- April 22, 2024
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“Everything has passed by these windows,” said Suzanne Heddy, pointing toward the front of the MacDonald House that faces East Granada Boulevard.
Henry Flagler, John D. Rockefeller, Ransom Olds and other figures of city history passed by the house, which was built in 1895.
Heddy spoke passionately about area history on Dec. 15, as she was finishing her last week before retirement as director of the Ormond Beach Historical Society. Her last day in the MacDonald House, which houses the city Welcome Center, was Dec. 17.
While Heddy is known as a historian, she was personally involved with the area’s recent history, from tourism to the arts.
Heddy’s father was one of the last lighthouse keepers at Ponce Inlet Lighthouse, and she also lived as a child near the Daytona Beach Bandshell, another historic landmark.
But this proximity to history did not draw her yet. Her calling was dance.
She danced at Seabreeze High School and later studied ballet at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. She then attended Julliard School in New York for three years where she studied modern dance.
After that, she became a dance choreographer and dancer, working in New York and then San Francisco.
She returned to Daytona Beach in 1979 to help her parents as they grew older and became an adjunct professor for dance at Daytona Beach Community College, as it was known then. She modernized the dance program at the school, taking it from physical education to the arts.
“If I went down on the beach I wore pink and then if I went to Main Street, I wore black.”
SUZANNE HEDDY, on her work with special events
She also continued dance productions, such as jazz dance at Razzles and Christmas programs in the ballroom in the Ormond Hotel. She operated her own dance, photography and film studio with a partner in Daytona Beach.
She became film coordinator for the Daytona Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau and in the late 1980s, was director of the Spring Break Festival Task Force in the event’s heyday. She also served as director of the Bike Week Task Force.
She said she carried three outfits in her car, one for Spring Break, one for Bike Week and one regular business outfit.
“If I went down on the beach I wore pink and then if I went to Main Street, I wore black,” she said.
Her work with the Daytona Beach chamber led to her involvement with the arts community. She developed a cultural map for the area that is still used today. She was appointed to a cultural advisory board for Volusia County and was the director of the cultural alliance, a group of all the cultural organizations.
Creating the map was her segue to her work in area history. She was asked to be the director of the Halifax Historical Society.
“I said I don’t know anything about history but I know everybody in town,” she said.
It was in this position that she became fascinated with area history. She wanted to learn about it but it was in pieces here and there. So, she wrote a timeline, starting in 10,000 B.C., that she still uses today in a Powerpoint presentation for civic groups and others.
Later, she was recruited to the Daytona Beach Museum of Arts and Sciences as grants coordinator where she wrote two grants for the children’s wing and one for the visible storage wing.
In 2009, she because director of the Ormond Beach Historical Society where she found a very interested community.
“The board members here are more engaged and active than any nonprofit I’ve worked with,” she said. There are now 400 members of the society.
She said there is a strong feeling in the community to preserve historic sites, as evidenced in city sponsored forums where citizens were asked to rank what was most important in the city.
Contrary to what some people might think, history is something that is constantly changing, Heddy said, because new information is always coming to light. When News-Journal Center was being constructed, they found the skull of a Timucuan Indian, for example.
More than 2,000 people stop at the MacDonald House every year, and many visitors are amazed to learn about the rich local history.
“It’s more than just the Birthplace of Speed,” Heddy said. “We have a tremendous history.”
History is important for a community, she said, because it brings a “sense of place.”
Heddy has long promoted the “historic corridor,” the area anchored by The Casements, MacDonald House and Ormond Memorial Art Museum. Even though she will no longer be director, her voice will still be heard, because she was recently appointed to the Landmark Preservation Advisory Board for the city.
There will be discussions in 2017 about the MacDonald House, in regard to whether it should be saved or razed, and Heddy still feels passionate about it.
“We cannot lose this house,” she said. “It’s critical.”
“This lady will be sorely missed; she has been the backbone of the OBHS for nine plus years,” said OBHS President Pat Sample in an email. “Suzanne has helped us keep a steady course in our mission to support education and preservation of Florida and Ormond history.”
The new executive director will be Alysha Petschauer, who grew up in Ormond Beach and has been historic preservation officer for the city of DeLand.
