out, so the county can hopefully get some proceeds for that,” he said.
Brown said the most important thing is that the reopened park serve everyone.
“I want to do this to accommodate everybody — not just the rich, not just the poor,” Brown said. “I want the whole community to be able to come out and enjoy what Florewood Plantation has to offer.”
The park was built in the mid-1970s to serve as a living history museum of an 1850s Delta cotton plantation.
Charles Bowman of Greenwood, who was the park’s architect, said the park started as the dream of the late Otis Allen, the then-superintendent of Leflore County Schools. The late Charles Deaton, who was then a state representative, pushed a bill through the Legislature to fund the park.
Bowman traveled the country to examine other living history parks and worked with a college history professor in Georgia to identify and copy the designs of period buildings for Florewood.
Greenwood resident Patricia Evans, now 81, gave tours of the park dressed in period attire and was a member of the Florewood Society.
“It was very active for a long time,” Evans said.
The park once included farm animals, a working period kitchen and a gift shop that sold preserves and candles made at the site.
“I understand it’s in a bad state of disrepair now,” Evans said. “I hate to hear that. It was so lovely back then.”
Cuts to state funding for the park and declining attendance led the state to shutter Florewood in 2004.
“I was very disappointed when they closed it down,” said Bowman. “I understand why they did, but it was very disappointing.”
Although there are no immediate plans to bring the living history exhibits back to the park, Brown said he hoped to save some of the buildings and put the land to good use.
“It’s just a beautiful place,” Brown said. “This place has a lot of potential.”
