Local News - January 2004

Old jail to become new history museum

No taxpayer money will be used in the conversion

By ALICE SMITH, Staff Writer

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Priceless pieces of Lincoln County’s past will bring new life to the old jail on West Water Street in the future.

Commissioners Monday night tentatively agreed to lease the old jail to the Lincoln County Historical Association to use as the new Lincoln County Museum of History.

For the past 11 years, the museum and the Association have been scattered around the Lincoln Cultural Center. The groups have one office, two collection rooms and one 1,660-square-foot exhibition space in the building.

“We’re strapping the Cultural Center, because we’re constantly needing more space,” Museum Director Jason Harpe said. “The nature of what we do is grow.”

By renovating the newer part of the jail, which was built in the early ‘90s, the museum would have an additional 3,000 square feet of space, Harpe said.

That would be instrumental in being able to house the museum’s growing collection.

Since 1996, the museum has increased the size of its collections by more than 80,000 objects, artifacts, archives and special collections.

Some of the collections include the Harlan E. Boyles collection, Willie Hull papers, Judge Sheldon Roper papers, Clarence E. Leatherman Law Library and the Alda Crowe collection.

These collections and others in the museum contain three-dimensional objects and artifacts and documents, photographs, ephemera and other printed material from the late 1770s to the present, according to a letter from Bill C. Beam, the Association’s president.

With the swelling collection comes a difficulty in storing larger items, Harpe said.

“It takes a big toll on us trying to find (storage),” Harpe said. “There’s potential for large artifacts to go in the jail rather than the Cultural Center.”

The jail contains some history of its own. Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Bill Beam asked whether any of the older jail section would be kept in tact.

Some of the old barred cells in the jail’s older section will be retained, Harpe said.

A major fund-raising effort will have to take place for the Association to take over the jail, board member Harry Huss said. No taxpayer money will be used on the project.

Harpe said the effort will be coordinated with the Historical Association’s 50th anniversary next year. A development committee will begin meeting this year to start planning the project.

And depending on several factors and costs, he hopes to have the museum completed by 2006.

“I’d like to be in the door by the end of the 2006,” Harpe said.

Commissioner Larry Craig said the proximity of the jail to the Historical Coordinator’s house would be advantageous and its use would benefit the entire county.

He also noted that he’s taken several county department representatives to the jail site but no one expressed interest.

“It really has sat there long enough,” Craig said.

Harpe and Huss asked commissioners to consider leasing the jail for the longest period possible. County Attorney Jeff Taylor will draft a lease.

Commission Chairman Jerry Cochrane called the idea “exciting” and thanked the groups for their dedication to Lincoln County history.

“If we don’t do it, it’s going to be gone,” Cochrane said. “I think we owe you a lot for what you’ve done.”

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© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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