Delray Beach's Spady Museum founder Vera Farrington was a force of nature
I have only known two women, now deceased, who were forces of nature. One was my mother, Mrs. Mary Belle Murray, who raised six children and was the neighborhood organizer. Sick, shut-in, hungry? Our house was Grand Central Station for neighbors too sick to fend for themselves. We provided food, laundry services, and companionship to those in need. Our father quietly shook his head and delivered the assigned meals. I can still hear the sound of her slippers in the Murray house. I miss her voice, her care, her love, and her home cooking. She taught me to live life without limits.
The other is Mrs. Vera Farrington, the founder of the Spady Cultural Heritage Museum in Delray Beach. Although Mother's Day has passed, it marks my first without her. To call her a force of nature does her inadequate justice. She breathed an entire museum and restored the significance of a historic part of the city into existence.
Spady Museum a cultural fixture: Finding Black history in Palm Beach County is daunting, but rewarding
After her retirement from the Palm Beach County Schools, Mrs. Farrington volunteered at the Delray Beach Historic Society in the 1990s. She noticed the archives did not include the history of the earliest settlers after the Native Americans. Black settlers who migrated from Georgia and the Bahamas into the city were absent from the archival history. It didn't take long for her to begin working to correct that error.
Mrs. Farrington recognized the historic significance of the West Atlantic Avenue area, specifically the old 5th Avenue business district and the homes along Second Street. She urged city and Community Redevelopment Agency officials to canvass the area, researching the historic homes and structures to give the West Settlers community a historic designation. That work led to neighborhood improvements, like resurfacing streets, alleys and ultimately to rehabbing the home of Dr. Solomon Spady, an African American teacher and principal who came to the area in 1922 on the recommendation of the noted agricultural scientist and educator, Dr. George Washington Carver.
The Spady dwelling stood in disrepair for many years. Mrs. Farrington had a dream of turning it into a museum and neighborhood cultural center, and she made it a reality. The Spady Cultural Heritage Museum opened in 2001. I admired her so much. She was quiet, and you could see she was serious. I am so glad that she received her accolades before she died earlier this year.
As you remember your own mothers, as I do, and people like Mrs. Farrington, you realize how so many people in our lives shape us. My list is long in Delray Beach — Mrs. Hattie Ruth Pompey, Mrs. Addie Hudson, Mrs. Libby Wesley, and Mrs. Nadine Hart. My life was made so much better because of them. They taught me to be fearless. Rest well in heaven, all of you. We will carry on your legacies as fearless as you were.
Rosalind L. Murray was Delray Beach CRA's manager for West Atlantic Ave., which included the West Settlers Historic District.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Spady Museum founder, an amazing woman and a force of nature | Opinion
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