Historical Society home is in the midst of a makeover

HARTINGTON – A Hartington house full of history is getting a modern-day makeover.

The Cedar County Historical Museum, located at 304 W. Franklin St., is in the process of seeing its main building undergo a significant restoration project.

The main museum building – which, along with three other structures, is owned and operated by the Cedar County Historical Society – is a four-story Victorian-style mansion that dates back 122 years to 1900.

Julie Meirose is the chairman of the historical society’s seven-member board of directors.

“While it’s been well-kept by the previous society members, it’s in need of a great deal of renovation in order to keep its glory,” Meirose said of the main museum building.

“We are on a mission to upgrade and renovate so that it will be here for our generation and the next generation and the next,” she said.

The historical society also wants to make the main museum building more accessible to people who use wheelchairs to get around.

In addition, the organization wants to have the structure become a place to host events such as bridal showers and generate enough income to become self-sufficient.

“We started a capital campaign in 2021 that included massive fundraising, lots of grant writing, and partnering with businesses to get us going,” Meirose said.

She explained funding for museums is difficult to obtain.

“We are scrimping and saving and clawing our way to get every cent we can,” Meirose said. “We are using it extremely wisely. We are very mindful of how we spend each penny.”

She noted when people go above and beyond in Cedar County to give to the museum, she described herself as “always exceedingly thankful.”

“The generosity of the community and the businesses that are supporting us – I am constantly humbled by,” Meirose said. “With each person that supports us and each business that supports us and each grant that we receive, we become one step closer to getting to the next phase.”

Work on the first phase of the three-part museum restoration project started near the end of April.

Weather-permitting, the historical society hopes to see the project’s first phase completed by the fall of this year, if not sooner.

“I’m the eternal optimist,” Meirose said. “I’m hoping by the end of August, but I am the eternal optimist.”

The first phase of the project includes installing a new main front porch and a new wheelchair-accessible entrance for the western door of the main museum building.

“The porch that has been put on needs to be finished,” Meirose said. “We’re waiting for some columns that are on back order.”

A new concrete pad has been poured for a smaller porch for the secondary front door on the west side of the main museum building that will be the new wheelchair-accessible entrance.

“We’re putting a porch back on where there was a porch originally,” Meirose said, noting the secondary front door leads into the dining room exhibit.

A new concrete path will be poured from the structure’s main sidewalk approach to a gradually inclining walkway that connects to the smaller porch.

She noted the first phase of the project also will include some outdoor landscaping as well as the restoration of a cast-iron antique light pole.

“There are lots of layers of paint,” Meirose said of the light pole. “It has to be rewired. We have to find some bulbs that match.”

The historical society cannot find a photo of what the light pole and its bulbs originally looked like.

“If anyone has a picture anywhere of what that would’ve looked like originally, I would be interested in seeing it, so that I could match it,” Meirose said.

The project’s second phase will include redoing the electrical wiring inside the main museum building, while the third part will include miscellaneous repairs and cleanup after the rewiring has been completed.

The historical society – a nonprofit, volunteer-driven organization – was created in 1963, with the museum being established a year later.

The main building that was donated to house the museum had been the home of Anton Kaspar “AK” and Clara (Walz) Lammers and their daughters Aurelia, Gertrude, Dolores and Kathryne.

The daughters donated the land, house and carriage barn in 1964 in memory of their parents, giving a home to many historical treasures from Cedar County families.

“I’m amazed by the amount of things and by the quality of things that we have here,” Meirose said. “People don’t realize the gem that we have here for a museum, especially in a small town.”

Laurie Kathol, the historical society’s president, agreed.

“We go to meetings at other museums and nothing compares to ours,” she said. “We get so many compliments.”

Kathol recalled when an 85-year-old man visited the museum in 2020 just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the region.

The man told her he had been to several different museums. He praised the beauty of Hartington – home to about 1,500 people – and the historical society’s museum, which he ranked near the top of his personal list.

In addition to the main museum structure and the carriage barn, there also are an exhibit building and a log cabin located on the historical society property.

Since 2018, the historical society’s board members and officers have worked hard as volunteers to enhance and upgrade not only the main museum building, but two outer structures that house many historical items and exhibits.

“We have made many significant improvements to the museum’s exhibit building where we installed a new ceiling with insulation, new lighting, new wood sheeting and insulation on the walls, added new shelving and repainted the entire interior, and added a high-performance dehumidifier to help preserve the historical items and exhibits,” society treasurer Dan Kathol said.

In 2019, the historical society repaired the carriage barn’s foundation, added new windows and doors, and repainted the entire exterior all in an effort to make the carriage barn more usable for displaying large exhibit items.

“More work needs to be done in the inside and that will happen after we complete the front porch renovation,” Kathol said.

The historical society and its museum rely on a stipend from the Cedar County Board of Commissioners for basic operating needs, as well as donations, fundraisers and grants.

For example, the BNSF Railway Foundation has provided a $1,000 grant for the historical society to hold a Hartington Downtown Historic District ghost walk as a Sept. 24 fundraiser this year.

“We will be doing that hopefully in conjunction with the Cedar County Theatre,” Meirose said. “It is just in the early works. We just received the grant.”

She noted she always encourages people to do something for their community, such as donating to the historical society and its museum.

“Either give of yourself, give of your time, give of your talent or give of your treasure,” Meirose said. “Together, we all need to do something to make our community better. “All the people of Cedar County are excep

“All the people of Cedar County are exceptional at doing that,” she said. “We’re all good at giving. We all know how to give. It’s such a collaborative effort by everyone.”

For more information, people are encouraged to visit the museum’s website, www.cedarcountynehistoricalmuseum.com. The museum is open 2-4 p.m. Sundays May-August and by appointment year-round.