The building that sits at 206 N. Main St. has enough of its own history.
Built in 1892 by J.C. Hartsough, it went through a number of different hands before the Owen County Historical Society got ahold of it.
The historical society bought the house in 1994 and remodeling began. Now, finishing touches are being put on before an open house at the new museum will be held on Saturday.
Between donations and volunteers, treasurer Doris Riley said close to 500 people have helped in some way.
She, like other members of the historical society, has her own history with Owen County.
Living within five miles of where she was born and raised, Riley said she has always been very interested in the past.
“If we don’t preserve history, it’s going to be lost,” she said.
Riley was a charter member of the society when it began in 1963. She left for a short time and got involved with it again in 1994. The society was started after Clayton Rowland, a former editor of The News-Herald, was invited to attend a historical society meeting in Frankfort. When he returned, he decided that Owen County needed its own historical society.
In doing research for the open house, Riley said she found a lot of lost pictures and genealogy records.
Those and other items handed down through generations and either donated or loaned to the museum will be on display during the open house this weekend. There are several different rooms that showcase different parts of the county’s history.
The Littrell Room is a room for ladies and features a wedding gown from the 1800s as well as many old wedding pictures. The Greene Room is a room for men and features things pertaining to the family of Richard Greene. The fire department has a display, as well as the rotary club. There is also a children’s room and a widow’s watch that will be lit day and night. The downstairs area has genealogy and meeting rooms.
“We’ve had a tremendous amount of help,” Riley said. “It’s been unbelievable.”
The junior historians have also been helping to work on the museum, including planting flowers and helping to change displays. The Owen County football team came to help move things into the attic.
“I’m so proud we’re doing this,” Riley said. “It means these things are not going to be lost.”
Historical Society President Jeanne Williams also said she is proud.
She first became a member in 2004. Her husband was sick with cancer at the time and when she was first asked to be president, she turned it down. After he passed away she said she prayed and thought about it and finally agreed to take the position.
Since work began on the museum, Williams said she has thoroughly enjoyed it.
“I’ve gotten to work with old friends and (have) met people I didn’t know in the county,” she said.
Like Riley, Williams has lived in Owen County her whole life. She was born and raised in a home built by her grandfather. Her mother grew up in it and Williams did as well. She still lives there today.
As a child growing up, she said she despised history.
“(I said), ‘Who cares about the dead?’” she said. “My mother should have slapped me.”
Years later, a friend of hers at Monterey Baptist Church got her interested in the past through the history of the church. Soon, she couldn’t get enough of it.
“History grows on you after you get involved with it,” she said. “If anyone had told me I would be president (of a historical society) I would have said they didn’t know what they were talking about.”
She now says she wants to preserve the history of Owen County and pass it on to generations to come.
“They can search for their roots,” she said. “They can come (to the museum) and say, ‘That’s my grandpa’s picture.’”
Work on the museum did not happen overnight. The project that began in 1994 stalled when money for repairs ran out. The house just sat there until 2005, and meetings took place in the Owen County Public Library.
In 2005, Jerry Raisor, a museum curator from Cincinnati, came down and spoke at one of the society’s meetings and also looked through the house. Remodeling included almost a complete overhaul. A new roof was needed, new gutters, central air and heat, sanded floors, paint and more.
An anonymous grant given to the society in 2006 was used to do more work on the home and re-do some of the work that had already been done.
Dean Riddle was the carpenter for the project and did a lot of work on the house. A cousin of Williams, he started work on the house in May and said he has put in abut 40 to 45 hours a week since he started.
“Jeanne has put in more than that,” he said.
An Owen County native, Riddle was a contractor in Virginia before he moved back to Owen County. Williams got him involved in working on the museum, something that wasn’t new to him since he had previously restored homes from the 1700s.
“I’ve been involved with history all my life,” he said.
Riddle said the museum is one of Owen County’s biggest endeavors and people from out of state have already stopped by.
While the hours for the museum have not been set yet, Williams said it will be open as much as possible and she would like to have two or three volunteers working at the museum at a time. She also said she would like to see more added onto the museum later.
She said the work on the museum not only gives something for the community to have in the future, but it also helped her as well. She said it gave her something to do after her husband died so that she wouldn’t just sit at home.
“I had no idea I would do anything like this,” Williams said. “It’s something that was meant for me to do.”
The open house begins at 10 a.m. on Saturday with a ribbon cutting. It is open until 5 p.m.