ShawneeDispatch.com

Shawnee Town is about to take the next big step in its 10-year strategic plan, but there's already evidence of the intriguing things to come.

There's the research the museum has completed since the city approved the strategic plan to change the town's focus from a prairie town, with elements dating from the late 1800s to early 1900s, to the pre-Depression, truck-farming era of 1929 Shawnee.

For example, the research has provided a way to reinterpret the undertaker's business, with information on Dr. C.E. Bassler, who opened his undertaker's shop in downtown Shawnee in the fall of 1928.

There's the historical items from the 1920s, like those donated by the Heaton family from the old Heaton Drug Store in downtown Shawnee, including W.H. Heaton's diplomas and pharmacy books, pharmacy bottles and tools, and even the ice cream scoop. Or there's the 1915 John Deere wagon, which the Russell family bought as new, used on their southern Johnson County farm until the 1950s and recently donated to the museum.

But all this is leading up to the first big change in the outdoor museum.

While Shawnee Town's visitor might see pretty much the same outdoor museum they've always seen, changes are on their way. Once the new Splash Cove pool opens and the old East Pool is razed, Shawnee Town will begin preparations for its first major change: moving the Hart House and other buildings to create a farmstead at the site of the current pool.

Gay Clemenson, museum director, said with work beginning this year, the museum hopes to get the first buildings established on the homestead by the end of next year.

"We're ready," she said. "This week we're getting estimates from building movers."

The home, barn and smokehouse will be moved to the northwestern area of the site, and later an outhouse, chicken coop, garage and market shed will be added. Eventually, gardens, crops and fruit trees will be planted to represent the various cash crops grown in 1929 Shawnee.

To prepare for the home move, and then the rebuilding of the home's two-story rear portion, which was lost when it was originally moved to the museum, Shawnee Town has hired someone to completely assess the home.

Susan Jezak Ford of Citysearch Preservation is an architectural historian and preservation consultant who has been studying and cataloguing the house, trying to determine its original structure and features. These must be sorted out from the changes made during the time the home was used as a bank at its original location at 75th and Quivira and changes made after the rear portion was destroyed during the move.

While Ford usually spends her time helping buildings get nominated to the National Register of Historic Places, she said she has relished her time in the Hart Home.

"It's been really interesting, because I've been able to talk to people that knew it when it was a farmhouse," she said. "So they had clear memories of how the house looked and how it worked being a farmhouse out in the country."

Ford has filed two reports, one listing every element of the house and whether it was historic or not historic, and another suggesting how the house should be converted to be historically accurate when it is moved. Information about changes the house will undergo will be presented in the home at this year's Old Shawnee Days.

Shawnee Town will restore the house as it was when the De Caeny family, who bought the home from the Harts in 1926, lived there. The Belgian family is the perfect example of a truck-farming Shawnee family, and their descendents have given the museum the original deed and plat for the property and some family photos.

The museum also had a family member give a complete description of the floorplan and the placement of furniture in each room.

Ford has also helped the museum by researching the buildings and businesses in Shawnee in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

"It's been a lot of fun, it's really interesting, a great time period to be working with," she said. "It's something that a lot of people can remember, so I can actually ask Shawnee residents how buildings looked."

Clemenson said the museum will use the research to plan for other buildings in Shawnee Town. The research has also lead to some changes in the strategic plan -- the museum has learned that Shawnee truck farms all had a market shed where they washed, bunched and prepared produce to take it to the market.

To make space for the shed, the museum plans to move the proposed new Visitor's Center to the southern end of the site, near Town Hall.

The timeline for the relocation of the buildings is uncertain because of the funds necessary.

"We don't have all cost estimates for everything we'd like to do, but it will be prioritized using budgeted money, contributions and in-kind donations," Clemenson said. "We hope that the Friends of Shawnee Town will be a big contributor to making the site come alive."

Clemenson said the ultimate goal will be to earn accreditation from the American Association of Museums. While the museum won't begin to seek accreditation until further into the strategic plan, everything it does will be done with accreditation standards in mind.

And with the unique focus of the museum, Ford said she thinks it will meet the museum association's standards.

"I think it's going to be a great attraction for the Midwest," Ford said. "There's really nothing that displays the onset of the Depression, so I think it will be a fabulous opportunity for school groups to study."