John Gorrie Museum State Park

The museum is small — one main room — but tells one of the more consequential stories in Florida history. John Gorrie was a local physician trying to cool his fever ward and ended up inventing the principle that became modern refrigeration and air conditioning. Without it, half of the Southern US would still be unliveable in summer.

The museum sits across Gorrie Square from his grave and the Greek Revival Trinity Episcopal Church. A small admission fee includes a guided introduction; allow about 45 minutes. The square itself, with its live oaks and 19th-century houses, is the most photographed corner of town.

things to do museum
A story
Gorrie was treating yellow-fever patients in Apalachicola in the 1840s and convinced — correctly — that cold air would slow the disease. He built a machine that compressed and expanded air to chill a room, patented it in 1851, and was promptly ridiculed by the northern ice trade. He died broke in 1855. The Smithsonian's working replica of his original prototype lives here.