On June 11, 1996, the Punta Gorda Atlantic Coast Line Depot was donated by Fred Babcock, Babcock Enterprises, Inc. to Old Punta Gorda, Inc. dba Punta Gorda Historical Society. Local historian and descendant of original African American settlers to Punta Gorda, Bernice Russell, insisted on the following condition: the colored and white entrances remain undisturbed, to be used as a teaching tool to educate future generations about the experience of Jim Crow laws that existed from 1877 until the passage of the Civil Rights Law of 1964.