Tarpon Springs is a community with an absorbing passion - sponges. In 1905 Mediterranean Greeks settled hear to make a living plucking the creatures from the sea.

A visit to Sponge-O-Rama gives you a glimpse into this history in decrepit dioramas. Your tour begins with a short movie and quickly begins to fall apart as you enter the museum hall.

Mannequins have moth eaten cloths. Displays have piles of sawdust from rotted sponges. Push buttons, which at one time may have clued you in as to what was going on, are broken. The plastic partitions are almost too filthy to see through. Nothing could shed a positive light on this experience as half the display bulbs were broken. One even lay in pieces at the bottom of a case.

Greek music blares from a speaker mounted on the roof of the building. It is interrupted every ten minuets by a woman telling when the next movie starts in the "west wing". As if you need a map to navigate this fishing hut.

It's a good thing it's free. If not, I'm sure it would have gone under many moons ago. I really don't know what keeps it afloat. Perhaps the ten buck loofas in the gift shop.

Sponge-O-Rama
510 Dodecanese Blvd
Off Alt. 19
Tarpon Springs, FL