Panama City Publishing Company Museum

The Panama City Publishing Company Museum occupies a 1920 brick building on Beck Avenue in Historic St. Andrews that was once home to the area’s early newspapers. According to the Florida Division of Historical Resources, it was the first brick building in St. Andrews. Today the museum tells the story of the newspapers printed here and of the couple who ran them, and it doubles as a starting point for exploring the neighborhood.

The building was constructed by George Mortimer West and his wife, Lillian Carlisle West. George West is credited as the founder of Panama City: he started the Panama City Pilot in 1906 to promote the new town and later acquired the St. Andrews Bay News. The building housed the Panama City Pilot, the St. Andrews Bay News and the Lynn Haven Free Press, along with a commercial printing business. The state notes that under the Wests the papers championed causes including women’s suffrage and prohibition and spoke out against government corruption and the Ku Klux Klan.

After George West’s death, Lillian West kept the papers going until she sold them in 1937. The St. Andrews Bay News was then merged with the Panama City Herald to form the Panama City News-Herald. The City of Panama City later bought and restored the building and opened it as a museum in 2008. It was damaged by Hurricane Michael in 2018, repaired and reopened in 2020.

Inside, visitors see personal and business artifacts of the West family and learn how vintage printing equipment worked. The museum displays more than 70 major historical items, including original printing presses and office furnishings, and rotating gallery exhibits change monthly. Outside, the George West Memorial butterfly garden is part of the Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail. A historic trail map of St. Andrews is available here, and the Waterfront Partnership notes that guided walking tours and audio tours through the Florida Stories app are also offered.

Posted hours are 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday. Hours can change, so check hours before you go. The museum is in the middle of the Beck Avenue strip, next to Hunt’s Oyster Bar and a short walk from Oaks by the Bay Park, where The Market at St. Andrews runs on Saturday mornings.

The museum is a useful first stop for anyone new to St. Andrews. The Historic St. Andrews Waterfront Partnership, which lists the museum on its site, traces the neighborhood from its first European settlement in the late 1820s through its years as a salt-making, fishing and shipping village, its incorporation as a town in 1908 and its later annexation into Panama City. Staff and printed materials here can point visitors toward the rest of the district’s landmarks.