The Marcus Historical Society was began in 2005 with an ad it the Marcus News calling a meeting for anyone interested in preserving the heritage of our community. By 2007 there was much interest in a preservation society. Articles of incorporation were applied for and the society received it’s non-profit status. The by-laws were written and reviewed and the Marcus Historical Society was officially born.
A cash donation by former resident Bob Reed and his wife Max, made it possible for the new organization to purchase the Danish Lutheran Church as it’s headquarters. The building was renamed in honor of Bob Reed’s parent’s Carl and Hazel Reed who along with their children were active members of this community for many years..
Much volunteer labor went in to refurbishing the Danish Lutheran Church and getting it ready for the acceptance of Marcus memorabilia, and the memorabilia came!
We are now at the beginning of 2012 and there simply is no more room to display any more artifacts. We are crammed to the roof. The other problem that arose was to make the building handicap accessible. Several ideas were approached but none of them were feasible. So considering the lack of space and accessibility we began to think of moving the building and adding on to it. This was our first plan that we presented to the Marcus Community last fall at the Fair. A few weeks later the Fair Board presented a new idea to us. They would like to have a “Village” concept on land west of the fair grounds with a Historical Society Building as a part of this project.
After much discussion we have come up with the following plan in conjunction with the fair boards plans for a “Village”.
We will construct a 5000 sq. ft. building south of the Mt. Pleasant church that is now on the grounds. The front of this building will face east with an “Old Time” store front as it’s entrance. Along the north side of the building 3 more “Old Time “ store fronts will be spaced. These facades will depict long standing business in Marcus as they appeared in their early days.
The Reed Center will be moved to an area south and west of the new building and will be used as our headquarters
The artifacts in the Reed Center will be put on display in the new building with more memorabilia added. We will have room to display Dr. Joynt’s car all the time instead of just as a fair exhibit. The fair board and the fire department have also express a desire to add to our collections.
An area will be made in the Reed Center for educational/historical presentations to groups of adults and school children. A genealogy area will also be in the Reed Center. The artifacts we will have on display are interesting and fun to see and remind us older folks of what we had and education our children on how things were. But we also need to compile and preserve the histories of the people, farms and business of our community. This is where the genealogy section comes in. We have started this collection but with out the input of the people of the community we won’t have much of a collection. Family histories, weddings, births and obituaries are also a part of this collection. We accept any and all information you wish to share with us as long as it has a Marcus connection.
It’s easy to say all this moving and building is what we plan to do, the hard part is financing. We have applied for one grant and have others in the process of application, we have approached the Cherokee County Supervisors for funds and they seemed impressed with our plans. The support of the Fair Board has helped us greatly. The business that wish to have the store front placed on the new building are offering wonderful financial support. We have volunteers offering construction work to build the new building and prepare the ground. Approximately $50,000 in pledges and donations of money have been received so far. A pledge form can be downloaded from this site
We hope to begin construction in April of the new building and be in it for the fair in Aug.
This is a project that we feel will not only add to the Marcus Fair each year but to the Marcus Community as a whole. I hope you will agree and add your support.
Thank you.
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