Centennial celebration held for Fort Smith Museum of History

 

story and photos by Ruby Dean
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The Fort Smith Museum of History officially turned 100 Dec. 10, 2010. One hundred plus patrons came out to help celebrate the museum’s birthday. Everyone was invited for birthday cake and punch, with some patrons dressed in their favorite period costume, which included anything from the past 100 years.

Festivities included Lawbreakers and Peacemakers gunfight in the street, historical features such as Judge Isaac Parker and Deputy U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves. The Return To The Commissary exhibit was on display and will remain on display through May and features many artifacts collected from the city’s first days.

The Fort Smith Museum of History began in 1910 when a group of women worked to save the Old Commissary Building from demolition. The ladies had to pay a lease of $1 a year on the building.

According to Museum Director Leisa Gramlich, when the National Park Service expressed an interest in establishing the fort as an historic site in 1960, the Old Fort Museum realized that the Old Commissary Building would need to be included. The museum agreed to give up the lease on the building and the city government promised to always take care of the museum.

R.K. Rodgers donated a warehouse building at 222 Garrison Ave. to the museum in 1976. The museum moved into its new building with some of the artifacts remaining at the Old Commissary Building. This building was then placed on the National Register of Historic Places and dedicated as the R.K. Rodgers Building — Home of the Old Fort Museum.

The museum occupied both buildings from 1976-1979 when once again it moved to a new location, which is the current location of the Fort Smith Museum. Melanie Holt Speer, who was president of the Board of Trustees at the time, offered the Speer Hardware Building to the museum at a very reasonable price. The Rodgers Building was sold and the proceeds used to establish an endowment fund. Interest from the fund is used for museum operations. An inventory of artifacts was taken and the museum moved to its new home. The museum became known as the Fort Smith Museum of History in 1999.

The birthday party wrapped up a year of special events, exhibits and activities celebrating the museum’s centennial.

"It has been quite a year," Gramlich said. "I feel like we have reached a different audience with some of our exhibits and brought in new people to the museum who might not otherwise have enjoyed the museum."