Historical expansion

Historically, it’s time to grow again.

Jay County Historical Society’s board of directors this month voted unanimously to pursue the purchase of property at 828 E. Water St. to help fulfill its need for more space.

The board had been discussing the need for more space for about a year, said co-president Rob Weaver. It had talked about the possibility of constructing a storage building on its property, but there were concerns about being able to safely store items in a structure without temperature and humidity controls.

So, when the property at the northwest corner of Water and Pierce streets became available, the board saw an opportunity.

“It’s a structure that’s already completed, where it was going to take us quite a bit of time to get the storage building constructed,” said Weaver, who serves as co-president of the historical society along with Phil Rager. “It just made more sense to go that direction.”

The board agreed to a purchase price of $97,000 and is currently going through the process of acquiring the property, which includes the 1,100-square-foot house and two city lots.

The historical society already owns its museum site at 903 E. Main St. as well as the property at 841 E. Main St. — the opposite corner of the intersection of Pierce and Main streets. The property to be purchased sits south of the 841 E. Main St. site.

“It would provide us with more parking space closer to the museum for events such as the Heritage Festival, as well as providing storage in the home itself,” said Weaver. 

The historical society’s rapid growth in the last decade — it merged with Jay County Genealogy Society eight years ago — has created the need for more space just a few years after it constructed an addition to Jay County Historical Museum. That 3,500-foot, $180,000 expansion project was completed in 2015, increasing the museum’s size to 13,500 square feet. It was funded in part by a $50,000 grant from The Portland Foundation.

The goal then was to not only provide more storage space for the museum’s more than 10,000 artifacts but also to allow for important exhibits — a canvas from an aircraft created by the county’s first aviator, for example — to be on display year round.

“The society is getting such a good reputation of taking care of artifacts and being a good location to donate artifacts,” said Weaver. “The more success we have, the more artifacts we’re getting. So it’s really come to the point now where we actually have to turn down some donations because we just don’t have the room. …

“For the growth of the society, in the long run, we needed to do something.”

The historical society has applied for a grant from The Portland Foundation that would help fund the purchase of the property and will also be accepting donations, which can be sent to 903 E. Main St., Portland, IN 47371.