Sebastian Area Historical Museum

The Sebastian Area Historical Museum is a free, volunteer-run local history museum in the old 1927 Sebastian school on Main Street, operated by the Sebastian Area Historical Society, Inc.

The museum sits at 1235 Main Street, in the building the Society calls the 1927 Historic Sebastian Public School, and its exhibits run from the Ais Indians and Pelican Island to quilts, fishing, agriculture, military service, transportation and early shops and trades, with a book shop and research facilities. A first-floor room was added recently to show the Society's historical maps (Sebastian Area Historical Museum).

It is a community collection in the plainest sense. Every object in the Sebastian museum was acquired by donation from the local public, and the Society still invites gifts of historic objects, photographs, maps and papers (Collections and Exhibits). The Society is entirely supported by volunteers, volunteer activities and donations (Sebastian Area Historical Society membership).

The Sebastian Area Historical Museum is open Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., admission is free, and visits at other times can be arranged by calling (772) 581-1380.

The Society's hours page describes the building as the historic Sebastian Elementary School, just minutes from the Sebastian waterfront, and welcomes school groups and social and civic clubs by arrangement (Hours and Location). Reference materials in the office may be used by appointment.

Membership pays for the Main Street museum. Individual levels run from $15 for a member and $25 for a family to $250 or more for a benefactor, corporate levels run from $25 to $1,000, and members receive the quarterly SAHSI newsletter; patrons and benefactors are listed on a plaque in the museum (membership page). Last verified: October 11, 2026, on the Sebastian Area Historical Society website.

The Sebastian museum is laid out room by room, from a Main Room of Ais relics, shipwreck artifacts and Pelican Island history to rooms on pioneer homes, farming and fishing, and early travel along the Indian River.

The Society lists the rooms in order. The Main Room holds archaeology, Ais Indian relics, shipwreck artifacts, Pelican Island history, photographs, maps and pioneer fashion, with wall screens showing early photographs. The Doris Jorgensen Family Room shows the pioneer home: handmade quilts, tablecloths, doilies, clothing, kitchen utensils, jewelry and clocks. An attic room holds early objects of every kind. The Farming, Fishing and Military Room shows the tools of fishermen, farmers and military men, and the Boats, Cars, Trains and Planes Room covers pioneer travel (Collections and Exhibits).

Treasure has a corner here too. Vero News reported that the Main Room's large case of ceramic jars, porcelain and reproduction silver coins from Spanish shipwrecks was donated by Mel Fisher's Treasures in Sebastian, and that the travel room covers steamboats on the Indian River and the railway that shipped citrus and seafood north (Vero News). The gift shop sells the Society's own books, including Tales of Sebastian and Even More Tales of Sebastian at $20 each and Pioneering Sebastian and Roseland at $25 (Gift Shop).

The Sebastian Area Historical Museum occupies the old Sebastian school on the City Hall campus, a Mission and Spanish Revival building listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001 as the Sebastian Grammar and Junior High School.

The National Park Service record for the Sebastian Grammar and Junior High School carries National Register Information System ID 01000889 and a publication date of 8/17/2001. It lists the style as Mission/Spanish Revival, names William Wesley Hatcher among the architects, gives architecture and social history as the areas of significance, and gives the address as 1225 Main St., the Sebastian City Hall address (National Park Service, NPGallery).

The date depends on the source. The Society and its museum use 1927 for the building, while the National Register record lists 1928 as the significant year. Vero News described the museum in 2010 as sitting in the Sebastian City Hall Complex (Vero News, April 22, 2010). The City of Sebastian's Touch and Tour event was held on the Sebastian City Hall campus on September 12, 2026 (City of Sebastian Signature Events), the same Saturday the Society had scheduled its Family Fun Day at the museum with the City and the Sebastian River Art Club.

The Sebastian Area Historical Society grew out of a 1984 effort to save the old FEC railroad station in Sebastian, incorporated on May 31, 1985, and opened its first museum in 1998 before moving into the old school in 2007.

Vero News recounted the start in 2010. Area residents set out in 1984 to save the old FEC Sebastian Railroad Station, and from that effort came a local group to protect buildings and important papers and photographs. It was incorporated on May 31, 1985 as the Sebastian River Area Historical Society, and the word River was dropped in 1993 to reflect the wider community (Vero News).

The Society's own history page fills in the rest. Members interviewed long-time residents and published Tales of Sebastian in 1990, More Tales of Sebastian in 1992 and Even More Tales of Sebastian in 2011. By 1998 they had a museum in the building at U.S. Highway 1 and 700 Main Street, which had housed the library from 1983 to 1998 and is now the Chamber of Commerce office. Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne damaged that museum and part of the collection in 2004, closing it until 2007. Volunteers then carried the collection in private vehicles to the renovated school, and the new museum held its grand opening on November 27, 2007 (Sebastian Area Historical Society history).

The Sebastian Area Historical Society runs a free evening lecture series at the North Indian River County Library, with five talks scheduled from October 21, 2026 to March 17, 2027 at 6 p.m.

The 2026 to 2027 schedule opens on October 21, 2026 with a history of the Sebastian Inlet presented by the Sebastian Inlet District, followed by a talk on gopher tortoises on November 18, 2026, a history of the courts and judges of Indian River County from 1513 to 1999 on January 20, 2027, Earl's Hideaway on February 17, 2027, and the treasure history of the Mel Fisher family on March 17, 2027. The talks are held at the library at 1001 Sebastian Blvd., admission is free, and the Society notes they are not sponsored by the library (Meetings and Presentations).

Meetings follow a fixed rhythm. The annual meeting is the first Monday of October at 4:30 p.m. at the Sebastian River Art Club, 1245 Main Street, a short walk along Main Street, and regular monthly meetings fall on the first Monday of each month, moving to the second Monday when the first is a holiday (Sebastian Area Historical Society).