County historical society nears goal for museum
ELYRIA — The Lorain County Historical Society is a step closer to turning a piece of Elyria’s history into its new historical center.
That’s due to a $200,000 award that was included in the Ohio Legislature’s appropriations bill. The award was the highest in the district outside of improvements to Lorain County Community College.
The Historical Society plans to set up the new center in the Horace Starr house at 284 Washington Ave., between Elyria Baptist Church and the Washington Manor apartment complex. It set a goal of $1.6 million for renovations and maintenance, and the state’s money means it has collected $1.4 million.
“It’s a good project,” said state Rep. Matt Lundy, D-Elyria, who championed the cause in Columbus. “I think it will be great for the county to have a well-established museum.”
Already, the Historical Society operates the Hickories on Washington Avenue, which once was the home of industrialist Arthur Garford. The house is preserved and shows visitors the lifestyle of someone who once lived in such a grand home.
This time, the plan is to do something different.
“We want a museum in a house, not another house museum,” said Bill Bird, executive director of the Historical Society.
The move, Bird said, will allow the Hickories to be the focus of Elyria history, and the Starr house to serve as a home for artifacts from throughout Lorain County. The Historical Society was chartered in 1889 as the first such society in Lorain County.
“We preserve pieces of the past so that they can be studied in the future,” Bird said.
Bird said the Starr house will provide some desperately needed space. Storage is maxed out at the Hickories, and sometimes donations have to be rejected because there just isn’t any room for them.
The Starr house even includes a carriage house, which will provide ample storage for larger items, he said.
Bird said the goal of his group isn’t to become the sole keeper of the county’s history — he said individual city and village historical societies always will tell their stories better than a single, county-oriented one can. Instead, the goal of the new museum is to focus on the bigger picture for each town.
“We can pick out what was important about Lorain in relation to the growth of the county,” Bird said, citing that city as an example. “We feel that we would complement the other groups as we tell that story.”
Bird said he’s also contemplating designating one room of the Starr house as a gallery for rotating exhibits from any of the local historical groups, business and industry groups, the Western Reserve Historical Society or private collectors.
The recent state money —coupled with other state grants the Historical Society received — comes with stipulations. The agency must prove it has the money to complete the project, and it must provide the state with a workable, five-year budget plan before the money will be released, Bird said.
With the cost of goods and services rising quickly, Bird acknowledged that the project might run over its initial estimate. That, and a recent break-in and vandalism, has prompted work to get under way at the once glorious house.
“We can show some of the early donors that we’re actually doing something,” Bird said.
False ceilings and unnecessary walls were the first to go. One removed wall revealed a nearly intact staircase that was missing a piece of the banister, its supports, and the newel post — a large post at the bottom of a staircase.
The banister and supports extend farther up the stairs, so there was no worry about recreating them.
But nobody had any clue what the newel post should look like, and Bird was concerned that something entirely new — and not like what had been there — would have to be crafted.
By sheer coincidence, however, a former Elyria couple came to tour the Hickories two days after the staircase was discovered. During the tour, they mentioned that they’d been married in Elyria — in the Starr house, which at that time was owned by the Baptist church. The wife had her picture taken on the stairs, and she provided a copy to the Historical Society that showed members the newel post.
Once the renovations are complete, exhibits and galleries will start moving in — once the right ones are figured out.
“What do we absolutely have to have in order to tell the story we need to tell?” Bird said.
Although nothing is set in stone yet, from future exhibitions to even an opening date, there is much confidence in the project.
“I can’t say enough about how passionate the members of the historical board are,” Lundy said. “They are dedicated to making this house into a museum.”
Contact Alison Dietz at 329-7128 or metro@chroniclet.com.
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Filed by July 3rd, 2008 in Local and State.
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