Work Continues at Historical Society & Museum
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By Marlana Smith
Construction on the Shelby County Historical Society and Museum continues to progress. Work on the roof is scheduled to begin Wednesday.
Shelby County Historical Society and Museum President Kathleen Wilham, who has been with the historical society for 50 years, hopes the 14,400-square-foot-facility will be completed by the end of the year.
“It’s important to preserve and protect the documents, textiles and records the historical society and museum collects,” said President Kathleen Wilham.
Morton Builders, of Mexico, are contractors of the two-story building located at 200 East Maple Street in Shelbina.
The first floor will contain two exhibit rooms, a library and Roy Neff’s collection. Each room measures 30×60. The Roy Neff collection consists of cemetery, rural schools and church records. A large collection of Civil War records, books and newspaper abstracts from 1861-1865 and several thousand files of genealogy on families of northeast Missouri will also be found in Neff’s collection room.
Guests can tour the second story by elevator or stairs and view an extensive collection of quilts.
The historical society and museum is operated by donations. Four large back-to-back donations were given which allowed the construction for the new facility to begin.
The historical society and museum board approved of Wilham’s design of the “barnlike” facility. Morton Builders drew up the plans.
The current museum located at 107 S. Center is 4,000 square feet. The building was purchased in 2003 and five years later total renovations began. The 2,000-square-foot building to the south holds the library. Total renovations on it began after the purchase in 2017.
