Museum makeover

HARTINGTON — The Cedar County Historical Museum has recently completed a make-over to the front of the main museum house.

The project has taken two years to complete, but it's well worth it, Historical Society members say.

The major improvements include a new front and side porch, including a new floor, support columns and railing. For those visitors to the museum who benefit from a handicap entry, a new handicap access that meets state requirements also has been installed. This includes a ramp with railings leading to a new and wider access door on the front west side of the museum.

Also included in the museum makeover is a new lighted sign out front, renovation and illumination of the vintage walkway light to light up the front and new sidewalks leading to the front porch steps and the handicap ramp on the west side of the house.

The landscaping in front of the entire museum includes rock gardens with flowers, grasses and bushes that have been added to enhance the museum front, giving it an inviting curb appeal.

All of the outside improvements began as the first phase of a multi-phase project that includes the upgrading of the electrical components throughout the house and those that supply power to the adjacent exhibit building and carriage barn. This includes re-wiring the entire main house.

A 200-amp service has been added that will service all of the three buildings. The previous service, likely placed in 1900, was as much a relic as the antiques it was fostering, with only 100amp service.

“Updating the entire electrical grid in the main house has been on our must list of improvements and we are off to a good start in bringing things up to code. Rewiring the entire main house form the original knob and wire to current code will take a few years to complete. It will be a real challenge, time-consuming and expensive, and it will progress as the financial resources become available,” said Museum Board Chairman Julie Meirose.

So far, the funding for all of the improvements has come from multiple sources. Some of the major donors wish to remain anonymous.

Others include the Cedar County commissioners, and donations from private individuals and businesses, including Grossenburg Implement and the Bank of Hartington.

A major source of funding has come from the Hartington Community Foundation, and a Cedar County Tourism grant.

Some of the contractors on the project discounted their labor and materials, including Menford Electric, Fordyce; Krie Construction, Coleridge; Wiechelman Repair, Hartington; and X-Pert Lawn & Landscaping, Hartington, and others have pledged future work as the project progresses.

Lloyd Sudbeck has volunteered a number of hours in helping to clean and restore the inside of the log cabin that sits behind the museum.

His great-uncle built the log cabin in 1869 on the farm place where Martin Sudbeck currently lives — a mile west of Bow Valley.

The log cabin was moved from that location to the Cedar County Historical Museum grounds in 1982. Very little work had been put forth on the cabin because of other museum priorities and thus it has not been open for any tours.

“We are working on the inside of the log cabin and furnishing it with items that were common at the time the cabin was inhabited so visitors to the museum can now tour the inside of the cabin beginning next year,” Lloyd Sudbeck said.

“We are grateful for all the donations of money, labor, grants and the continued support from the county to allow us to make all these improvements to the museum and to help meet the ongoing expenses to keep the museum open. The Museum Board and officers as well as a number of volunteers have all contributed much time and work in the upgrades to the museum and the ongoing improvements. We have a great Cedar County Historical Museum and we continue to make it even better with all the improvements that have been made over the past few years and will continue to be made,” said Museum President Laurie Kathol.

The Cedar County Historical Museum is considered to be one of the best county historical museums in Nebraska, strictly based on comments from a number of various historical museum boards around the state, who have visited the Hartington museum and have been impressed.

The museum house and the adjacent exhibit building contain a very organized display of unique items from the past.

“The local schools have field days at the museum on a regular basis through the school year and the students are always intrigued in seeing the many items from the past on display,” Kathol said.

Cedar County Historical Society board members who serve the museum are: Chairman Julie Meirose and board members Darrell Kathol and Jennifer Sage.

The officers include President Laurie Kathol, Vice President Alice Pommer, Secretary Elaine Arens and Treasurer Dan Kathol.