The Republic Historical Society Museum building has been a lot of things. As Kathy Kelly, volunteer and society vice president gave me a tour on a Thursday afternoon, I learned some about the past of the museum and Republic, how local citizens raised money to pay for a railroad stop in the 1800s, how R.C. Stone built and operated the biggest flour mill in the Midwest in town and how Republic was once known far and wide for its strawberries. The museum building on Main Street was a bank in 1929. That went under during the Great Depression. It’s been owned by the local Masonic Lodge ever sense. They let the Historical Society take over the first floor in 1997.
After almost three decades, Kelly says every nook and cranny is crammed with something, and they have a whole separate storage space, but they still take time to rotate displays and develop new projects. I’m shown a research room they say they’ve been working on.
They spend a lot of time looking at the past, but right now they are also looking to the future. A trophy case full of Republic sports history lines one wall.
Terry Trogdon Mooneyham, society President, tells me in their new building they hope to have a whole room dedicated to Republic sports.
Mooneyham is leading the effort to raise funds and build a new Republic History Museum building on Main Street, just a block from the current building.
The City of Republic donated the property to the Historical Society. Now Mooneyham, Kelly and the rest of the organization hope to take advantage of that opportunity with a vision for a new space that lets them better celebrate Republic’s history, and they hope, create an anchor for community on the city’s historic downtown Main Street, which like many main streets has seen business leave for prime real estate along the highway.
Kelly and Mooneyham tell me about a car dealership that left Main Street, and the bank and, recently, the City of Republic itself, which now has its offices on the edge of town. “As disappointing as that is for some,” Mooneyham said, “we can take that space and do something that's a little bit different with it and be more of a community gathering space.” Kelly adds, “we can't stop progress, nor do we really want to, but we just don't want to lose history while we're progressing.”
That little something different they hope to build on Main Street in Republic is a two-story 16,000+ square foot history museum with a research room and separate wings for a 150-person event center they hope to rent out and a shop space they hope will be home to a coffee shop.
“We patterned our idea of how we wanted our building to function through visiting with the Monett Museum,” Mooneyham said. “They recreated a nice huge museum on their old main street. But to make it financially sustainable, they have spaces in there that create income.”
The society hopes to raise $4 million dollars for the project. They have designs and are starting to build partnerships and relationships with individuals and the business community. They’re planning fundraising events and a video to help tell the story of the society and share their vision. Mooneyham says communicating that vision is about connecting with the community, a special challenge and opportunity in a community like Republic that has grown rapidly in recent decades.
“I think it just takes an awareness of what history really means to a community, especially one that's growing and has children that are in school now (whose) parents or grandparents aren't on the walls here. They need to feel like this is their hometown, too.”
The society’s current museum is open for visitors, they publish an annual calendar with historic photos, and they’ve supported research for several books published by their members. They also help the community with genealogical and historic photo research, and their members have helped get digital copies of Republic's historic paper The Monitor, available online.
They see their work as benefiting everyone in the community, and they hope their community sees that too and supports them in championing the cause of Republic’s history in the next phase of the historical society and their museum.
Find more information about the Republic Historical Society at their website republichistoricalsociety.com