Cortland residents banding together, to save museum building

BEATRICE – Cortland residents were honored Sunday for helping save a building and preserve the community’s history. Generous donations by residents, organizations and businesses in the northern Gage County town of 550…. have helped save the Cortland Village Museum from being auctioned off.

The building at 340 West Fourth… was established and maintained for 26 years by Norval and Lila Papke. But when they passed away, plans to donate it to the Cortland Community had not been legally finalized.

That’s when a group of citizens banded together, to form the Save the Cortland Museum group….aimed at preserving the town’s oldest building that dates back to 1884. Sheila Day is President and Donelle Moormeier is the Secretary of the Cortland Museum Board.

(Day)..."We were at the auction at the end of August and Donelle and I went there because they were selling a lot of the stuff from the Papke's. We were talking that maybe we need to buy some stuff because we noticed there was quite a bit of museum stuff there. And then, I texted her that night and said, we need to do something about the museum..and so, that's how it all started...(Donelle).."we just started talking at the auction and said, somebody's got to save this because they were going to put it on the auction block."

From last August to November, $23,000 in donations were received and the group obtained a local bank loan to help in purchasing the building.
The committee is under the umbrella of the Cortland Improvement Association….which is seeking non-profit status….a key to tapping grant support.
As for building’s condition, Day says it’s not bad.

"Structurally, it's in very good condition. Before we even talked about buying it, I had my brother in law go in there. He checked the foundation, the roof...he went through the whole thing. Then he said, good luck. It was because it was just so full of stuff. The basement was added in 1940...they jacked the house up and put the basement under...so, the basement is in unreal condition....so, we just have some work."

Moormeier said there’s been an outpouring of support from the community for preservation of the museum.  "We've had a lot of good response from the community and from those who have left the community but grew up, here. First off, everybody was afraid that if it was going to go on the auction block, what was going to happen to it. Was it going to be bulldozed down, or something like that. I think between us two, we were just passionate enough about it anyway, but with people commenting about it and people helping and donating, that just fueled our passion even more."

 
The hope was to raise at least five-thousand dollars from Sunday’s silent auction ….which included some items from the museum…and some donated goods. The local museum is packed with history.

"We have just found so much historical stuff upstairs, which was the Rowe family. which had made that into their home. They had businesses upstairs. So, we had found a lot of items from their businesses and their personal belongings. Emma lived there...the daughter...the family bought it in 1907 and she lived there until she passed away in 1994. So there was a lot of history and the upstairs was pretty much packed..(Donelle).."pretty much floor-to-ceiling, every room"..(Day)..."and we're sorting through it"..(Donelle).."it's going to be a long process...(Day)..."but we've got so much stuff now we can do some new displays...new businesses and new displays on the family...so we're really looking forward to that because she was a pretty amazing lady....they had a lot of businesses there and she was a postmaster...she was a photographer."

The goal is to have a Museum grand re-opening by July….the 20th anniversary of when it originally opened. It would then be open to the public on a limited basis, operated by volunteers. The museum board hopes to establish a Veteran’s Memorial along the east side of the Museum. Day says they also want to transform what was a library room in the museum into a research room.

"It'll be a library because there's a lot of history books there...town history, family history...one of the first things we want to do is make it a research room, for genealogy. I was one of those kids who grew up with my grandmother brainwashing me with history...I learned a lot about history and about Cortland...I love history, Donelle loves history. We've had a lot of people reach out to us and say, hey, can you help me find something. That's one of our plans....to do that."

The museum board hopes to also make the museum a tourist attraction that can compliment a new business on Main Street….Paper Moon Pastries… and Day has contacted the Nebraska Tourism Department to promote it as a another stop in the town.

Businesses provided silent auction items at Sunday’s soup luncheon fund raiser….held at the Cortland Community Center. Other fundraisers are being planned, for Cortland Days, for annual garage sales the first weekend in June, and a fall festival in October.  You can keep up with what’s happening on the Museum by going to “Save the Cortland Museum”, on Facebook.