Gregg County Historical Museum

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Gregg County Historical Museum

• The
• Everett
• Building
• At One Hundred
• 1910-2010

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The Everett Building at One Hundred

• The Everett Building dates from 1910, built
  originally for the Citizens National Bank. After
  extensive restoration and the installation of
  exhibits, the Gregg County Historical Museum
  opened in the structure in 1984. The Everett
  Building has the distinction of being in the
  National Register of Historic Places and also is
  a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark.

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The Everett Building Recorded Texas Historic
Landmark
BUILT IN 1910 TO HOUSE THE CITIZENS NATIONAL
BANK, THIS STRUCTURE IS THE ONLY EXAMPLE OF
CLASSICAL REVIVAL COMMERCIAL ARCHITECTURE IN
LONGVIEW. DESIGNED BY NOTED ARCHITECT AND
EDUCATOR SAMUEL J. BLOCKER, THE EVERETT BUILDING
WAS CONSTRUCTED BY GLADEWATER AND LONGVIEW
BUSINESSMAN AND CIVIC LEADER LAFAYETTE JOHNSON
EVERETT. OUTSTANDING FEATURES OF THE BUILDING
INCLUDE ITS ROUNDED BAY AND RECESSED MAIN
ENTRANCE. THROUGH THE YEARS, THE EVERETT BUILDING
HAS HOUSED NUMEROUS BANKS AND PROFESSIONAL
OFFICES AND IS PART OF THE HERITAGE OF
LONGVIEW'S BUSINESS COMMUNITY. RECORDED TEXAS
HISTORIC LANDMARK - 1983
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The Everett Building National Register of
Historic Places

The 1910 two-story with raised basement structure
is constructed of brick load-bearing walls and
detailed with wood and stone ornamentation.
Fronting fifty feet on Fredonia and one hundred
feet on Bank Street, the major focal emphasis is
at the south corner with a rounded bay and
recessed main entrance at the first level. A
secondary commercial space fronts on the Fredonia
side with a display area and stair entrance to
the second story.
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Gregg County Historical MuseumCelebrating An
Anniversary

• Planning
• Committees
• Goals Event or Opportunity?
• Allocation of Resources Capital Investment or
  Exhibits?
• Venue Where?
• An Opportunity to Enhance the GCHM
• Create New Spaces New Initiatives Outreach

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Gregg County Historical Museum The Museum needs
new space, but where

• Temporary exhibit hall?
• Downstairs?
• Main floor?
• Upstairs?
• Rented space?

It is only a question of money
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Gregg County Historical Museum

• How does the Museum
• Rework and enhance present exhibits?
• Reach out to new audiences?
• Recruit new volunteers?
• Go digital?

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Gregg County Historical MuseumInexpensive Ways
to Improve Displays

• Add
• more text and improve captions
• more images - expand the present exhibit
• comparative images THEN NOW
• links and references to additional information
• documentary evidence - different visuals
• letters blueprints materials from the
  vertical files
• Sanborn map images, block by block
• timelines buildings dates and national events

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How does the Museum enhance its present
offerings?Add multiple pictures of the same
place

But, what if the exhibits that are already
crowded
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Reclaim Existing Space How does the Museum do
this without destroying existing exhibits?

• Rethink what is meant by an exhibit
• Create traveling exhibits
• In public schools offices waiting rooms
• Create digital satellite exhibits of current
  exhibits
• In offices banks public waiting areas
  kiosks
• Tailor make exhibits for special groups
• industries professions tourist facilities
  communities

Move existing exhibits into new digital quarters
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How does the Museum enhance its present
offerings?Move exhibits to new places

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Gregg County Historical MuseumHow does the
Museum go digital?

• Steps
• Take good digital pictures of everything in your
  present collection this is important for
  archival reasons, too
• Collect all new acquisitions in digital form, too
• Enhance elements already on the web
• Transfer existing displays to the web
• Just start thinking digitally

Here are some quick examples
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Gregg County Historical Museum Train people to
work with the Museums Pastperfect database
from home using WORD forms.
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Gregg County Historical Museum An existing
exhibit placed on the web
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Gregg County Historical Museum An existing
exhibit placed on the web
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Gregg County Historical Museum An existing
exhibit placed on the web
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Gregg County Historical Museum
Existing exhibits animated with music Tour of
Longview
This movie must be accessed from the index
webpage.
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Gregg County Historical Museum Gregg County Tour
Historical City Tours on the Web
This movie must be accessed from the index
webpage.
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Gregg County Historical MuseumHistoric Homes
Exhibit
This movie must be accessed from the index file.
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Gregg County Historical MuseumQuestions for
Volunteers

• How many of you have digital still cameras?
• How many have video cameras?
• How many have WORD on your computers?
• How many have computers with DVD drives?
• How many have scanners?

If you answer yes to any of these,
you are ready to help in this move to digital.
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Gregg County Historical MuseumUse Workshops to
Train New People

• On Oral History
• Enhancing the present collection digitization
• Mining in the present collection through
  indexing
• Expanding audio interviews on specific topics
• Collecting more than an oral record
  photographs, documents
• On Research Techniques
• Using online sources
• Working with databases
• Use of Graphic and Media Software
• Collecting and using digital images
• Movie and DVD construction
• Constructing Web pages

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How do you recruit new volunteers?

• Target new people in town invite them to
  participate
• Construct new databases of e-mail addresses
• Circulate a digital newsletter
• Initiate new projects to interest former
  volunteers
• Offer new skills which everyone can use,
  anywhere
• Acquire new collections with public
  solicitations
• photographs documents memories

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Gregg County Historical MuseumHow does the
Museum start a new research program?

• Start at Home
• On Fredonia Street, the home area around the
  Museum
• Create interest in doing research
• for improving exhibitions creating an improve
  web presence editing
• Put together the history of the neighborhood
• use Sanborn maps collect pictures digital
  inventory of blocks newspapers
• Construct a timeline of buildings, events, dates
• Explore possibilities for additional historical
  markers for the area
• Collect oral histories based on a good set of
  questions

Here are some examples
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The Everett Building Sanborn Fire Maps of
Longview
The 1906 Sanborn Fire Map shows the property at
the corner of Fredonia and the unnamed alley
(Bank Street) occupied by a grocery store, bakery
or confectionery shop, and tailor shop. Next door
there was a restaurant and a meat market.

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The Everett Building Sanborn Fire Maps of
Longview
The 1911 Sanborn Fire Map shows the property
after the construction of the Everett Building
for the Citizens National Bank. Bank Street is
still unnamed on the map.

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The Everett Building Sanborn Fire Maps of
Longview
The 1916 Sanborn Fire Map shows the cleaning and
pressing shop in the basement of the Everett
Building. The drug store in the north part of the
building is clearly marked as is the overhang of
the building.

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The Everett Building Sanborn Fire Maps of
Longview
In the 1923 map, the Masonic Temple is shown on
the second floor of the building in the middle of
the block. The uses of the Bank building has not
changed.

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The Everett Building Sanborn Fire Maps of
Longview
By 1946, all of the more familiar buildings in
the whole block are in place. At the east end,
you can see Pegues Motor Company and the Arlene
Theater (movie house). The Everett Building
remains the same on this map.

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Gregg County Historical MuseumCelebrating the
Everett Building at 100 Years Getting Our
Message Out to a New Generation