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Festival To Benefit Bing House

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By GEORGE H. NEWMAN

gnewman@tampatrib.com

Published: November 5, 2008

PLANT CITY - Art exhibits, auctions, food, entertainment, a veterans' presentation and fun activities for children and adults are on tap Saturday at Samuel W. Cooper Park to benefit restoration of a rooming house listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The art festival fundraiser for the Bing Boarding House restoration will be from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission is free.

Organizers hope to make the festival an annual event. It is being sponsored by the Bing House Board of Governors. Proceeds will help finance interior renovations at the former boardinghouse at 205 S. Allen St.

The building, once the residence and business of Janie Bing, has undergone about $330,000 worth of restorations during the past three years with proceeds from federal, state and county grants, as well as local contributions. It served as a boardinghouse or hotel for minorities visiting Plant City during the period of segregation.

The festival will feature fine art vendors, music and storytelling sessions on the south side of the park's lake. Vendors will line the sidewalk that circles the lake from Lake to Allen streets.

Historians, authors, painters, puppeteers, dancers, school bands and musicians will line the lakefront's grassy areas.

Planned renovations on the Bing Boarding House include electrical work, walls, flooring, carpeting and furnishings. Once fully restored, the structure will become a historic museum, home to the Improvement League of Plant City and residence of James Washington, a Bing family descendant and former owner of the house.

Reporter George H. Newman can be reached at (813) 865-4451.

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