The Anna Maria Island Historical Society operates out of the Belle Haven Cottage, a small early-20th-century structure that has a more dramatic biography than most buildings. The cottage was originally a private home on the waterfront, fell into Tampa Bay when the shoreline eroded beneath it, and was eventually salvaged and restored by local preservationists.
The museum inside is compact — just a few rooms — but holds a good collection of photographs, maps, and artefacts documenting the island's history from its first settlement in the 1890s through the building boom of the 1920s and the quieter decades that followed. It is the best place to understand how the island developed and why it looks so different from the rest of the Florida Gulf coast. Admission is free, and the staff are exceptionally knowledgeable.